August 29, 2023 – Story and photos by Joshua Ross
Each year is a new beginning for teams. This rings especially true for Hingham High School football who gets a new head coach and almost a whole new coaching staff. While the culture and identity of this year’s Harbormen team will be completely different, the end goal is still the same – to compete and win against the top teams in the league.
T.J. Byrne was named head coach in the spring and from day one has brought a new energy and new focus to the culture of Hingham football.
“We’re a high energy, high intensity staff with high attention to detail,” Byrne said during the first week of practice. “We have standards to keep and maintain and in order to do that requires a lot of work and energy and attitude. And they have responded really well. I am really happy the way they’ve taken the field.”
Coach Byrne’s staff brings a wealth of football experience and knowledge to the team. Returning coaches Drew Pace and Rich Terres (freshman coach) will be join by many new faces this year, three of which are former head coaches – Brian Chamberlin (Braintree), Kevin Carey (Quincy) and Matt Marshall (Pope John Paul).
“I’m really fortunate to have them come in,” Byrne went on to say. “There’s a lot of experience, a lot of great leadership. I also brought a couple of guys over from Weymouth. I hope the kids understand that they have a coaching staff that is all about them and has the experience and success to back that up.”
While the staff will be leading the charge on the sidelines, the player taking the snaps on the field is still up in the air.
“It’s a competition,” says the first year coach. “What I like is that they treat each other well. For us, they are all good athletes. So I told them the first time we got in the quarterbacks this isn’t going to be a team with one quarterback on the field and four athletes sitting on the sidelines because they just want to play quarterback. So if one is playing at quarterback, the others are going to be playing at different spots. Overall, it’s progressing. We are never going to know until we get into live action and we get into real contact, and reads, and speed.
Seniors Jack Nicholas and Matt Morell will be competing with junior Alex Levy and sophomore Jake Varholak for the starting job.
What’s not up in the air is the senior leadership led by captains Will St. Pierre, Gunnar Corey, and Matt Kelly. While change can be challenging on a team, these three are excited and welcome the opportunities ahead of them and have been preparing since the beginning of summer.
“Compared to last year, way more workouts, way more on-field stuff, more captain’s practice,” Corey explained about the team’s preparations. “Everyone’s in the gym and everyone’s working on the field. A lot preparations for the season.”
Kelly adds that it’s not only the amount of workouts, but the intensity that has been a huge difference this year.
“Coach Nutley did great, but Coach Byrne is like a drill sergeant,” Kelly commented. He’s not too far off – Byrne is a Massachusetts State Trooper. “It’s amazing, everyone is afraid of him.”
Byrne’s approach is apparently getting the attention of his players.
“Definitely intensity and attitude,” St. Pierre quickly answered when asked about differences between last season and this season. “You can tell in the way we are doing drills things are going to be different this time around. People are here with a chip on their shoulder and are ready to hit and they just want be out here and play.
It’s not only a new staff the Harbormen are experiencing this year, it’s also a new MIAA division. While they will have roughly the same opponents during the regular season, they will now be in Division III.
“It’s a nasty division,” Byrnes says. “Milford, North Attleboro, Milton – all teams we are familiar with as coaches. It’s along way to go before that. We have a monster schedule. Hanover at home week 2, Weymouth away week 3.”
But before the playoffs and even week two, the team is already gearing up for their season opener next Friday night in Braintree.
“The expectations are this – we are going to put the best team, with the right attitude, with the right energy, we the right edge on September 8th when we face Braintree. We playing a Division 1 team to open the season and they are a good team.
The Harbormen open the season with 4 of their first 5 games on the road and finish up with 4 straight home games vs Marshfield, Silver Lake, Duxbury, and Scituate on Thanksgiving.
There’s a lot of football to played between now and the eighth game, but Duxbury is always the game circled on the calendar.
“We haven’t beaten Dux our whole time here,” Corey says. “Ultimately we would love to win a state championship, but we need to check that box first.”