BIDDEFORD — Anyone who happened to linger in the stands at Waterhouse Field after Monday’s football scrimmage between Portland and Biddeford would have gazed upon a slightly strange sight: Instead of shuffling off to the locker room or over to the water cooler like their opponents, the Biddeford players instead took off their shoulder pads and went through a series of sprints set to the tune of a coach’s whistle.

After a nearly two-hour scrimmage in 80-degree-plus heat, Tigers head coach Brian Curit said he easily could have understood a bit of grumbling about the post-scrimmage conditioning session. Except, that bellyaching never came.

“They understood our motives behind it,” Curit said. “It was great. I love these kids and their attitudes. This team has really paid the price all offseason.”

The Tigers are hoping that investment pays off in a big way this fall as it returns the majority of the key pieces from last year’s 4-5 playoff team that started off 3-1 before being hit by several crucial injuries. With a more senior-laden roster this season, Curit, in the second year of his second stint as the Tigers’ coach, is hopeful of his team taking the next step in the always ultra-competitive Western Class A.

“We have some outstanding athletes, a lot of guys who are good football players, and they just need to make sure they play with the swagger you need to play with at this level,” Curit said.

“A lot of them got their feet wet last year. It’s hard to be an underclassman and excel in this league, and there are times where they did well and times where they didn’t. They took their lumps and gave their lumps, and we’re looking to them to be even better.”

Quarterback Casey Twomey returns for his second year as the spearhead of Curit’s wishbone option offense. A proficient passer and runner, Twomey developed into a dual-threat last season, racking up 896 yards and 10 touchdowns to only three interceptions through the air on 48.8 percent passing while also rushing for 289 yards and three touchdowns.

Twomey will have to find new targets in the passing game after Biddeford graduated its top three receivers from a year ago, but the senior feels a lot better placed as the leader of an offense that averaged a solid 23 points a game last season.

“My confidence level has gone up a lot, and I feel like we’re going to be a productive offense,” Twomey said. “A lot of us have really matured, we all busted our butts in the offseason, and I like what we’ve been doing so far; all the mistakes we’ve made so far are correctable. We have guys on this team to go head to head with anyone in this league.”

“He’s got a very, very good arm and his skill level is through the roof,” Curit said of Twomey. “He’s a guy that just has to play with some confidence and he’ll be fine.”

Fullback Capen Macomber will be relied upon to gain the hard yards on the inside. A 230-pound bruiser, Macomber rushed for 325 yards and eight touchdowns in just 3 1/2 games last season before leaving with a season-ending knee injury against Lewiston, the type of setback Biddeford can ill afford to sustain again this fall.

“Capen is a beast,” Curit said. “We could run him every play if we wanted to. All of our periphery plays are run off our fullback. Teams know that, and before we can get to those other steps we have to establish our fullback.

“Capen is the real deal, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve coached a lot of good fullbacks, and he’s right there.”

Running out of the wishbone double slot look will be speedy backs Alix Chandler, Dominick Day and last year’s leading rusher Lucas Rhoy, a trio Curit hopes to be able to get around the corner and into space on the outside.

They’ll do so only due to the efforts of the offensive line, which will be led by returning starters Steve and Peter Lekakos, twin brothers and the tackles on either end of the line. Curit said that seniors Sean Black, Matt Gallant and Nick Ackerman would also be relied upon up front, where the Tigers at times struggled last year with the physicality of bigger opponents.

“Those guys have been working and in the weight room since the first week of December,” Curit said. “We asked a lot of guys to come in 15 to 20 pounds heavier, and they did that.”

Biddeford will also get a big boost on the defensive side with the return of senior linebacker Chris Couillard, whose season was ended by a broken tibia bone in his leg in the first week of preseason a year ago.

Expected to be the team’s defensive leader, Couillard’s absence was felt acutely by a Tigers defense that gave up 33 points a game last year. That included yielding 40 points a game against fellow playoff teams, something Couillard admitted was hard to watch from the sidelines.

“That was frustrating,” Couillard said. “But now we’re here, and I have a strong team that stayed behind me the whole way. I missed it so much, and I was anxious to get back to just support all these guys and be with them on the field.”

Couillard’s impact was already on display in the team’s scrimmage against Portland Monday, when he made several good reads on passing plays and was inevitably at the bottom of the pile as the Tigers bottled up the middle in the running game.

“Chris is a great football player. He’s been out for a full year, and that’s a lot time when you eat, breath and sleep football. It must have eaten him up,” Curit said. “To his credit, from the time he got hurt he’s been working his tail off. He’s 30 pounds heavier than he was last year, and he’s busted his backside to be where he is.

“There’s certain things you don’t coach, and he’s got that nose for the football. He’s our quarterback on defense.”

Chandler and Rhoy, who impressed while filling in as Coulliard’s replacement last season as a sophomore, will join Couillard at the linebacker spots. Day and Joey Curit will be relied on to guide the secondary, while 6-foot-4 defensive end Sasha Kurlychek-Godard will be depended on to lead the pass rush up front.

“Everyone is busting their behinds this year, and I’ve never seen this group work so hard toward something,” Couillard said. “Not everyone knows what they’re doing right now, but guys have been asking a lot of questions, and that’s what’s going to make us a better football team and taking those steps we need to take.”

Laying just under the surface of this entire fall for Biddeford will be the fact that it could be the last season in the program’s traditional home of Western Class A, where the Tigers have won a record 11 state championships ”“ the last in 1994, in Curit’s first season as head coach.

With a steadily declining enrollment that is showing no signs of reversing, the Tigers will very likely find themselves in the unfamiliar confines of Class B next fall, something Curit said he has discussed with his players at length this preseason, but won’t bring up once the season starts.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen next year, but I know two things ”“ we’re in Western Class A right now, and we can compete with anyone in this conference,” Curit said. “Everything else I don’t know, but we’re not going to worry about that for the next few months.”

It was a sentiment shared by Curit’s players, especially by a group of seniors that knows it could be the last senior class of Biddeford’s storied Class A era.

“That definitely makes this year special because we want to go out with a bang,” Couillard said. “We want to show everyone that Class A is where we’re supposed to be, even though we don’t have the numbers.

“Losing my whole season last year, I know how important this is and what it means. We’re going to compete wherever we go.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].