Matt Cohan will play a lead role in James Earl Rudder High School's football history. On the Rangers' first offensive play, he is set to be the first guy to touch the ball.

The Rangers' sophomore center, who will snap the ball to open Rudder Rangers football at the varsity level, is the type of player a young program needs -- tough and resilient.

And creative.

Rudder played its first games as a separate freshman team last season while the student-athletes still attended Bryan High. During the season, the right-handed Cohan broke his right hand, a terrible injury for a player who grips the ball on every play.

"I was playing center, and we had a play where we pulled out," Cohan said. "I rolled out behind the quarterback, and I went out to block a guy and just broke it. I don't know how, but it happened."

While Rudder coaches were looking for a backup lineman to fill in at center, Cohan gave them another option.

"I just practiced on my own at the house, and the next day at workouts, I said, 'Coach, I can snap with the left hand,'" Cohan said. "The coaches said, 'OK, we don't need the backup anymore.'"

He finished the season -- right hand bandaged -- as the Rudder center, assuring himself a leadership role on the varsity offensive line.

"They had to put a big pad on and wrap it up a bunch, so I couldn't use it to beat people or anything," said Cohan, who admits he likes to remind teammates that he's the toughest guy on the team. "That's what I like to think."

Then he adds with a sly smile: "They know. I don't have to tell them very much."

In the first line of attack, Cohan will be called on to beat people in a different way, moving them out of the way Rudder's promising young runners.

Rudder also has added a shotgun formation to its offense attack, and it's an addition that Cohan likes.

"It's a lot less to worry about getting the snap to the quarterback, not dropping it or letting it slip," he said. "I like that more than [the quarterback] being under center."

For a natural right-hander who has trained himself to be a southpaw just to start the play, tossing the ball back to the quarterback is not a challenge. But there are a lot of unknown factors about whether the Rangers, whose upper class consists of sophomores, can contend with older players.

Cohan said the Rangers' play as freshmen began things well.

"The start makes it all happen," he said. "Then you do it in workouts and in the weight room."

Still, he says he understands and expects the challenges a team might face in its inaugural season at the varsity level.

"It's going to be tough trying to get our own stuff started," Cohan said. "Once we do, we could have a pretty good season, hopefully. We are not that big, with the exception of a couple of guys, but our speed will be our main strength."

He's not expecting to see his photo in the front hall of Rudder's new school building for his first-touch achievement.

"It would be nice," said Cohan, deadpanning. "I'm not looking out for the fame, just having fun playing football."

For Cohan, it's all simply a matter of doing what works, anyway that you can get it done.

"I don't know," Cohan said. "I guess we'll just have to learn our plays, get there and block people and let the backs do what they need to do."

Put that simply, it sounds like a snap.