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In Steve Howey’s five years at the helm, the St. John Neumann football program has slowly become one of the area’s winningest.

After a school-record eight wins in 2007, the Celtics are joined by Naples and Immokalee — pretty exclusive company — as the only local teams to register four consecutive winning seasons. With 28 victories in that span, the Celtics are third behind the Golden Eagles and Indians (38 and 40, respectively). They are five wins ahead of Barron Collier and Palmetto Ridge.

Howey’s coaching skills, however, will be tested this spring. After losing nearly all of his starters at the skill positions, Howey is focused on preparing the replacements in order to continue improving Neumann’s program.

“They all have some experience,” the Celtics coach said, referring to his new backfield starters. “It’s going to be hard to build on last year’s record because we’ve added Golden Gate and Lely to the schedule.”

Neumann lost 11 seniors from last season’s 23-man roster, including Bobby Davis, Brian Provost and Anthony Tumbarello. Led by Tumbarello’s school-record 1,197 rushing yards, the trio accounted for 70 percent of the team’s total offense.

Replacing Tumbarello at tailback is Will Affleck. At fullback, Austin Nelz takes over for Provost. Ashley Radcliffe will play slotback in the Celtics’ slot-I formation. All three are rising seniors.

The new running backs combined for 88 carries and 513 yards last season. Nelz had the most touches, gaining 308 yards on 40 carries.

“Our seniors left big shoes to fill, and we’re not going to try to put ourselves in them,” Affleck said. “We have to take it one down at a time. I was behind Anthony last year and learned a lot from him. Austin backed up Brian and they had a good chemistry, which helped prepare us.”

The most prepared skill player this spring is quarterback Anthony DeMeo. As a junior, he split time with Bobby Davis under center. Davis was more of a running quarterback who often split out to receiver, while DeMeo was more of a pure passer.

DeMeo completed 13 passes for 371 passes and nine touchdowns last season. He also had just one interception.

Howey said the Celtics, who passed just 18 percent of the time in 2007, might throw the ball a little more next season because of DeMeo.

But Neumann first needs to find receivers. Celtics quarterbacks competed 37 passes last season, but just four went to returning players — three to Radcliffe and one to Shawon Lee.

“We have a lot of people who didn’t get many reps (last year),” DeMeo said. “We’re looking to build some people who never played before, get our skill positions up and get ready for summer football.”

In all, Neumann lost six starters on each side of the ball.

After going 6-4 in 2004, the team won seven games in 2005 and 2006. The Celtics went 8-1 during the regular season last year before losing to Fort Meade in the regional playoffs for the second straight year. Their only loss was to District 1A-6 rival Glades Day, who Neumann has never defeated in eight years since restarting its program after dropping football in the 1980s.

“We’re going to try to build on what we’ve already created,” DeMeo said. “We want to make the program better and better. It’s a lot to do better than last year.”