Witches flying new formations

The Witches will be flying in new formations on both sides of the ball this season.

Third-year Brewer coach Don Farnham has implemented the Delaware wing-T formation on the offensive side. New defensive coach Eddie Ortego will put up a multiple front.

“Historically, Brewer has had some good skill players, and the

last three years, they’ve had some young linemen,” Farnham said. “Right now, we’re in a cycle where we don’t see a lot of big people in the school. … We have the biggest guys that are going to school right now [but] you don’t have the gigantic lineman.”

That’s where the new offense comes in. It is based on misdirection.

“I get bored just handing the ball off all the time,” Farnham explained of the new offense, which will try the run before re- sorting to the pass. “With the Delaware wing-T, there’s a lot of motion. We’ve picked that due to the size and due to the speed of our kids.”

Nineteen seniors head the Witches’ roster, instilling experi- ence and leadership into a team which produced a 2-7 record last season.

Junior quarterback Jeff Conlon will see more of a running game this season. Conlon, injured in the middle of last season, will also run the ball in the new offense along with running back Dakota Therrien. Wide receivers Jeff Snow and Peter Phelan also return to the offensive side along with fullback Eric Duffey.

Nevertheless, it is the offensive and defensive lines which will make or break the team this season.

“The key to winning this year isn’t an individual, but groups of people,” Farnham explained. “On offense, it’s going to be our offensive line. Offensively, it’s going to be all 11 guys.”

“Even though they’re good athletes, we don’t have that good of athletes who can take over a game, and that’s what we’re preaching and the kids are responding to that,” he said.

A public relations lesson is part of the sermon.

“Offensively, they know if they do well they’ll have success,”

Farnham said. “It’s being preached right down through the coaching staff. The running backs know that the linemen are going to get the credit.

“The backs, all they have to do is grab hold of that ball and run because that goal will be there. That’s the easy job,” he said.

Ortego, the defensive coach, is a retired Air Force pilot and a transplant from Louisiana who brings a background of coaching military ball and two years as a strength coach at Lousiana State University in Baton Rouge.

“I’ve stressed getting the ball back, no more than three plays

and out. I really want the ball back,” Ortego explained. “I try to instill that it’s our ball, and we’re going to try to take it back if we can. And the way you do that is with big hits, and you’ve got to run.”

“You’ve got to surround the ball, and at the same time not give up a big play,” he continued.

Early scrimmages against Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln and Foxcroft Academy proved to be promising for the new defense, which encourages Ortego and Farnham. Bangor was leading the Witches 21-0 during a preseason exhibition game last Friday night in Brewer when a blackout at halftime forced the game to be called off.

“There’s nothing more exciting than great defensive pursuit and hitting to turn a team on, and that’s what we’re trying to teach,” Ortego said. “The two keys were hitting and running, and virtually every play they were running to the ball. We know if we keep doing that, we’ll be good.”