As the high school football season nears, many coaches are eager to get their teams on the field.
FILE PHOTO Flanker Dale DeGraw during a scrimmage last season. The senior is back to help the Falcons after a 7-4 mark from a year ago. Seventeen days before Monroe High School’s first game, first-year head coach Chris Beagan could not have felt different.
“I’m happy we don’t have to play our first game today,” said Beagan, who spent four years as an assistant at Monroe before taking over this season for Pat Dowling, who went to Allentown.
It wasn’t that Beagan was nervous moving into the top role; he just needed more time to watch and evaluate his lineup.
“We’ve got a pretty young team this year. We lost about 20 seniors,” Beagan said.
“A lot of [the players] are untested at this point,” he added. “We’re going to need the entire off-season to reach our goals.”
As an assistant, Beagan saw the ups and downs of the Falcons.
“When I first got here, 1-9,” he said referring to Monroe’s 2004 record, the first year he was on the sidelines.
“But the next three years were fantastic,” Beagan said about the 22-9 record the Falcons posted over the last three years, including a 7-4 record last year which put Monroe into the NJSIAA playoffs.
But that fourth loss came on Nov. 17 when Long Branch demolished Monroe in the Central Jersey Group III semifinal, 39- 7.
Even with the bitter taste that game could have left in his mouth, Beagan won’t let it affect his plan of attack for 2008.
“I was left in a good position and am excited about this opportunity,” said Beagan, who coached wrestling at Sayreville High School prior to joining Monroe football’s coaching staff in 2004.
“Almost the entire staff is still on board,” he added. “We’re trying to continue the torch.”
Though the look of the schedule appears to be harder, Beagan continues to be optimistic.
“There are more Group IV’s on our schedule this year than III’s,” he said. “It’s an upgrade in our schedule.
“But we have very good team chemistry this year,” Beagan said.
The chemistry is not just between the players, but between the coaches as well.
“We really work real well together,” Beagan said about the coaching staff. “We have no egos. [We] believe in the same style of football… We have a good chemistry as a staff.”
The guys on the field who Beagan will be looking to from the start are flanker/strong safety Dale DeGraw, tight end/defensive end Rich Lorfing, lineman P.J. Dawes and cornerback/ running back D’Metri Wilson.
“Those players make up all of our experience,” Beagan said after naming them.
Beagan also hopes those who were on the junior varsity team last year will be able to get used to the switch to Varsity.
“The J.V. lost one game over the last two years,” Beagan said. “We need to really get their confidence to grow.
“They’re going to be the ones we count on.”
As confident as Beagan wants to be in his young lineup, he knows that at least the beginning of the season could be a rebuilding stage.
“For the most part,” Beagan said, “and it’s the case for most teams … I don’t like the word ‘rebuilding’, but we need to reconstruct.
“We’re going to have to be a close-knit team,” Beagan added.
The coaching staff has been working hard to learn its team’s strengths and weaknesses.
“We have our depth chart set,” Beagan said. “Some guys will have to earn their spots, but we got a real good look at where we’ll be strong.
“We’re very athletic in skill positions,” he continued. “Our wide receiver and defensive back positions are pretty talented this year.
“If we do not get better every time we step onto the field, it’s going to be a long season.”
The first test will come on Sept. 13 at Colonia. From there on out, Beagan has his goals set.
“We want to be playing better ball at the end of the year than we were in the beginning,” he said.
“We want to win the division like every team. Want to qualify for the state playoffs,” Beagan added.
“These kids respect what those before them accomplished,” he said. “They want to continue to move forward.
“And I think some of the teams we face will be surprised.”