Ben Pantera (left) had a solid season on the offensive line for the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School football team this fall. PHOTO/SUSAN SNOONIAN

Ben Pantera said the preparation for the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School football season began long before the team strapped on pads this fall. It began when the team gathered at Hale Reservation in Westwood, where the players were trained by former Marines.

“It was physically demanding, but it was great for all of us,” Pantera said after the regimen, which included multiple days of hundreds of pushups, burpees, running and team-building, problem-solving activities.

“By the end of it, you look around and you see a bunch of guys who just did all that with you,” he said.

BB&N finished the season 6-3 with a group that included 14 seniors. Pantera, a junior from Hopkinton, started on the offensive line for the second year in a row. But this year, he said, was different.

“I just think I got faster and stronger in the offseason overall,” Pantera said. “Last year, it was a little intimidating, but this year I was a lot more confident and I thought I played much better. Being older now, going up against guys my own age, that brought out my confidence.”

Pantera also got bigger, packing 20 more pounds onto his 6-foot-3 inch frame to tip the scales at around 290. The combination of size and ability has Division 1 college programs taking notice. Pantera said he has drawn interest from several Ivy League schools along with Boston College, an ACC program. He said it’s too early for him to have a top choice, noting that it is still early in the recruiting season.

“All of the Ivies are great, they are just all really different,” he said. “BC is cool, it’s close to home, and it’s ACC football.”

Whether any of his BB&N teammates choose a particular school could also play a role, he added. Even after improving this year, Pantera — who was elected a team captain for next season — said he still has room to grow.

“The biggest thing is getting bigger and stronger,” he said. “I want to be one of those guys on the field who is really dominating. This year I took a step up from last year, but I want to get even better.”

Pantera used to be a quarterback before moving to center. He has not looked back from the offensive line since, and with the position change, he obviously has gotten a lot bigger. He played for Hopkinton for a season before transferring to the Cambridge prep school, and he is part of a big football family. His oldest brother, Sam, is a wide receiver at Endicott College. His younger brother Nate played quarterback on the seventh grade youth team. Jack, the youngest, played tight end and running back for the sixth grade team that recently won the American Youth Football Division 2 state championship.

“Once Sam picked up football, I picked it up, and then my younger brothers started playing,” Pantera said. “None of us have put it down since.”