Big changes at Brockton: Questions around Brockton-area high school football teams

At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Carver High's head football coach, Ben Shuffain, tweeted what all high school football junkies were thinking.

"It's August," posted Shuffain, who enters his second season leading the Crusaders. "There is football to be played this month!"

Teams' first conditioning practices will take place Friday, Aug. 18; the first practice with pads will be Thursday, Aug. 24. Saturday, Aug. 26, marks the start of the area's first wave of scrimmages, with Week 1 matchups set to start two weeks later, on Friday, Sept. 8.

So, in the meantime, we have time to preview the upcoming season and take our first look around the Brockton-area landscape.

There are several questions that come to mind. Here are a few of the most compelling:

How will new coach, QB complement Brockton's Pitt-bound star?

Cameron Monteiro lined up at wide receiver his freshman and sophomore seasons. Due to an early-season injury to starting quarterback Joe Cappiello last fall, Monteiro, who announced his verbal commitment to play at the University of Pittsburgh, was thrust under center last fall.

Monteiro amassed 1,064 yards and 15 touchdowns as he led the Boxers to score 50-plus points four times in their 9-2 season, the team's best record since 2012.

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But this year, enter a first-year head coach − ex-New England Patriot Jermaine Wiggins − and a new, soon-to-be-announced starting quarterback.

Brockton graduated 28 seniors in the offseason, including standout receiver/quarterback K.O. Osinubi, receiver Michael Victor, linebacker Rowan Baptiste III, edge rusher Donovan Munroe, running back Mauricio Powell and lineman Makhi Boston, who died in a car accident in July.

How will the Bridgewater-Raynham offense look without DuBose?

The Trojans' offense scored 26 points or more five times, and 36 or more three times last fall.

Dawson DuBose was a big part of that.

The junior running back stacked a total of 1,663 yards rushing and 15 TDs on 275 fumble-free carries as B-R finished 5-6 on the season. In March, DuBose announced that he will reclassify to the Class of 2025 and transfer to Governor's Academy in Byfield.

That, plus the transfers of linebacker Myles Beckett (Belmont Hill) and receiver Matt Mullins (The Canterbury School) leaves a flurry of questions around the Trojans this preseason. The good news is, quarterback Declan Byrne is back to lead the offense his senior season, as are fellow captains Joe Forziati, a two-way lineman, and Amin Abbassi, a linebacker/tight end hybrid.

Running back Ryan Catino and receiver Michael Gurley, both seniors, made plays around the edges last year. Perhaps they will earn bumps in the depth chart.

Who will make the big plays for Rockland?

Running back Jacob Coulstring, receiver Lucas Leander and quarterback Michael Moriarty won a state title and made countless memories in their four years together.

The trio will stick together this fall, just not at Rockland High.

Coulstring, Leander and Moriarty graduated high school this spring, and will continue their football careers at Curry College in Milton. So, where does that leave Rockland head coach Nick Liquori?

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The Bulldogs are expected to return 14 juniors from last year's 8-3 season. In last season's finale, then-junior running back Jordan DePina ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries in Rockland's 35-0 Thanksgiving feast of East Bridgewater.

DePina is a name to know heading into this season.

Who will spearhead be the next wave of quarterbacks?

Brockton and Rockland aren't be the only Brockton-area teams looking for a new signal caller.

Middleboro (Jacob Briggs), Oliver Ames (Wayne Casey), Randolph (Gardy Augustin), Cardinal Spellman (Jack Duffy), Whitman-Hanson (Cam Burrows) and Southeastern (Nick Levine) all graduated senior quarterbacks at the last season's end.

From the outside looking in, Carver's Tyler Lennox, Stoughton's Jarred Daughtry, West Bridgewater's James Harris, East Bridgewater's Ethan Pohl and Abington's Michael Reilly lead the area's pack of returning starters.

The list of new starters will be an interesting preseason storyline to watch for.

Which team is positioned best to be an early-season surprise?

Usually, there's at least one.

Two years ago, it was the Randolph Blue Devils who came off a one-win season in 2020 and started 4-2 in 2021 en route to capturing the Division 8 state title by the end of the year.

The results weren't quite as golden last year. It was Whitman-Hanson that took a two-win campaign in 2021 and impressed with a 2-0 start, en route to a much-improved 5-6 record.

This year, look out for Carver as a candidate to have success in its first two weeks (at Nantucket, vs. Tri-County). The Crusaders went 3-8 last fall, but retained a quality junior class to, perhaps, make a race of a wide-open South Shore League this time around.

Randolph and Stoughton are also in the discussion for early-season surprises.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Five pressing questions about Brockton-area high school football teams