Mohonasen High School is bringing up a coach with championship credentials to direct its varsity football team.

Josh Whipple, who guided

Mohonasen’s junior varsity to the last two Section II Class A titles, was recently named to replace groundbreaking coach Scott Sabourin.

“Im very excited. I’m thrilled,” said the 32-year-old Whipple, who played quarterback at Mohonasen, and has been its JV coach the last three seasons. “I’m looking forward to bringing some of my principles and philosophies to the varsity level.”

At the JV level, Whipple’s Mighty Warriors put together a 22-5 record and reached three straight sectional finals. Mohonasen lost to Queensbury in the 2005 title game by one point, and beat Lansingburgh

(32-24) and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (32-14) for the top spot in 2006 and 2007.

His 2006 team went 9-0 after rallying from a 24-13 deficit against Lansingburgh in the JV Super Bowl, and last fall, Mohonasen went 8-1.

“He’s got an exciting, offensive mind,” said Sabourin, who stepped down following a 12-year run. “He’s got a lot of interesting ideas, and I think he’s going to take it and run with it.

“He’s got a great rapport with kids. He’s young, in his mid-30s, and kids seem to respond well to the way he approaches things.”

Whipple is inheriting a varsity team that posted one victory last season, yet will be bolstered by players who have an established history of success.

“We’ve got a very good group,” Whipple said. “The senior class is very talented and can really do well if they put their mind to it, and the juniors and sophomores have shown a great amount of dedication and commitment, which should lead to good things.”

Whipple plans to change a few things within the program, and tweak some others.

“We’ll be implementing a new offense, and we’re going to switch the defense around a little,” he said. “We want to be consistent and competitive in every single game.”

Game preparation will be different at Mohonasen in the Whipple regime.

“We’re going to try something new that brings us all together, and I think it will work,” he explained. “Each coach on the staff will be responsible for a program position. We’ll have a modified assistant

doing the defensive ends. We’ll have a JV assistant working with the running backs. I’m going to be the line coach for the program.

“There will be four of us for offense and four of us for defense, and we’ll be doing the same things with players at all three levels. We’ll all be on the same page.”

Whipple said he will continue the character education program Sabourin introduced to the

program several years ago.

“Every morning, after we have our lifting session, we’ll spend some time on character education,” he said of the program that emphasizes morals and values. “We’ll read a motivational story or we’ll have an open discussion about what it’s like to walk the halls as a 14-, 15-,

16-, 17-year-old student-athlete.”

Whipple is a graduate of The College of Saint Rose and teaches seventh-grade social studies at Draper Middle School. He served as a modified assistant for two years and a varsity assistant for three years at Guilderland before moving on to Mohonasen.

Under Sabourin’s direction,

Mohonasen qualified for the sectionals six times. and had four winning seasons. Mohonasen reached the sectionals for the first time in 1996 and won its first postseason game the following year. The 1997 team won seven games to tie the school record.