Former assistant coach Mike Tirabassi accepted the varsity football team’s head coaching position this offseason and worked with the coaching staff to make practice schedules simpler and drills less likely to result in injury.  

Tirabassi entered the varsity football head coach position following former head coach Ron Forbes’s departure after last season. Prior to accepting the job, Tirabassi worked with Forbes and many of the current players as an assistant coach for several seasons.

The varsity football team recorded a 4-6 season in league last year and struggled on the road, going 0-5 on opponent ground. Tirabassi seeks to improve on the team’s  previous record by increasing community support for every home game.

“My biggest goal is to fill up the stands,” Tirabassi said. “I want the Harker community to get fired up about football. Our team is working very, very hard to do that everyday. We’re trying to do everything we can to make everyone proud.”

The coach added that the team plans to host post-game pizza parties at Round Table Pizza as an effort to attract larger home crowds. These after-parties will be open to all in attendance during home games.

In a student effort to increase the size of the audience cheering for the team, the Directors of Athletic Affairs for the Spirit Club Oisin Coveney (12) and Shannon Richardson (12) introduced the idea of the Nest, a section of the audience comprising enthusiastic supporters who participate in white-outs and chants to cheer on the home team.

“I had an idea that kind of stemmed from what soccer supporters did,” Oisin said about introducing the Nest. “[Fans] form groups, they get together, they wear the colors of the team, they sing, they party, they chant, they make posters to support the team. I just wanted to bring that kind of atmosphere to Harker games.”

In addition to the new head coach and the efforts to encourage attendance, the program also began implementing a fixed practice schedule, with practices always two hours or less in length. This change enables players to pursue other extracurricular activities during the season. The football coaching staff also replaced many of the tackling and hitting drills with more frequent conditioning in an attempt to limit injuries during practice.

According to Upper School Athletics Director Dan Molin, Tirabassi brings both familiarity and energy to the team through his experience as an assistant coach.

“Coach Tirabassi is very, very qualified,” Molin said. “[He brings] a good balance of work and fun. He’s really brought the group of boys together. There’s a lot of team spirit and camaraderie – that’s very evident.”

Anthony Meissner (9), a new recruit to the football program, found the new practice structure and the new head coach helpful.

“[Practice] was hard [at first] because we did a lot of running and I needed to get into shape,” Anthony said. “The coach is great. He works with you [and] he gets you to the point where you want to be.”

Like Anthony, veteran outside linebacker Rishabh Nijhawan (11) found the practices this season to be more rigorous, but also more focused than practices from previous seasons.

“This year is a lot more hard-work based,” Rishabh said, referring to the increased amount of conditioning this season. “We get on the field, we get off the field. We are much more efficient.”

Three-year high school football player Danny Reidenbach (11) believes that practices involving fewer contact drills would indeed reduce the likelihood of injury.

“[Less contact is] good because last year there was a lot of injuries, since we were going at game speed for two hours,” Danny said. “There should be less injuries this year because of practice.

The coaching staff’s new practice regimen will be put to the test during the team’s season-opener on Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. against Yerba Buena on Davis field.