PITTSFIELD – Sometimes in football, when you don’t have top-notch talent, you have to rely on team chemistry to get the job done on the field.

For the 2005 Maine Central Institute Huskies, that just may be the case.

“As far as being [a] cohesive [team], that’s kind of what we’re looking for,” said fourth-year head coach Tom Bertrand, who is no stranger to winning, as he won a state title with Stearns of Millinocket in 1998.

One thing that Bertrand likes so far in training camp is that the numbers are much higher compared to last year.

“We’ve got better numbers, we finished with 19 kids last year and started with 43 this year,” he said. “I’m pretty happy with the turnout.”

Another thing he’s happy with is the attitude.

“They’re really a bunch of hard-working kids, I couldn’t ask for more effort-wise,” said Bertrand.

The Huskies return pretty much their entire corps from 2004, with the exception of Marty Quint, who graduated. His brother Victor, a junior, is MCI’s starting quarterback.

Despite being only a junior, Bertrand likes Quint’s leadership.

“He’s definitely one of our team leaders even though he’s a junior,” the coach said. “Athletically and maturity-wise he’s come a long way from last year.”

And returning experience isn’t all that bad either.

“The jump from being a junior to a senior is a big one,” Bertrand said. “Hopefully that transition will be a good one leadership-wise for us.”

Quint will guide MCI’s offense through a basic wing-T formation, through which the Huskies will just run “base plays and try to execute them,” Bertrand said.

Bertrand also said that his offense needs some tuning.

“We’ve got to fine-tune our offense, the offense we’re running requires so much repetition, lots of concentration, but they’ve done a good job.”

Some of MCI’s other key players include junior guard-tackle Ryan Hayes as well as senior fullbacks Taylor Dyer and Derek McGregory.

The Huskies play in arguably one of the toughest leagues in the state, LTC Class C, which includes the likes of Bucksport, Orono, Foxcroft and Mattanawcook of Lincoln.

“We don’t know [how things will turn out], we return a lot of kids, but from a 2-7 team,” Bertrand said. “We like what we’ve done in the offseason, we’ve put in a lot of time and effort.”

The Huskies can only hope now that all that time and effort translates into wins on the field.

MCI HUSKIES

2004 Results: 2-7, 8th in LTC Class C

Head Coach: Tom Bertrand, 4th year

Key Players: Victor Quint, QB-DB, Jr.; Ryan Hayes, G-DT, Sr.; Taylor Dyer, FB-LB, Sr.; Troy Richardson, C-LB, Sr.; Mike Souliere TE-DE, Sr.; Derek McGregory FB-DE, Sr.

Outlook: The Huskies return a lot of experience from last year’s team, and they should be competitive in a wide-open LTC. MCI lacks the team speed of other teams in the league, so team chemistry will be one of its keys for success.