LINWOOD - Mainland football coach Bob Coffey doesn't have the heart to remove the four names from the roster or to cross them off his list, and he uses his list to call roll.
So it was that a few days ago, Coffey was taking attendance before practice and inadvertently called out the name of one of the four Mainland players killed in an Aug. 20 automobile accident.
Silence.
"Sorry, guys," Coffey said.
"That's OK, Coach," his players told him. "Call all four names. We'll all yell, 'Here.' "
That's the way it has been for Mainland since that horrible Saturday afternoon, the players picking up the coach and the coach and his assistants picking up the players, and everybody there for everybody else.
The Mustangs have been through four funerals and dozens of practices and two scrimmages. They've cried, laughed, and remembered. They've tried to find some refuge on the football field, amid the familiar drills and the blocking and tackling and the sound of the coaches' whistles and instructions.
On Friday night, Mainland will take the home field for the season opener against Hammonton.
"I knew we were a close team," Mainland senior nose tackle Christian Scittina said. "This has made us so much closer. We've been there for each other."
Coffey said everyone associated with the program has been overwhelmed by the support from the tight-knit communities of Linwood, Northfield, and Somers Point that make up Mainland's school district; from other towns; from distant alumni; from football programs in South Jersey and beyond.
The coach, now in his 26th year at the helm of one of South Jersey's top programs, still shakes his head in wonder at the turnout for the funerals for Casey Brenner, Nick Conner, Edgar Bozzi, and Dean Khoury.
"Just going through the lines, I couldn't believe how much love there was," Coffey said. "There were literally thousands and thousands of people. It was humbling."
Coffey and his assistants have tried for "normalcy" during practices and scrimmages, and that's meant pushing the players as hard as ever to prepare for the season.
"As a staff, we've tried to bring normalcy to these kids," Coffey said. "That's really been our gut feeling, to be ourselves. If somebody does something wrong, we've made sure they were held responsible for it.
"These kids need to be normal. We've tried to provide that for them."
