McLean football coach Shaun Blair talks to the Highlanders during a recent practice. Photo by Bonnie Schipper
During Shaun Blair’s first season as head coach of the McLean football team, the Highlanders struggled to prove themselves to be a contender for the Conference 6 title, ending the season with a 55 record and failing to advance to playoffs.
“Because [2014] was a transition year for a lot of the guys, there was no shared experience in the ups and downs with the new coaches,” Blair said. “Now we’re a year in and the kids understand what we’re talking to them about. It’s another year of hearing the same things and this time the guys know what to expect from the coaches.”
Entering his second year with McLean, Blair expects his team’s improved chemistry and strength will help produce wins on the field.
“The kids have become more galvanized by the work in the offseason that they’ve done together,” Blair said. “The more work you do together, the less likely you are to quit on your brother.”
With a schedule filled with what Blair identified as “strong competitors” such as Washington-Lee, Hayfield, Stone Bridge, Marshall, and Madison, McLean’s biggest focus during the offseason was getting bigger, stronger, and faster in order to compete.
Blair explained to his team during an Aug. 7 practice that the only way for them to compete with better competition is if they play “full speed, all out, all the time.”
“We wanted a tough schedule so we could prove to everyone that we are a legitimate team,” senior OL/LB David Kagan said. “We want to play the dominant teams in our region so we can show we aren’t the ‘old McLean’ anymore. With the new coaches, we’re a new program.”
McLean’s offseason practices included countless hours of strength and agility training, but above all, the Highlanders focused on the importance of repetition.
“We really need to execute. It takes thousands of reps,” Blair said. “We want to be able to run our plays forwards and backwards, without thinking. If we execute what we’ve been working on all offseason, we will be difficult to handle down the stretch.”
With most of the 2014 team’s starters having graduated, McLean’s 2015 team will be led offensively by a group of seniors. Brandon Hill, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound tight end, wide receiver Wesley Romary, and two-way starter Tom Shue are returning to carry the team on offense.
Kagan and linemen Will Salt and McCord Meyers, all rising seniors, are expected to show drastic improvement as well.
“[Shue] is back again this year and will be very, very, very difficult to handle on both sides of the ball,” Blair said. “[Kagan], you probably didn’t hear a lot about last year, but he’s going to be very surprising. We have two big, big linemen in [Salt and Meyers] and they open things up on offense for us.”
One of the players for teams to be on the lookout for is wide receiver Patrick Dolan, who received a preferred walkon offer at North Carolina State University. The 6-2, 195-pound senior recorded 43 catches and 460 yards during the 2014 season, and will be key to the team’s success with the loss of Jordan Cole, who totaled 847 yards and scored 11 touchdowns in 2014.
“I said this from when I clicked on the film when I first got [to McLean] the kid is going to be a star,” Blair said. “He had a good highlight reel last year and is getting attention from the next level.”
Harrison Govan, a 6-foot linebacker who has garnered interest from several Ivy League teams, is expected to be a leader on defense for the Highlanders.
McLean will begin the season at Stone Bridge Sept. 4.
“Coaches we’ve had before didn’t push us to be the best we could be,” Shue said. “The attitude was always ‘oh, it’s McLean, they won’t be any good,’ but we’ve made so much progress under Coach Blair and our chemistry is unreal. People will be surprised by us. We’re out here to turn heads.”