They barely have enough players to form two distinct units, but the Brewer Witches — easily the most undermanned team in the Pine Tree Conference — don’t plan to be making any excuses for themselves this season.

They’ve been too busy preparing for their first season of Class A football in seven years.

Thanks to academic ineligibility, players moving away in the offseason, and injuries, Brewer coach Don Farnham will lead a team numbering just 30 players onto the field at 1:30 p.m. Saturday for the team’s season opener at Oxford Hills in South Paris.

Add that to the fact Brewer moves up from Class B to Class A ball this fall after its first playoff appearance in five years, and securing a postseason berth in 1997 seems like an arduous, if not nearly impossible task. Just don’t tell that to the Witches.

“Technically, all you need is 11 guys so I’m not looking by this year,” said Farnham. “I feel we have some good athletes. We feel we have as equal a chance to win this year as we have others.”

To do that, however, the Witches will have to overcome huge graduation losses. Only three starters return on defense and two on offense.

“It seems like everybody’s saying `Oh, poor Brewer. They don’t have enough guys and they’re in bad shape,’ ” said co-captain Matt Collins.

Collins said a newspaper article he read which predicted Brewer would finish 1-8 has only fueled the team’s determination to defy the skeptics.

“We want to be able to prove the press wrong,” he said. “It’s not a throwaway year. The goal is to have a winning season, and going to the playoffs would be even greater.”

The good news is that this year’s freshman class is the first to have gone through all four years of the middle school feeder program Brewer revived in 1993.

“We’re going to be young the next two years, but at least these kids have had the benefit of playing football the last four years. Hopefully now, we’ll be reaping the rewards of our feeder program,” said Farnham.

They’ve reaped at least two already. The 1997 freshman crop numbers 25 players and Brewer’s coaches haven’t had to go back to square one and take up valuable time teaching beginner techniques and plays.

Not all of the effects of this adversity have been negative. Farnham has noticed unusual harmony among his 10 seniors, 10 juniors, and 10 sophomores.

“The kids have a great attitude and I just love how these guys are coming together as a team,” he said. “There are no individual groups. Seniors didn’t used to want to hang around with sophomores. Now it’s a great atmosphere on this team. Everybody gets along.”

Farnham also noted the valuable game experience younger players — players who normally wouldn’t have played much this year — will get this season.

“It stinks we don’t have the numbers, but we’ve found some positives in it and we’ll become a stronger team in the future as a result,” he said.”

A perfect example is quarterback Kyle Meehan, only the second non-senior to start at that position since Farnham took over the program five years ago.

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound junior has “good tools” according to Farnham and can throw and run equally well. He will run the wing-T behind an experienced and talented line which is considered the Witches’ strength.

That line includes seniors Josh Snowden (center), co-captain David Meierdirk (guard), Nate Briggs (tackle) and junior Asa Pickard (tackle).

Meierdirk says his team is eager to start the new season and isn’t worried about opening against a team many consider a playoff contender.

“I don’t think we really think about who we’re playing. We just want to get our plays down and play the game,” said Meierdirk.

Senior Peter Evenson and junior Richard De La Rosa are battling for the other starting guard spot and junior lineman Derek Comingo has been impressing coaches in practice.

Meehan will be handing off a lot to senior co-captain and fullback-linebacker Matt Collins and throwing to junior wide receivers Jason Largay and Robbie Kee.

Senior Pat Griffin helps fill the physical vacancy of Justin Thornton, who moved to Alabama, at tight end. It’s a fairly even trade as the Witches gain height and size with the 6-3, 180-pound Griffin, but lose experience. Junior Eli Clark is looking like the top tight end on the depth chart to start the season.

The starting halfbacks shape up as seniors Frank Cross and Tony LeBlanc.

Defensively, Brewer features a 5-3 alignment with five down linemen, two linebackers, a strong safety, free safety, and two defensive backs.

The inside linebackers (Collins and sophomore Jason Tourtillotte) and strong safety (sophomore Matt Milan) play key roles in this alignment. Milan will have lots of roles (blitzing, run-stopping, and pass coverage) while Collins and Tourtillotte will also have to be versatile.

Meierdirk and Clark are the defensive ends, Pickard can play either nose guard or tackle. The remaining linemen will come from a rotation of Ben Gargan, Snowden, and Briggs. Kee, Largay, and sophomore Aaron Morneault will play regularly in the defensive backfield and Griffin is the free safety

“Our defensive line should be solid. We’re not going to get blown out and we’re not afraid of anybody,” said Collins.

If the Witches stay away from injuries, they fully expect to hold their own in their inaugural PTC season. And they’re tired of hearing about their low numbers.

“Orono won the Class C title with about 26 guys a few years ago. Waterville went to a state game with 30. We should be able to hold our own,” said Farnham.