The Hawthorne High School football team took some hits last season and head coach John Passero is thinking that it will come out as a positive for this season.
The inexperienced Bears finished with a 3-7 record and lost three of its last four games. Hawthorne did lose three of the seven games by 11 points or less including a 21-20 defeat to Kinnelon in the consolation game.
“We have a good number of starters returning from last year, some of them were thrown into starting roles, so hopefully their experience will help us this year,” said Passero, who graduated 13 seniors from last season.
But the Bears have several starters returning and Passero knows that depth is a problem every year.
“Being a group 1 school, we need to stay healthy and be in great shape for the upcoming season,” added Passero who said the offseason has been productive. “We had a really good summer and the kids have put in a lot of hard work in the weight room and on the practice field.”
It will be a different landscape for the Bears this season as they move from the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference (NJIC) Colonial division to the Liberty division.
– See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/sports/high-school-sports/football/bears-hope-experience-leads-to-wins-1.1080052#sthash.A93uh3D1.dpuf
