BY RYAN O'CONNOR

Last year’s Pembroke Academy football team won once. The 2007 Spartans return nearly all of last year players and first-year head coach Dave Tremblay said that’s a good thing.

“We graduated only three kids from last year, so the entire team is back … from a team that was made up almost entirely of sophomores and juniors,” said Tremblay.

But if his team stays healthy, the coach said he can envision a scenario resulting in Pembroke’s first playoff appearance.

“I’m pretty excited about the possibility, but we haven’t really set that goal yet,” Tremblay said. “The attitude of the program is much better this year than last year. The kids kind of felt like they weren’t going to do anything (in 2006), and that’s exactly what happened. This year, they feel like they are going to do good things, and they’re buying into it, and you can see it in practice, and you can see it at the scrimmages.”

The Spartans feature 12 seniors, 11 who start, and 12 juniors, including at least six in the starting lineup.

Junior John Natalizio returns with a year of quarterbacking experience to lead the offense.

Senior captains this year include Brian Juranty a guard and inside linebacker; Doug Merrill, who starts at fullback and inside linebacker; Ben Mitchell, a running back and outside linebacker; and Justin Muniz, Pembroke’s starting strong safety and running back, who Tremblay said is one of his best players on both sides of the ball.

Tremblay and company also welcome two transfers who are expected to contribute immediately.

Dakota Arsenault is literally a huge presence on this year’s defense. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Oklahoma transfer, who started at inside linebacker, steps into the Pembroke defense as the biggest player on the team.

The other significant addition, junior Vincent Verrachia, transferred from Canada and is expected to start at outside linebacker and contribute at tight end as well.

“We’ve gotten some new kids into the program that are really going to be contributors in spots we were lacking,” said Tremblay.

Moreover, last year’s successful freshmen team is feeding several additional players into the varsity roster, a trend Tremblay hopes to see continue. This year’s ninth-grade squad currently has 24 players, many of whom won the state Pop Warner title as Midgets.