The Cranston East football team is preparing to make a return to prominence after a few seasons away.

With one of the youngest rosters in the state over the past two years, the Bolts struggled and have missed the postseason each campaign. Now, with a large returning core of seniors that have plenty of experience under their belts, the Bolts feel that they are ready to rebound and be a contender in the new Division II. East won just one game last fall, but more than half of its losses came by one score or less.

“We have quite a few guys coming back which is a positive. We are trying to get the program back to where it was and those are the things that you look to have. Great senior leadership, older guys to show the younger guys how we do things,” said East head coach Isaiah McDaniel, who is entering his second season at the helm.

The team will be returning much of the same offense as last year, including senior quarterback Da’Qwon Foster.

“I’m pretty excited. I hope that we can excel more than we did last year. We’re way more connected than we were before, half the team is seniors so we have been playing together for awhile. We learned about mentality, and we learned that because we had a bad season, we need to click together and stay as one. Once we all work together we should be good,” said Foster. “We can be pretty good because I know what their strong suits are. I can get it to where it needs to be.”

“Once he came back, things really started to click and the offense got rolling while the defense continued to carry us throughout the season,” McDaniel said of his signal caller.

The team will also be returning much of the same line on both offense and defense.

“We have a lot of experience up front, we have Tommy Roche, Blake Johnson, Ethan Nhar, and the rest of the guys filling in up front have playing experience,” said McDaniel.

The offense will also be returning pieces such as A’driahn Foreman, Naz Milien and Romeo Cordero.

As opening kickoff approaches, McDaniel and company are looking to hit the ground running after gaining some traction down the stretch of last season.

“I felt like we turned a corner last year, but we still made some mistakes. Not having that experience cost us, but I definitely think we turned the corner last year and now we’re just revving to get back on the field,” McDaniel said. “We need to come out and attack every day. Forget about yesterday and focus on our plan today. Focus on the quality of reps and not the quantity.”

East will be hosting Coventry in its opener on Sept. 9 and then hit the road the following Friday to take on Central in its first league game.