NORTH MANCHESTER - Senior Preston Duffy did not mince his words when discussing how the Manchester Squires football team has been viewed by its opponents in years past.
“Right now, regarding our conference, we’re kind of just there,” the two-way player said. “I don’t care what people think about this team. How we haven’t won, how we have another new head coach. You can think what you want but I think that we have the chance to shock some people this year.”
The new head coach referenced is Eddie Fields, who makes his return to Kosciusko County after stints in Florida, South Carolina (twice) and Georgia. The Whitko graduate replaces Alyx Brandiewie, who coached the Squires for three seasons before departing to become the head coach at Eastside. Fields is excited to be back where he grew up and says his experiences coaching out of state have helped him tremendously.
“I’m very excited to be back, I’ve been gone for over a decade and now my family gets to grow up where I did,” Fields said. “Obviously football is a big deal down south, it helped me learn a lot about what goes into building a successful program and we’re trying to bring that up here.”
Manchester hasn’t put together a winning season since the 2009 team went 8-2, something Fields and his players desperately want to change. For the man in charge, that starts in one area in particular.
“My guys better be tough. I know everybody says that but I think we’re going to go about that in a different way,” Fields said. “We want our guys to be hard nosed and tough as they come but we also want there to be a lot of love in the locker room. We can already see that in the way these guys care for each other and their desire to build something while they’re here.”
Duffy was on the same page with his head coach, saying he doesn’t want to have any regrets in his final year in the Squire uniform.
“I felt like last year, there were a lot of games where we either left something out on the field, or knew we didn’t execute the way that we wanted to,” Duffy said. “All I’m asking for this year is that win or lose, we leave each game knowing every guy we have gave it everything he had.”
This year’s Squire team is full of younger players that hope to use the upcoming campaign to establish themselves as keystone players of the program moving forward. Notable returners include Duffy, senior linebacker Colten Nelson, junior quarterback Logan Eastgate and junior two-way player Mason Rooney.
“We only have around five starters returning on both sides of the ball combined, so it’s definitely been an interesting camp trying to figure out who goes where,” Fields said. “We do have a strong junior class, I think they went undefeated in middle school, so they definitely are ready to win. We’re doing things like watching a ton of film and hitting the weight room as often as we can to try and speed up that process of getting guys ready.”
With many positions and roles up for grabs, younger players are already making good impressions with their leaders.
“I’d say that Maddux [Greer] has really caught my eye. He’s a really hard worker, always in the weight room after practice,” Nelson said. “Reiss Gaerte is going to be a sophomore this year, and he’s just going to keep getting better. Brian Fields, coach’s son. He might only be a freshman but he’s really impressive.”
With a young and hungry team at his disposal, Fields is putting the rest of the area on notice. He doesn’t just want to win, he expects to.
“I’m like these guys, man. I want to win them all. I know there’ll probably be people out there that think that that’s silly but I don’t at all,” Fields remarked. “It doesn’t make any sense for us to work the way we work and expect to lose.”
However, the coach’s expectations don’t end on the field.
“I want these guys to succeed in the classroom. I want these guys out in their community. I want these guys to give back. We had a 5k the other day and some of the guys looked a little confused because they don’t do stuff like that,” Fields laughed. “We’re asking our community to help us out and to buy in so it’s only right that we do the same.”
Manchester’s season begins Friday night at North Miami, the first of three road games out of four to start the year for the Squires.