RBR football returns 11 starters from '07

DAN NEWMAN Red Bank Regional High School football coach Jeff Mauro chats with his team during a recent preseason scrimmage. The team opens play against St. John Vianney at home on Friday night. After taking their lumps in a tough 2-8 season a year ago, the Red Bank Regional Bucs have every right to be excited about the prospects of this season.

And fourth-year head coach Jeff Mauro is doing nothing to stifle that emotion; in fact he's encouraging it. Mauro has even helped promote the season opener, working with newly appointed athletic director Del Dal Pra to organize the school's first-ever night game on Sept. 12 when St. John Vianney comes to town.

The school will bring in some portable lights for the game, which Mauro hopes will help highlight the rejuvenation project he is putting together at his alma mater. "It should make for a great atmosphere," he said.

Though his team has won just three combined games in the last two years, Mauro says that the lessons learned through those hard times will help his now experienced players as they look to return the RBR program to its glory days of the past.

"Overall our team speed has improved greatly from last year," the coach said. "And I think the unity between the players is starting to show. We have a big junior class that is starting to shine. A lot of this group played last year as sophomores and should benefit from that experience."

The Bucs are experienced on both sides of the ball, especially on offense, where RBR has nine returning starters, led by quarterback Colin Lang.

Lang's continued progression will be even more important this year as Mauro institutes a new spread offense. In the past, RBR has featured a run-heavy flexbone, however, Mauro feels that this new look will be more effective based on the personnel at his disposal.

It will involve Lang operating a lot out of the shotgun, and utilizing the whole field as a means of keeping defenses honest.

"We just realized that we're not big enough to push people around on our offensive line in this division," Mauro said. "So the spread is designed to give some of our athletes a little more space, and really allow us to make the best of what we have here."

While Lang's ability to control the offense will be the key to a successful implementation, he has plenty of familiar faces around him.

The Bucs return their entire starting backfield from a year ago, including Tyler Lesbirel at tailback and D.J. Bacon at fullback.

Up front, RBR returns four of their five offensive linemen from a year ago, which should help ease the transition. Senior center Brendan Quinn will be flanked on the right by guard Lucas Lesbirel and tackle Christian Chacon, and on the left by senior Colin Mitchell and either senior Rob Garrison or junior Christian Dilger at the left tackle.

Senior Cody O'Malley and junior John Lazo are the tight ends. While the offense will certainly miss the athleticism of graduated wideout Will Sanborn, one of the top playmakers in the Shore over the last several seasons, Mauro remains happy with the offensive weapons the Bucs have this year.

Among the players he expects to emerge are senior Dan Jackson and Akeem Crawford, as well as junior Jehmiel Rock. Brendan Piha and Dan DeChristefano will line up in the slot, giving Lang an athletic group of players to look for on any given play.

Defensively, the Bucs return just two starters up front, but have the makings for a good unit, based on its speed and athleticism. Quinn, junior Mike Harrison, senior Tony Smith, Mitchell, Chacon and Rob Garrison will make up the defensive line in Maruo' 4-3 set, with a speedy group of linebackers in Lesbriel, junior Jeff Mc- Dermott and DeChristofaro to complement them.

The secondary features four experienced players, with Jackson and Piha returning to the corners, and Lang and Bacon playing the safety positions after seeing ample time there last year.

Together, the RBR defense will look to use its team speed to keep up with the abundance of highly athletic offenses that populate the Shore's Federal Division. They will certainly be tested in that regard against SJV, as the Lancer offense features two of the top playmakers in the conference in backfield mates Charles Davis and Chris Mayo.

Looking ahead to what should be a characteristically-tough schedule, Mauro is not ready to make any predictions about his team's level of success this year.

"This has always been one of the tougher divisions in the Shore Conference," he said. "When you have the likes of RBC, Long Branch, Ocean Township, Matawan and an improved Manchester program, there are certainly no pushovers on our schedule. You really can not predict how this division is going to play out."

For that reason, the Bucs are concentrating on what they do control, and that means limiting the mistakes that have burned the team in the past.

"The biggest thing is to make sure we're not making the same mistakes, which could lead to us getting off to a slow start," the coach said. "We have to avoid shooting ourselves in the foot like we've done in the past."