Newtown High School Football Recharged, Hungry to Deliver

With the season opener against Brookfield about a week away, senior quarterback Will Arndt huddled with the first-team offense during practice one recent afternoon, barking a cadence from the line of scrimmage before dropping back and firing a strike to his wide receiver along the sideline.

It was one of many snaps the 6-foot-3, 190-pound right-hander will take this season as Newtown High School's new signal-caller.

Arndt was handed the keys to the starter's job last winter, following the Nighthawks' 8-2 season, and now shoulders the responsibility of reviving an offense which averaged just 117 passing yards a game in 2009.

The Nighthawks returned six starters on offense and seven on defense, including their entire secondary from last year's team, which finished behind only Pomperaug (12-1, 11-0) and Masuk (9-2, 8-2) in the South-West Conference pecking order.

"Coach just told me, 'It's your job for the taking, it's your job to lose. Just work your hardest and it will be yours,'" said Arndt, who is also one of Newtown's four captains. "You can't really expect anything to be given to you, so I was always just working my hardest."

Given Newtown's complex offense, its playbook might read more like a trigonometry test for any quarterback. Featuring both a spread attack and a run-heavy "Bone" offense, the Nighthawks can dial up one of 250 possible plays on each snap, according to Arndt.

It's a stark change from last year, when injuries at running back and inexperience along the offensive line forced the team to simplify its play-calling.

"We kind of hung our hat on a couple simple plays and it got us through the season," said Coach Steve George. "But we've complicated things a little bit more, changed things a little bit more this year, and hopefully we'll be able to move the ball a little better on the ground."

Now with a first-year starter at quarterback, George is confident his rushing attack, led by Louis Fenaroli, junior, and Max Nacewicz, senior, can soften up opposing defenses and make life easier for Arndt.

George expects there to be some growing pains at quarterback — he said there "always is" at the position — but he also believes Arndt posseses the necessary skills and work ethic to lead the offense through the highly competitive SWC.

"In this offense, it's all centered around the quarterback, so his responsibility is huge," said George. "But if you knew his mentality, you'd be real confident putting him out there because he's the type of kid in the offseason that worked his ass off. That's all you can ask for as a coach."

Arndt, along with his teammates, participated in a grueling training schedule this summer. As an encouraging reminder for the team, George created T-shirts--awarded only to those with perfect attendance at the workouts — which spell out the schedule in a nutshell: "COMMITMENT IS: 35 DAYS, 70 HOURS, 1000'S of REPS AND UNCONDITIONAL DESIRE!"

That conditioning often pays dividends in crunch time during the season, said Nacewicz, a dual-threat who recorded a team-high 79 tackles at linebacker last year while rushing for two touchdowns as a fullback.

"When you're in the fourth quarter and teams are gassed, it doesn't matter how much skill you have, it's all about how hard you worked over the summer. That plays a huge role," he said.

Nacewicz has some lofty goals for the Nighthawks' defense, which lost defensive tackle Connor McNamara, an All-State and All-Conference honoree last year, to graduation. By the end of the season, Nacewicz is hopeful that the unit will be at the top of the conference rankings.

"I want to be the nastiest defense in the SWC!" he exclaimed.

And sure enough, he's salivating at the chance to step onto the field.

"In practice, you don't want to kill your own guys," he said. "As soon as we play another team and put the pads on, it's all business. I'm ready to hit."