Daniel Boone

By Darryl Grumling

dgrumling@pottsmerc.com

After doubling their victory total from the previous season last year, the Daniel Boone Blazers are hoping to continue that upward trend.

“We definitely think we can carry it over,” said Boone two-way senior lineman Connor Johnson.

The Blazers should feature a stout defense that got better as the campaign progressed last season — one that includes key returners Jon Passifone at linebacker, Johnson and Darius Hinton on the line and Chris Ford in the secondary.

When he succeeded highly successful Dave Bodolus as the squad’s head coach two years ago, Bill Parks had to endure a stretch of growing pains that saw the Blazers lose 12 times in a 15-game span. But after a 1-4 start last season, Boone won three times in four weeks and came within percentage points of qualifying for the District 3-AAAA playoffs in what wound up a 4-6 season (3-4 in Section 1 of the Berks Football League).

“We’ve been really stressing fundamentals, and trying to work that consistently,” Parks said. “We’ve been conditioning very hard this offseason. We’re trying to match that intensity level (of opponents) and take it up a notch with our conditioning so that our kids are ready to play for four quarters.”

Quarterback Nick Hughes, who had to endure somewhat of a trial-by-fire as a sophomore last year, is a year older and wiser. He’ll head up an offense that could be using a backfield by committee after the graduation of 1,000-yard rushing stalwart Kyle Myers.

“I think we really want to play fast offensively and defensively,” Parks said. “We want to use our speed to our advantage.

“We’ve got a lot of experienced skill players this year, and guys up front that are faster than we’ve been in the past, and we want to use that to our benefit. We’ve just got to figure out who will get all the touches. We have a lot of skill players who are going to touch the ball. We want to use them and spread the ball out. Our quarterback is going to be key this year; he’s got to be the guy that dishes it out and knows where it goes.”

Which could go a long way in determining whether or not the Blazers’ victory total keeps going up.

Follow Darryl Grumling on Twitter at@MercSmokinD.