Curry College football ready to change trajectory under new, offensive-minded head coach

MILTON -- On Monday, workers from Mansfield-based Scoreboard Enterprises were buzzing around Curry College's Walter M. Katz Field, tearing down the old scoreboard to make way for the brand-new video board that's eventually going up.

As of late afternoon, the state-of-the-art replacement either hadn't arrived on site or was cleverly concealed somewhere. Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Curtis Fraser noted that he and his game-day crew would have to get up to speed quickly on the new board in order to have it working properly in time for Friday night's opener against MIT.

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If the football field is still under construction to some degree, that's appropriate because so is the football team.

New coach Todd Parsons takes the reins of a Division III program that has posted one winning season (2017) in the past eight and is far removed from its glory days of 1998-2012 -- a 15-year span in which the Colonels won five league championships (all in a row from 2003-07) and authored 14 winning campaigns.

"I would consider it a turnaround" situation, Parsons acknowledged, "but it's not like winning hasn't been done here. It's doable."

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Curry hopes that Parsons is the man for the job. A former assistant, always on the offensive side of the ball, at Salve Regina, Assumption, Brown, Bentley and Endicott, he's a football lifer who grew up tagging along with his dad, David, a longtime high school coach in Pennsylvania.

"I was usually at every practice, every game -- ball boy, water boy, that kind of stuff," Parsons recalled.

A quarterback, he starred at Easton High (his dad actually coached at a rival school, Lehighton) and later at Averett University in Virginia, where he threw a school-record 42 career touchdown passes. His previous gig was being the assistant head coach/offensive coordinator at Endicott, Curry's rival in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. The Gulls were CCC champs a year ago.

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Parsons got a late start -- he was hired in April to replace longtime coach Skip Bandini -- and had to play catch-up in the spring. Nevertheless, he thinks the Colonels are up to speed, especially on his new spread/RPO-based offense, and ready to go against MIT, which laid a 41-7 beatdown on Curry last season.

"I feel pretty good about it," Parsons said about Friday's opener.

He's not the only one.

"The new coaching staff has been an absolute blessing," said left tackle Josias Roman, a 6-5, 350-pound grad student from Brockton. "Not to (say) anything against the past coaches, but these guys are (more attuned) to the game, they're bringing a lot of new stuff that we didn't get a chance to look at before. Our offense is looking good, our defense is looking good. I'm really excited about this new coaching staff and the different level they're going to bring us to."

Given that Curry was 3-7 in 2018, 2-8 in 2019 and 3-6 last year (the Colonels skipped 2020 due to COVID) it's no surprise that Parsons' team was picked seventh (last) in the CCC preseason coaches' poll.

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"Our guys have high expectations, as we (coaches) do as well," Parsons said. "We're going to be optimistic. ... The preseason polls are good. It's motivation certainly for our program."

"We're in a real good place," agreed senior wide receiver Gabe DeSouza, of Everett. "A lot of things that we did last year, people are probably going to think it'll still be the same (this season). For us, we know that being ranked seventh in the preseason is not anything close to where we're going to be ranked at the end. A lot of eyes are going to open after this first week, in my opinion."

DeSouza will be a key figure for the Colonels. He led the team in catches (46), receiving yards (539) and TDs (8) last year, finishing up with a monster effort in the finale -- 14 catches, 158 yards, 4 TDs in a 55-43 loss to the University of New England.

"That game was the last run I thought I was going to have because I had my hip surgery" scheduled for the offseason, said DeSouza, who's returned ahead of schedule. "For me to finish the season the way I did, going through the things I was going through, it meant a lot to me and my teammates. It showed that nothing physically, mentally or emotionally can stop me, or stop us if we put our minds to it."

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Parsons, who will serve as offensive coordinator, is seeking a more balanced attack this fall. The Colonels didn't run the ball effectively in 2021, and the passing game was skewed heavily to DeSouza, to the extent that no other Colonel had more than one TD catch.

"When we talk about a balanced offense it's not necessarily (creating a) run-pass (balance)," Parsons said, "it's are we distributing the ball (to multiple people)?"

DeSouza is on board with that, saying, "Me, I'm not one for personal achievements. I just want to win."

Justin Mullaney, a 5-11 grad student from Danvers, returns at QB after completing 61 percent of his passes with 8 TDs and 6 INTs last year when he shared the gig with Charlie Stanton. Roman will anchor the offensive line, and senior Mike Broomstein (Abington) figures to see action there as well. Leading tackler Greg Silvia, a 6-2, 240-pound linebacker, returns, along with sophomore defensive lineman Sproul Derolus (Stoughton), who's already one of Parsons' favorites.

"Sproul's great," the coach said. "He's a kid who's always smiling. Probably one of the hardest workers on the team -- in the weight room, in the classroom."

Other returning locals are junior running back James Wauhob (Brockton/Blue Hills Regional), senior tight end Griffin Malone (Pembroke) and junior D-linemen Ayden Doyle (Weymouth/Cardinal Spellman) and Owen Balzarini (Bridgewater-Raynham).

There are eight freshmen from the Ledger/Enterprise area, and Parsons says recruiting heavily in Curry's backyard will be a point of emphasis going forward.

Of course, the best recruiting tool is winning, something the Colonels are eager to get back to doing.

"After all those losing seasons, there's going to be a fire there," Roman said of Curry's motivation. "There's going to be a fire to win. I think that's why we have so many fifth-years and older guys coming back (to use up their eligibility). There was obviously such a positive attitude (around the program now). We're so excited to see what we can do this season."

CURRY COLLEGE SCHEDULE

Fri., Sept. 2 -- vs. MIT, 7 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 10 -- at Coast Guard, 1:30 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 17 -- at Dean, noon

Sat., Sept. 24 -- vs. Hilbert, 1 p.m.

**Sat., Oct. 1 -- at Univ. of New England, 1 p.m.

**Sat., Oct. 8 -- vs. Salve Regina, 1 p.m.

**Sat. Oct. 15 -- vs. Husson, 1 p.m. (Homecoming)

**Sat., Oct. 22 -- at Western New England, 1 p.m.

**Sat., Oct. 29 -- vs. Endicott, 1 p.m.

**Sat., Nov. 12 -- at Nichols, noon

**Commonwealth Coast Conference games

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Curry College football feeling energized by new coach