H.S. football preview: Marquette

Since Dave L’Huillier took over the Marquette High School football program, the Redmen have made the playoffs each of the last three seasons. Making the playoffs is a big accomplishment, but Marquette would like to string together a couple of playoff wins this season.

The Redmen are a week and a half into practice for the upcoming season. Marquette does return Brett Place at quarterback, but that’s about it on the offensive side of the football.

The Redmen must replace a majority of their offensive line, which was very dominant a year ago. L’Huillier has added a former Escanaba football head coach Dan Flynn to his staff, along with John Tiziani, who has coached at Marquette in the past.

With all of the coaching experience at Marquette, the Redmen will have a chance to do something special this season.

“We have an excellent coaching staff all the way through from the varsity team to the freshman team,” said L’Huillier. “We added Coach (Jim) Marana, the former head coach at Westwood. We added Coach Flynn this year from Escanaba. With Coach (Jim) Iwanicki and Coach (Todd) Koski, we have a very knowledgeable staff and I’m very excited to work with these guys.”

“We lost four starting offensive lineman. The guys that are filling in for them are working hard everyday; they are getting better every single day. I have a feeling by time we get to the end of the year, we will be just as good as the group we had last year. I’m really looking forward to the progress that they will make,” added L’Huillier.

Connor Brazeau, a junior quarterback for the Redmen, has enjoyed working with the coaching staff. “It’s awesome. They’re all helpful, they all know their stuff. They know what they’re talking about and they help you out a lot,” said Brazeau.

“We’re looking real good right now. We’ve all been working hard, coming out here ready to play everyday,” said junior quarterback Brett Place. “I just feel a lot more confident this year in myself and team. Everyone’s working their butts off,” Place went on to say.

Marquette begins the season at home against Traverse City Central on Friday, Aug. 30.