Q&A with Stoneham coach Bob Almeida
On Tuesday, we spoke over the phone with Old Rochester coach Justin Kogler about his 5-0 Bulldogs, who are one of the favorites to come out of Division 6 South this year.
Then, on Wednesday, we kept it in Division 6 and called Stoneham coach Bob Almeida to speak about his 5-0 Spartans.
Stoneham has been one of the more dominant teams in the state, and is no doubt one of the favorites to make it out of the North bracket.
Here is an edited version of our conversation with coach Almeida.
MassVarsity: You guys have been winning by a lot in most of these games here. Is this the type of start you were hoping for?
BA: Well, it's certainly the type of start we were hoping for. Things have gone really well up to this point. I think we're playing really well on offense and defense. This week, special teams had an impact. But, for the most part, the offense and the defense complement one another. We've got off to great starts when we've taken the ball. We've got the ball first almost every game and gone down and scored, and the defense did its job, and we'd get another one and make teams one dimensional, which is what we really like to do.
MV: Do you guys run almost exclusively out of the double-wing?
BA: We run one formation (laughs), the double-wing.
MV: How does that work for you guys? I would imagine it would be tough if you get down by a few scores.
BA: Well, there's no question it's not a come-from-behind offense. But we also can up the tempo so that we can move quickly, and we've done that, and so forth. It's not ideal if you're falling behind, but the whole deal is we're trying not to fall behind and we're trying to be competitive. It's worked out well for us. Since we've been in this offense, our points per game have almost doubled, and it's really been effective for us. Because of our numbers, since it's such a small school, we only have — I mean, we have some good athletes, but we only have so many of them — so for us to put half of them at wide receiver, and half of them at running back, and tight end and so forth, it thins us out too much. In this situation, our best athletes play wing backs. It worked out well for us last year with Tre Pignone and Christos Argyropoulos, and this year with Christos, and Seth Russell, and Victor Fernandes. It's something that helps us out. We've gotten numerous touchdowns out of our fullback position, both wing backs, and the quarterback. The quarterback run has been really effective. We've been fortunate that we haven't had to throw the ball as much this year. Our quarterback is very good, but when people have to load up on the run, they can't play their normal defense against this offense. You just can't. So it makes them susceptible if they overcompensate to hit big plays in the passing game.
MV: And your quarterback is Deshaun Chase, correct? What's his role been like?
BA: He's an outstanding athlete. He's been the starting point guard on the basketball team his whole career. He's really a great athlete, and he's tough. He's really been great for us on both sides of the ball. He's got four interceptions on defense, and he's been tremendous in supporting the run, as well. Last week, he had 12 carries for 130-something yards. So, he's really been a help. And he also took the opening kickoff down to the 10-yard line, which helped us.
MV: Tell me a little bit about the offensive line. Who makes up that group? Is it a senior group, or do you have some younger kids?
BA: It's a little bit of a mix. The big thing with those guys is they're just ordinary Joes that go out every day and work really hard. That's kind of what we've been like for the last couple years up front. They're not overly big. They're not overly fast. They're just guys that come off the ball, and anybody that's watched us play knows the line comes off the ball really, really well. They're assignment sound. Chris Belliveau, he's the only returning starter we had on the offensive line, and he's moved from guard to tackle. Brendan Doherty is a first-year starter, senior at guard. Mike Driscoll is a first-year starter, junior. And, then, Antonio Ventresca, was a fullback that we turned into a guard, and he's been doing a fantastic job for us. And then Steve Chattelle was a part-time offensive guy. He got a fair amount of reps last year on the offensive line, and he's been our left tackle. The other big difference is our tight ends have blocked very, very well, too. Kevin McShane was our fullback last year and a really good one, but we needed him to play tight end and he did. It was very unselfish, and he's been tremendous. He's a great athlete, and a great football player. And Sam Labossiere was a part-time offensive and defensive player last year. He's a senior, also, and he's been our other tight end. We've been blessed to roll three fullbacks in the game, because those guys take a little bit of a pounding. Jon Neal transferred back from St. John's Prep. He's a linebacker and a fullback for us. He's a senior. Nick Brulport, a junior, and Tommy Pizzi, a senior captain, is the other fullback. So we kind of roll those guys, keep them fresh.
