The Seymour football team was plagued by injuries last season, resulting in a disappointing 1 – 9 record.
They lost starting running back Taylor Searles and a week later lost starting quarterback Connor Shugrue as first year head coach Tom Lennon saw the season spinning out of control.
The Cats were 0 – 6 and had scored just 60 points when they began to turn the corner. During the last four games Seymour put up 115 points — and posted its only victory, 41 – 20 over Crosby.
Now Coach Lennon is hoping last year’s late momentum will propel the Wildcats this year.
“We return a large group that saw plenty of action due to all the injuries we went through,” Lennon said. “While trying to plug the holes in the lineup a lot of younger players saw significant action and that makes us a better team this year.”
Leading the way for the Cats is junior quarterback Luke Grabowski, along with a solid backfield in senior running back Damien Granda and junior back Jon Wilson.
Seymour will have plenty of targets when the Cats put the ball in the air led by senior wide outs Jim Farrell and Mike Fraser along with sophomore Mike Conlan.
“We had an up and down preseason so far,” said Lennon. “In our last scrimmage with Oxford we showed we can move the ball. “But we did have more than our share of mistakes turning the ball over. We are going to need to eliminate these kinds of mistakes in order to stay competitive.”
The key to gaining any consistency will be winning the battle in the trenches. Pushing the pile up front to lead the offense will be senior James Tyer along with juniors Josh Tilton and Dylan Sadick.
On the defensive side of the ball the Wildcats will have an experienced core led by senior nose tackle Justin Guillette and senior defensive ends Justin Garcia and Tyler Shea.
“We are going to rely on our senior leadership,” Lennon said. “As fast as our seniors become leaders on the field that will bode well as to how fast we can turn this around.”
Seymour will see just how far they have come and just how far they need to go as they open the season on Friday in Naugatuck at 7 p.m.
