School is just now back in session at Marblehead High School, but the MHS football team has been hitting the playbooks and working on counting by threes and sevens for weeks ahead of the 2026 football season. Ahead of his 18th season at the helm of the Magicians, the Current spoke with Head Coach James Rudloff following the team’s Labor Day practice to get an insight on the upcoming season.
Due to low recruitment numbers, the Marblehead football program has been reduced to just a single varsity outfit with no JV or freshman teams in reserve. With the program sitting at just 53 players, Rudloff sees the small group as a blessing in disguise with a shorter than normal fall camp ahead of their first real game.
“It’s an easier number to work with than having a big team,” said Rudloff. “With the shorter preseason, that helped us a little bit, but we certainly would have liked more time before we get into the first game, but I think we’ll be ready.”
While many of the players who will take to the offensive and defensive lines are returning starters from last year, many of the skill positions, especially those on offense, have seen significant turnover from last year’s team that went 8-3.
“This is the first year in quite some time that we haven’t had a returning starting quarterback,” Rudloff said. “This year our experience lies all in the line. We have a lot of returning linemen and that’s been super helpful because our line is getting to pick things up very quickly. We’ll go as fast with our offense as our quarterbacks are able to go. We have to take our time with them, make sure that they’re getting all the reads correct, so we still haven’t decided on our starting quarterback.”
Rudloff, who spent the intrasquad scrimmage portion of practice calling the defense, seemed confident in the defense’s ability to get stops even with a plethora of new players at key positions.
“I really like our corners this year,” said Rudloff. “I think we’re two deep with our corners. We have Trent Brown who’s back again. Brandon Jaquez is competing for a spot on the other side with Charlie Zappa. Also, Nick Epstein has looked really good. We also moved Madden Lyons to safety to replace a player there so I like our defensive backfield. We’re a little bit deeper than we were last year.”
Coaching changes
Alongside the roster turnover, some significant changes have been made on the coaching staff, centered around the departure of offensive line coach and Rudloff’s “right hand man,” Nick Broughton, who was hired as head football coach by Manchester Essex in May. Replacing Broughton is Marblehead native and former NFL and college offensive line coach, Ben Martin, who will assist on the offensive side of the ball.
CTE protections
With recent studies showing rates of CTE, a progressive brain disease caused by repeated head injuries, amongst NFL players was significantly higher than previously predicted, Coach Rudloff also discussed his team’s use of Guardian Caps and other safety measures implemented by the coaching staff to make sure that all MHS players are kept as healthy as possible in every practice and scrimmage.
“[Marblehead] and Swampscott were the first two teams north of Boston that wore the Guardian Caps,” said Rudloff. “I think we both started in 2017. We wear them whenever we practice and we wear them in scrimmages. It’s something we’ve always done. We haven’t put on full pads for practice yet, only for our two scrimmages. We do everything we can to ensure the safety of the kids and make sure the practices are safe.”
The MHS football season will open on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. when the Magicians take on the Lynn English Bulldogs at Piper Field.
