Five questions facing South Shore high school football ahead of 2024

The high school football season is nearing closer and closer with every day that goes by.

Practices start on Friday and the Week 1 slate of games kicks off on Friday, Sept. 6.

Five South Shore teams (Milton, Duxbury, Hanover, Scituate and Carver) made the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium to end last season and a few others were close. Milton and Duxbury were the two to emerge victorious.

But before our coverage gets rolling with season previews , Players to Watch lists and feature stories as a fresh start for all 38 area teams approaches, here are some overarching questions about the ever-changing local high school football landscape.

Will there be a new wave of quarterback talent?

The South Shore was home to a handful of the state's top quarterbacks last year. The headliners (like Carver's Tyler Lennox, Hanover's Ben Scalzi, Milton's Patrick Miller, Marshfield's Tor Maas and Duxbury's Trevor Jones) propelled their teams to Super Bowl appearances at Gillette Stadium.

With three of those five graduating this past spring, there's opportunity to be had.

Maas returns to the scene this fall as one of the area's biggest names at the position, with Jones, BC High's Carter Carroll, Cohasset's Michael Wildfire, North Quincy's Mikey Galligan, Norwell's Jack Luccarelli and Quincy's Nate Goff as some of the notable returning starters.

If high school football had a Heisman Trophy, who would be in contention?

Since 1935, the Heisman Trophy is awarded to the most outstanding player in college football. Carver's Tyler Lennox recently won Patriot Ledger Male Athlete of the Year for his record-breaking production on the football field last fall, but the poll was open to athletes from all sports.

The preseason list of candidates for the hypothetical South Shore Heisman Trophy this fall would be lengthy. Among the top, in addition to the aforementioned quarterbacks, would be James Curry (Braintree, running back), Will Bostrom (Norwell, running back), Davin True (Marshfield, running back), Lawson Foley (Scituate, wide receiver), Nate Gomes (Randolph, running back) and Ronan Sammon (Milton, wide receiver).

Which new coach will make the biggest impact?

A total of 10 South Shore and Brockton-area teams ushered in new coaching staffs ahead of this season: Brockton (Jailson Silva), Quincy (Ed DeWitt), Abington (Ed Reilly), Bridgewater-Raynham (Eian Bain), Archbishop Williams (Mark Landolfi), Carver (Chris Pabst), Oliver Ames (Joe Sperrazza), East Bridgewater (Greg O’Sullivan), Pembroke (Shawn Tarpey) and Holbrook/Avon (Fran Cass).

All but Abington and Carver are coming off sub-.500 seasons. Although these coaches are still feeling out their new teams as the preseason nears, the idea of jumping out to a successful start is not out of the question for any of them.

Which team will have a breakout season this fall?

Essentially, the question is, which team will be the 2024 version of the 2023 Carver Crusaders?

Last year, Carver exploded with a senior-heavy roster, claiming its first winning season since 2015 and the league title en route to the Division 8 Super Bowl.

Looking back at the last three seasons, Randolph (2021) and Hull (2022) were recent non-traditional powers to capitalize on senior-heavy rosters to make Super Bowl runs. Seeing that story arc unfold year-after-year is unlikely, however Norwell, BC High and Weymouth joined Carver in having breakout runs last fall after a few unheralded seasons in recent years.

Braintree (7-4 last year) and North Quincy (5-6 last year), among others, are candidates to be next in line.

Will the usual contenders live up to perennial success?

There are more South Shore football teams that are accustomed to success than not. In the case of a few of the area's most consistent programs (Cohasset, Rockland and Middleboro to name a few), last year was one of roster turnover and retooling after hefty graduation classes in 2022.

All three adjusted on the fly and unsurprisingly turned in winning seasons once again in 2023.

Following their Super Bowl appearances, Scituate, Hanover and Milton face similar situations this time around with the graduation of their starting quarterbacks (Scituate's Jackson Belsan, Hanover's Ben Scalzi and Milton's Patrick Miller) on top of a bevy of senior leaders on both sides of the ball.

Duxbury and Abington, for example, are two teams that do retain their field generals (Duxbury's Trevor Jones, Abington's Michael Reilly) but still endure significant change. The Dragons graduated 21 seniors upon claiming the Division 4 Super Bowl, and the Green Wave will play without now-retired coach Jim Kelliher on the sideline for the first time in 50 years.

Brockton and Bridgewater-Raynham, similarly, appear to be Thanksgiving rivals with fresh starts in the form of young rosters and first-year head coaches.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Five questions facing South Shore high school football ahead of 2024