REGION: High school gridders prepare for season openers

By Mike Mack, Special Writer
As everyone knows by now, football is back. But it’s not just the pros returning to gridiron.
The local high school teams are also taking to their respective fields with intentions of getting this season kicked off right.
Northern Burlington County Regional High School is looking to build off a good season from a year ago. The Greyhounds put together an 8-3 season last year and Head Coach Jonathan Reising feels that they have enough talent this year to improve on that.
"I believe we have a solid opportunity to compete for the conference title," he said. "We have to start the season off strong since we start with a conference opponent."
The coach did mention that they need to improve some aspects of their game this season. Specifically, he mentioned a need to eliminate mistakes on both offense and special teams. But he knows what his team needs to do to fix those problems.
"We hope to bond quickly as a team and continue to grow as football players, a team and as members of the community," he said. "The key to success is to develop as a team. We must learn to trust and believe in one another."
The Greyhounds have a good amount of returning players from last year and the coach feels that they can lean on that experience, at least in the early going of this season.
"Our strength is that we have a core nucleus of players who started and played vital roles for us last year," he said. "We need to rely on those players as the new players become more familiar with their role on the team."
Northern Burlington opens up their season on the road this Saturday at the aforementioned conference rival Willingboro.
Bordentown shares the same strength as Northern Burlington. The Scotties have some veteran leaders that are returning from last year’s 5-5 squad.
"Our strength is that we are a veteran team," said Head Coach Stephen Perry. "We start eight seniors on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball."
Like Reising, Perry is relying on that leadership for his team to attain some pretty lofty goals."Our goals this season are to win a conference championship, host a playoff game and go deep into the playoffs," Perry said.
Both coaches also mentioned depth being a weakness for their respective teams. With all of the veterans taking up all of the playing time, the young guys on the bench don’t have much experience. That could be a problem for both teams.
The Scotties will kick off their season on Friday night at home against Pemberton.
Florence will also be looking to improve off last year, a season that ended with a 6-4 record. The Flashes got off to a hot start last year but couldn’t finish up the way they would have liked, losing two of their last three games.
Florence will start their season on the road Friday night at Burlington City.