MV: Tell me a little bit about your defense. It seems, again, like you're playing well on that side of the ball, too, against some really good offenses.
BA: I don't know the total number, but we've got a ton of interceptions. Every guy in our secondary has at least one interception this year. Those guys have been great. Our safeties, Deshaun and Seth Russell, who was our starting corner last year, he's a junior, and he has multiple interceptions, as well. Tommy Pizzi was a backup safety last year, and he's a captain, one of the captains, he's a corner. And Victor Fernandes, who was a third-string linebacker last year is a great athlete. He's got multiple interceptions at the other corner. Pizzi has one. And Tommy Pizzi was hurt last week, and Jared Grassholz came in, a junior, and he played very well, too.
MV: So, Division 6 this year seems really tough, including the South. You guys are obviously going to make the playoffs at this point. When you look ahead — I know you don't want to look too far ahead past the games in front of you — but when you look ahead, what do you see out of Division 6?
BA: Well, Hamilton-Wenham seems to be playing really well. I think Bishop Fenwick looks to be one of the frontrunners, for sure. I haven't gotten the opportunity to see them play this year, but I know just from what I've heard that they're one of the teams to beat in the North. I haven't looked all that closely at it. Ipswich has had a good year. Ipswich presents a lot of problems. They run that option real well, and I know they're very well coached, as well. It's a tough road, tough sledding in the North. I think whoever comes out of the North is going to be a good team, but the South seems to be really loaded. We got a chance to see Old Rochester last year when they played Middleboro. I went and saw them play. Very impressed with them. I thought they were physical, a real physical-type team. They seem like they're whacking people. So they're obviously really good. I don't know much about, maybe Ashland? I don't know anything about them. I just see what they're doing down there. So the South looks like it's going to be really, really tough. And I had heard Norwell was going to be really good at the beginning of the year. I just don't know anything about them.
MV: And Dedham's going to be tough, too.
BA: Yeah, it's a real tough division. We're pretty sure we're going to be in the playoffs. Now, we're hoping to be able to get a good seed, so that whoever we play, if we can be successful, we'd like to have a chance to play them later rather than early.
Then, on Wednesday, we kept it in Division 6 and called Stoneham coach Bob Almeida to speak about his 5-0 Spartans.
Stoneham has been one of the more dominant teams in the state, and is no doubt one of the favorites to make it out of the North bracket.
Here is an edited version of our conversation with coach Almeida.
MassVarsity: You guys have been winning by a lot in most of these games here. Is this the type of start you were hoping for?
BA: Well, it's certainly the type of start we were hoping for. Things have gone really well up to this point. I think we're playing really well on offense and defense. This week, special teams had an impact. But, for the most part, the offense and the defense complement one another. We've got off to great starts when we've taken the ball. We've got the ball first almost every game and gone down and scored, and the defense did its job, and we'd get another one and make teams one dimensional, which is what we really like to do.
MV: Do you guys run almost exclusively out of the double-wing?
BA: We run one formation (laughs), the double-wing.
MV: How does that work for you guys? I would imagine it would be tough if you get down by a few scores.
BA: Well, there's no question it's not a come-from-behind offense. But we also can up the tempo so that we can move quickly, and we've done that, and so forth. It's not ideal if you're falling behind, but the whole deal is we're trying not to fall behind and we're trying to be competitive. It's worked out well for us. Since we've been in this offense, our points per game have almost doubled, and it's really been effective for us. Because of our numbers, since it's such a small school, we only have — I mean, we have some good athletes, but we only have so many of them — so for us to put half of them at wide receiver, and half of them at running back, and tight end and so forth, it thins us out too much. In this situation, our best athletes play wing backs. It worked out well for us last year with Tre Pignone and Christos Argyropoulos, and this year with Christos, and Seth Russell, and Victor Fernandes. It's something that helps us out. We've gotten numerous touchdowns out of our fullback position, both wing backs, and the quarterback. The quarterback run has been really effective. We've been fortunate that we haven't had to throw the ball as much this year. Our quarterback is very good, but when people have to load up on the run, they can't play their normal defense against this offense. You just can't. So it makes them susceptible if they overcompensate to hit big plays in the passing game.
