When the NHIAA announced the realignment of their Divisions the results were mixed...
 

When you go from six total divisions to just 3 you’re going to have coaches/players/fans who are happy, and those who are pounding the granite on their kitchen counters when they find out they have to go from Newport to Pelham for a Friday night 7pm kickoff.

Which of course parlays us into the biggest quam among the former Division IV, V and VI coaches of years past - the amount of travel time between schools.  Realignment won’t necessarily fix that all of that, although with the new conference setup, that was certainly something that was taken into consideration to the best of the NHIAAs ability.

A quick recap of the new Conferences is as follows (with our new site we’ll have complete standings by conference):

East

Bishop Brady
Epping-Newmarket
Farmington-Nute
Raymond

West

Fall Mountain
Mascoma Valley
Newport
Stevens

North

Franklin
Gilford
Inter-Lakes-Moultonborough
Newfound
Winnisquam

South

Bow
Campbell
Pelham
Somersworth

We won’t get on the NHIAA too badly for the new alignment but in the best interest of the Coaches and Bus Drivers everywhere, Raymond & Somersworth could have easily been flip-flopped in the South/East conferences.  To be fair that’s grasping at straws and the Conferences are fairly evenly distributed despite the fact that D-III teams will have to play several teams outside of their conference and incur long travel afternoons regardless of their conference alignment.

Now that we have the obligatory conference realignment discussion out of the way, let’s boil this Division down a little deeper...

The New Hampshire Sports Page Preseason Predictions

1. Campbell
2. Somersworth
3. Stevens
4. Newport
5. Franklin

The Dark Horse Teams: Everybody?

Preseason Player of the Year: Donald Pellerin, Stevens - RB

Also in the Running: Newports Andrew Hourde, Pelhams Chris Medeiros and a slew of others...

Figuring out which players and teams will rise to the top of D-III in 2013 is like trying to decipher and explain Miley Cyrus’s 2013 MTV VMAs performance.  It can’t be done.  There’s no clear favorite and nobody knows how these teams will respond to the new alignment. There’s a ton of youth between Somersworth, Stevens, Mascoma and Franklin, all of which were top teams in their respective Divisions last year.

You might think 2012s top rusher in NH Jesiah Wade would be the pre-season favorite as he racked up over 2,000 yards for Campbell last year but he’s transferred to Manchester Central and will instantly make them a contender in D-I.   Even so, the Cougars are our pick to win the title in November on the strength of their spread offense, veteran leadership and consistency on both sides of the ball.

Cougars Head Coach Greg Gush said, “The biggest key to our success will be our ability to sustain a fast-paced level of play and take advantage of defensive misalignments and mistakes.  We’re putting a lot of pressure on our QBs to make accurate and consistent assessments of defensive looks and alignments and adjust accordingly.”  With only 7 Seniors graduating off last years squad he’ll have an experienced team poised to move to the head of the D-III class.

Stevens and Somersworth both lost the bulk of their teams who each made a lot of noise in the former D-V last year.  Somersworth Head Coach Dan Hodgson isn’t worried however, “Keys for us will be staying healthy first and foremost. Back-ups are freshmen in many cases. Getting so many new starters up to speed has been a challenge, though it has been exciting to see so many players step up to accept that challenge.” Gone is all-everything All-Stater Drew Franceour who at QB, RB, kick returner and DB was the heart and soul of a very close knit team on and off the field.  In comes Senior Captain Mike Paquette who exhibits many coach-like actions on the field including confidence and smarts that give Hodgson the type of signal caller he’ll need to get back to the Championship game he heartbreakingly lost in 2012 on their home turf.

The Stevens Cardinals and Head Coach Paul Silva return our preseason player of the year Donald Pellerin who lines up at RB and makes plays on the defensive side of the ball as a DB as well.  Like Somersworth, they lost upwards of 15 players to graduation but with Pellerin, T/DE Kai Kleyensteuber, G/DT Noah Ladd and WR/S Austin Tenney returning they should have a solid nucleus to bring the new guys up to speed and keep them competitive in this wide open Division.

For the rest of Division III the middle of the pack depends on who you talk to.  We’ve heard everybody from Fall Mountain, Mascoma to Newport who could be Championship contenders this year.  Bow, Pelham and Winnisquam were all teams Coaches told us they’d have on their radar and would have to be ready to bring their best games against.

How about reigning D-VI Champions Franklin who are the favorites to come out of the North with perhaps Inter-Lakes-Moultonborough challenging for the top spot.   Franklin has one of the best O-Lines in D-III which should give their playmakers time to make decisions and hit their holes.  Nothing is ever gained easily when you talk about the northern portion of the state so expect this conference to come down to the last game of the year for both playoff positions.

The East may be the weakest conference with Epping-Newmarket and Bishop Brady vying for those top 2 playoff spots but don’t count out Raymond who has some of the best fan support in the Division and have an improving feeder system.  Epping-Newmarkets strength will be their defense anchored by Jake Valinkski, a varsity players since his Freshman year and fellow Senior Joe Leclerc up the middle.  

Mascoma should come out of the West with 9 returning starters, of which 7 are Seniors this year solidifying a squad who played well in 2012.  They’ll be out for a bit of revenge after falling to Franklin in the D-VI final last year.  Newport has one of the more exciting playmakers in QB Andrew Houde who can make plays through the air and with his feet which should give them an edge in tightly contested games.

The South is loaded with the aforementioned ‘Toppers from Somersworth and Campbell Cougars as well as a very good Bow squad and an improving Pelham Pythons team coached by Ryan Clark who overviewed his team by saying “ I expect our team to continue to improve after a step in the right direction last year.  We have to play a lot of really good teams, and there are no easy games on our schedule.  In our first game we are playing a really good Bow team, and our players and coaches are working very hard to be as prepared as we can possibly be.”. 

At the end of the day this division is going to be a dogfight.  Every team has question marks and there’s no clear cut dominant player now that Wade has transferred from Campbell.  Of all the coaches we talked to none could give us a favorite, and each listed different “dark horses” and “contenders” which should make for a an exciting year in the re-tooled Division III.