OLD TOWN – As Peter Kenny surveys some 25 Old Town football players as they go through the paces of summer camp at Victory Field this week, he doesn’t dwell on the program’s past, but looks aggressively toward the future.

“I have an old-school philosophy,” he said. “We’re sent out there to win.”

It’s that attitude the 31-year-old Kenny has brought to the Canoe City’s high school football program since being named the Coyotes’ new varsity coach.

He believes it’s already rubbing off on his players, at least those who are battling the oppressive weather to participate in his three-week introductory clinic.

“I’m seeing the enthusiasm coming back,” he said, “right from the beginning of camp.”

Kenny, who lives in Milford and operates his own drywall business, is a 1994 graduate of Bucksport High School where he was a standout quarterback and kicker for the football team – earning LTC Class C Player of the Year honors as a senior – and a star pitcher for the school’s baseball team.

His baseball prospects then took him to a junior college in Georgia, but a shoulder injury dashed those hopes.

Kenny went on to play and coach in the semipro football ranks. It is that experience, as well as watching from the sidelines in recent years with eye toward possibly coaching in the high school ranks, that led him to seek out the Old Town vacancy after Dan Baker resigned last winter.

Now that he has the job, his first order of business with his players is stressing the fundamentals.

“The basics are really what it’s all about, along with heart,” he said. “I could be the next Bill Belichick or Don Shula, but if the guys don’t come out and play with heart it won’t matter.”

Kenny hopes to turn around what have been tough times on the gridiron for Old Town, which has gone 12-62 since its last winning season, a 7-4 effort in 1997 when the team reached the LTC Class B final.

“There’s been a lot of talent at Old Town High School,” he said, “but it just hasn’t been utilized.”

Kenny continues to assemble a staff that already includes assistants Adam Robinson, Todd Ellis and Shane Foster.

Other priorities for Kenny are increasing participation numbers throughout the program, enlisting parental support, and relocating the weight room, which has been closed due to an asbestos-related issue.

All of those issues are about rebuilding a program, but Kenny believes the most immediate way to address that goal is with success on the gridiron.

And in that regard, the future is now.

“I talked with the seniors about that, because they were a little worried about it, a little nervous that we might be building for the future,” said Kenny. “But I told them what I believe, that my future is this year. I’d like us to get to .500. Getting to 4-4 this year is reachable with the talent we’ve got.”

New football award slated

The Maine Football Coaches Association will present its first John R. Schmidlin Trophy to the top senior high school football players in Classes A, B and C for the 2005 season at halftime of the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic football game to be held Friday, July 28, at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford.

The new, annual awards are different from the Fitzpatrick Trophy presented to the state’s top senior player regardless of class because the criteria are different, the method of selection is different and the trophies’ namesake is different, according to Mike Haley of Leavitt Area High School in Turner Center, secretary-treasurer of the MFCA.

Criteria for selection of the recipients are good citizenship, team player, loyalty and reliability.

MFCA member head coaches from throughout the state could nominate a candidate, and coaches subsequently voted by secret ballot for the recipient in their class.

The award is named in honor of Schmidlin, a longtime football coach and athletic director at Gardiner Area High School during the 1950s and 1960s who also served as the Maine High School Coaches Association for 26 years, from 1956 to 1982.

Schmidlin, who played football at the University of Maine, finished his career as AD at the University of Maine-Machias from 1967 to 1976.

Schmidlin’s original intent was to honor recipients from Classes B and C since the Fitzy is won by a Class A player most years, but the MFCA executive committee decided to honor players in all three classes.

A trophy bearing each winner’s name will be kept in his school for a year, then be passed on to the school of the following year’s recipient. Each winner also will receive a plaque to keep.

This year’s winners will come from among the following nominees:

Class A: James Bower, Oxford Hills of South Paris; Aaron Chambers, Skowhegan; Brian Legasse, Skowhegan; Ken Paul, Massabesic of Waterboro; and John Weichman, Bonny Eagle of Standish.

Class B: Chris Morris, Hampden Academy; Ricky Porter, Brewer; Tyler Angell, Leavitt; Travis Fergola, Mountain Valley of Rumford; and Josh Walker, Fryeburg Academy.

Class C: Levi Ervin, Lisbon; Woody Noyes, Madison; Mike Perrone, Old Orchard Beach.