MV: And your quarterback is Deshaun Chase, correct? What's his role been like?
BA: He's an outstanding athlete. He's been the starting point guard on the basketball team his whole career. He's really a great athlete, and he's tough. He's really been great for us on both sides of the ball. He's got four interceptions on defense, and he's been tremendous in supporting the run, as well. Last week, he had 12 carries for 130-something yards. So, he's really been a help. And he also took the opening kickoff down to the 10-yard line, which helped us.
MV: Tell me a little bit about the offensive line. Who makes up that group? Is it a senior group, or do you have some younger kids?
BA: It's a little bit of a mix. The big thing with those guys is they're just ordinary Joes that go out every day and work really hard. That's kind of what we've been like for the last couple years up front. They're not overly big. They're not overly fast. They're just guys that come off the ball, and anybody that's watched us play knows the line comes off the ball really, really well. They're assignment sound. Chris Belliveau, he's the only returning starter we had on the offensive line, and he's moved from guard to tackle. Brendan Doherty is a first-year starter, senior at guard. Mike Driscoll is a first-year starter, junior. And, then, Antonio Ventresca, was a fullback that we turned into a guard, and he's been doing a fantastic job for us. And then Steve Chattelle was a part-time offensive guy. He got a fair amount of reps last year on the offensive line, and he's been our left tackle. The other big difference is our tight ends have blocked very, very well, too. Kevin McShane was our fullback last year and a really good one, but we needed him to play tight end and he did. It was very unselfish, and he's been tremendous. He's a great athlete, and a great football player. And Sam Labossiere was a part-time offensive and defensive player last year. He's a senior, also, and he's been our other tight end. We've been blessed to roll three fullbacks in the game, because those guys take a little bit of a pounding. Jon Neal transferred back from St. John's Prep. He's a linebacker and a fullback for us. He's a senior. Nick Brulport, a junior, and Tommy Pizzi, a senior captain, is the other fullback. So we kind of roll those guys, keep them fresh.
MV: Tell me a little bit about your defense. It seems, again, like you're playing well on that side of the ball, too, against some really good offenses.
BA: I don't know the total number, but we've got a ton of interceptions. Every guy in our secondary has at least one interception this year. Those guys have been great. Our safeties, Deshaun and Seth Russell, who was our starting corner last year, he's a junior, and he has multiple interceptions, as well. Tommy Pizzi was a backup safety last year, and he's a captain, one of the captains, he's a corner. And Victor Fernandes, who was a third-string linebacker last year is a great athlete. He's got multiple interceptions at the other corner. Pizzi has one. And Tommy Pizzi was hurt last week, and Jared Grassholz came in, a junior, and he played very well, too.
MV: So, Division 6 this year seems really tough, including the South. You guys are obviously going to make the playoffs at this point. When you look ahead — I know you don't want to look too far ahead past the games in front of you — but when you look ahead, what do you see out of Division 6?
BA: Well, Hamilton-Wenham seems to be playing really well. I think Bishop Fenwick looks to be one of the frontrunners, for sure. I haven't gotten the opportunity to see them play this year, but I know just from what I've heard that they're one of the teams to beat in the North. I haven't looked all that closely at it. Ipswich has had a good year. Ipswich presents a lot of problems. They run that option real well, and I know they're very well coached, as well. It's a tough road, tough sledding in the North. I think whoever comes out of the North is going to be a good team, but the South seems to be really loaded. We got a chance to see Old Rochester last year when they played Middleboro. I went and saw them play. Very impressed with them. I thought they were physical, a real physical-type team. They seem like they're whacking people. So they're obviously really good. I don't know much about, maybe Ashland? I don't know anything about them. I just see what they're doing down there. So the South looks like it's going to be really, really tough. And I had heard Norwell was going to be really good at the beginning of the year. I just don't know anything about them.
MV: And Dedham's going to be tough, too.
BA: Yeah, it's a real tough division. We're pretty sure we're going to be in the playoffs. Now, we're hoping to be able to get a good seed, so that whoever we play, if we can be successful, we'd like to have a chance to play them later rather than early.
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