John F. Kennedy quarterback Christian Boettcher gets ready to let a pass attempt fly during practice at the high school last Thursday. Photo by John Rusac Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com When a somewhat inevitable divisional change occurs in high school sports, the team or teams making the switch usually aren’t facing that great of an unknown.

John F. Kennedy’s football squad, however, will be doing just that as the Bears will not only be jumping up to Class B, but will be doing so to compete in the newly created “B” Central division.

Bears co-coach Mark Ostempowski couldn’t be more thrilled about the challenges that lie ahead for his squad, with the new division supplying a fresh start for a squad that went 0-8 as a Class C school last season.

“It is what it is,” Ostempowski said. “We ’re going to approach things the same way, and that’s to work our tails off. The kids came into the season on day one with the right mind-set, which is that they have nothing to lose. We’ve let them know that the preseason has been excellent and that is due to their attitude and effort. We’re just going to take it one day at a time.”

JFK will at least have one of its biggest rosters in the past decade when it takes on its new division — and with no sophomores this time around, the Bears should bring a veteran presence to the field.

Leading the way among the returning players is junior quarterback Christian Boettcher, who was the varsity starter last year. With that season of experience under his belt, Ostempowski and fellow co-coach Jeff Sabatino are “looking for him to step up and be a leader for us.”

Co-captains Brandon D’Amato (senior guard/defensive tackle) and Ryan Ball (junior fullback/outside linebacker) are both third-year starters for the varsity squad, while seniors Ryan Kowal (guard/center/linebacker) and Brandon Kacala (wide receiver/safety) are the squad’s other co-captains.

Junior Ken Minorczyk (tight end/defensive end) was also a starter last season, while seniors Coty Dunbar (running back) and Mike Musialowski (fullback/outside linebacker) should be more involved with the team’s game plan in 2009.

Junior Jim Quinn (wide receiver/cornerback) will also factor into the team’s plans more this year, with Ostempowski specifically saying he “should be more of an offensive threat this year,” while fellow juniors Mike Wild (offensive/defensive line) and Nick Sikora (split end/linebacker) are among the varsity newcomers hoping to make a splash this season.

“We definitely have a stronger running game than we did last year, and our offensive line has been improving every day in the preseason,” Ostempowski said. “We ’ve got some size too, and our defensive line is also playing pretty well.”

The Bears made their annual trek to Section V’s Pembroke this past Saturday to see just how they stack up with competition other than themselves going into the season, and Ostempowski was definitely encouraged by what he saw.

“We held our own against everyone else and we came out healthy, so I’d say it was a pretty good scrimmage,” Ostempowski said. “We were able to adapt to Lafayette’s speed pretty quickly, which was a goal for us now that there are city schools in our league. Overall I was very happy with what we saw.”

The Bears will face a pretty stiff test at 2 p.m. Saturday when they host the Monsignor Martin Association’s Nichols School in non-league action. Ostempowski has some clear-cut goals for that game, as well as for the season in general.

“I think we need to get our running game — which is improving — going a bit better, because doing so will open up the passing game for us,” Ostempowski said. “Defensively, we’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re stronger there too. If we come to play defensively every game, we’ll be okay.”

“The big thing, obviously, is that we need to break our losing streak, but we know there aren’t going to be any easy games,” Ostempowski added. “We don’t know too much about Nichols, but we need to come out and set the tone. We can’t take our time getting into the rhythm of the game. We need to be the ones setting the pace.”

e-mail: jnadolinski@beenews.com