Hersey's leaders like new look

Tom Sutrinaitis and Taylor Beaulieu are hoping for a happy ending to a new beginning for Hersey football.

And it's clear the two seniors believe they are on the ground floor of something special with new head coach Dragan Teonic taking over a program that went 2-25 the last three seasons.

"There is a different vibe - and people are buying in quick," said Sutrinaitis, a two-way lineman who has been on the varsity since his freshman year.

"Coming through the off-season, he (Teonic) hopped on us right away," said Beaulieu, who will start at safety. "We started to have ideas of what to do before we got on the field."

Teonic, who had a successful run as the head coach at Harper College, said even with the changes it hasn't meant long, drawn-out days on the field. He said practices have been right around two hours.

"I'm really excited with the way they've bought into what we're doing," said Teonic, who was an assistant at York last year. "They've really committed to practicing at a high level.

"It's very fast-paced, fast tempo and they're quick, alert and bright. I really like where we're at right now."

And so do Beaulieu and Sutrinaitis, in terms of conditioning and knowledge.

"It's more competitive as a whole," Beaulieu said.

"It's not that much more complex but it's high intensity all the time. We want to get better every single day and we're doing that for the most part."

Beaulieu and Sutrinaitis also know they are tone-setters for a team that also has a lot of new faces joining the new coaching regime.

"In terms of building a foundation, not that it wasn't there the last three years, but this year with the new coaching staff -" Sutrinaitis said.

"Everyone is buying in," Beaulieu chimed in. "It's a new start and a fresh start."