MILTON, Mass. – It was what it was, and it was frustrating.
All the Curry College football team can do now about 2018 is learn from it.
The Colonels' 3-7 season, which followed its first winning campaign since 2012, had a bit to do with the annual retooling every college program must make, and the injuries that every team sustains. What kept Curry from approaching its 8-3 campaign of 2017 as much as anything, though, was a handful of plays it didn't make, and a handful that it made, but shouldn't have.
"Football games can be swayed by two to four plays, every game," said Skip Bandini, who enters his 14th season as the Colonels' head coach. "We just didn't make them last year. And we made a couple of crucial mistakes when we shouldn't have."
Bandini, who has opened up a number of previously taken roster spots in response to some of last year's more egregious errors ("some of our players just got distracted from the goal at hand too easily," he said), sensed a "not again" attitude from returning players, plus a spark from newcomers, as training camp began.
"I love our team right now," the coach said. "They've got some character; they've got some personality. They put some gusto behind what they say, and they're pretty confident."
The Colonels are even embracing their coach's "all positions open" proclamation.
"There's no egos or anything," said senior wide receiver Nick Villanueva, a Whitman-Hanson High School product who is one of Curry's three captains. "I think everyone knows the best guys are going to be on the field, so we're all here to compete."
Villanueva is as obvious an incumbent as the Colonels have: A Commonwealth Coast Conference Second Team selection as a sophomore and junior, he made a career-high 50 grabs last season (third in the conference) for 655 yards (fourth), and caught six balls for touchdowns.
The throws came from Nick Juvelier (Centereach, N.Y.), who produced in his first opportunity to start (59.6 completion percentage, 208.8 passing yards per game, 16 touchdowns), but the senior can't simply presume he'll start this year. He faces strong competition from junior David Keogh (Mahopac, N.Y.) and sophomore Justin Delaney (Danvers).
Juvelier isn't alone. Junior running back Zach Levy, Curry's 2018 rushing leader (81.5 yards per game; 10 touchdowns) in 2018, and dynamic senior D'Aundray Burcy (Hyde Park) must continue to earn touches with talented newcomers Jason Cambra (El Paso, Texas) and Zach Sanderson of Wakefield's Northeast Regional now on the scene.
There's competition like that all over the field, and the Colonels welcome it.
"I actually think we're a lot more at ease," said Villanueva, who takes 18 career TD receptions into his final season. "A lot of us have game experience, so we know what to expect at this point. And we know we need to push ourselves."
That would have been the case even if the Colonels were coming off a better season. The NCAA Div. 3 CCC has added a new football member in Husson University, which is coming off three straight Eastern Collegiate Football Conference titles, and Curry also faces a three-game non-conference grind to start the year. Stevenson University has made five straight postseason appearances, Franklin Pierce is a newly minted Div. 2 program, and the Coast Guard Academy is coming off a 7-3 season.
"We're playing one of the toughest schedules we've ever played," Bandini said. "But in saying that, I think we have a good, positive outlook on our football team. We can compete against anybody, as long as we keep getting better.
"We have some talent on this team, at multiple positions. Hopefully it comes together, and we can make some plays on game day."
The Colonels, whose five-game losing streak last year included a 44-42 overtime defeat at the University of New England on a field goal with five seconds remaining, and a 30-21 contest against Salve Regina when a lost fumble gave the Seahawks a touchdown with 17 seconds to go, have gone over last year's mistakes enough.
"A lot of last year really did come down to a couple plays," Villanueva said. "We worked on those things all spring, all summer. We addressed them.
"Now, we all have the same mindset: We want to bring the winning back."
CURRY COLLEGE 2019 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Friday, Sept. 7: Vs. Stevenson, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 14: At Franklin Pierce, Noon
Saturday, Sept. 28: At Coast Guard, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 5: Vs. University of New England, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 12: At Husson, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 19: At Endicott, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 26: Vs. Western New England, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 2: At Becker, Noon
Saturday, Nov. 9: Vs. Nichols, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 16: At Salve Regina, Noon
(Season Outlook/Preview Courtesy of Mike Loftus, Patriot Ledger)
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