COLCHESTER, Vt. (WCAX) – Monday was the first day of high school football practice in the state of Vermont, and the defending D2 champions got things going in Colchester.
The Lakers are fresh off their first state title since 2009, with a very senior-heavy group of skill position players leading the way. Guys like Colton Lefebvre and Sawyer Cyphers are gone, but Hugh Seidner leads a pack of very talented albeit less experienced guys in those skill spots, and the Lakers also return an entire senior starting-five on the offensive line.
Colchester is pretty confident in their defense as well.They know they’ve got a lot of work to do over the next few weeks to be able to hit the ground running in September. But the lakers also emphasized that since they have so many moving pieces, they’re not really defending anything at this point. They’re just hungry to go earn another title.
“People come off of winning championships like, ‘Oh, you know, we’re the defending champs,” Seidner said. “But we’ve got something to earn, you know. We want that championship again. It’s like last year didn’t even happen. It’s 0-0.”
“Our coaches are telling us to ramp it up and that it’s not given to us,” added senior left tackle and defensive tackle Eric Rocque. “I see that we’re starting to realize that we’ve got to work for it again.”
“We definitely have a target on our back,” added senior defensive end and left guard Austin Cassidy. “It’s not going to be handed to us, so we’ve got to work hard.”
