Like the subtitle says, I am covering St. Joe's inaugural varsity football season for my independent study in sports journalism. It is the captstone course and hopefully will encompass all that I have learned in the sports communication minor here at Monmouth.
To go back to how it started, you must look at the date of January 25, 2009, when St. Joe's announced that they would add football as its 14th sports program. School president Lawrence Walsh ('68) and principal John Anderson ('70), labored over their decision to offer the sport and did so only after scrutinizing an exhaustive year-long study of an 17-member football committee headed by athletics director Jerry Smith and 1978 graduate Ed Lubowicki.
John Anderson stated "They've been talking about this since we've been here (as students). It's always been football and girls; are you going to have those. This was actually the first time people got together as a committee to talk about what's needed and to also be able to get us the seed money, because we did not want to--especially in this time and age--put out any money."
Administrators said adding football, which it has deemed a pay-to-play sport, such as ice hockey will not increase the atheltics department budget, nor will it compromise St. Joeseph's academic standards or values as a Brothers of the Sacred Heart school.
The most famous athletes that have come out of St. Joe's are former Chicago Bulls point guard Jay Williams and current Los Angeles Lakers Center Andrew Bynum. St. Joe's is hoping to find success in football that rivals their success in other sports. As of 2009, St. Joseph had won 40 state crowns, 55 sectional titles and 119 county or conference championships.
Lawrence Walsh stated "A portion of the alumni feel that we should not go to football. They feel that it will change the tenor of the school, that it will take away resources from other sports. We really looked at our school mission and philosophy and amde sure that what we were doing is consistent with what the Brothers espouse, and that's the development of the whole student. We looked at this as another opportunity for us to bring what we now call the St. Joe's way to another group of students."
Administrators said that the decision to add football had nothing to do with boosting enrollment nor do they have much room at the moment to grow. St. Joe's has stated that they will not lower admission standards to enroll prospective football players, nor will it lower academic standards to keep them athletically eligible.
As this season unfolds, it will be interesting to see how students do grade wise, because unlike most public schools, St. Joe's has a minimum G.P.A. required to participate in athletics. That number is 2.1. Most public high schools just require you to complete 13.75 credit hours per semester for eligibility.
Many people have had different takes on St. Joe's getting a football team. Mike Wolfthal, chair of the GMC Fotoball Committee and athletics director at Birshop Ahr, located less than two miles from St. Joe's, said he expects competition for students to intensify between the schools now that both offer football.
Administrators sought the advice of dozens of football-playing parochial schools, including Immaculata in Somerville, where legendary head coach Pierce Fraunheim offered his expertise.
He said "I think that an all-boys school should have football. It's a great educational tool to have the opportunity to play football and there's such value in the sport that I really believe all high schools should have it. being a large all-boys school, I believe they will be quite good with football. They have tremendous potential."
St. Joe's, geographically is in a good position. The Central Jersey Pop Warner Football League is one of the nation's five biggest youth football organizations with over 900 seventh and eight graders playing. In addition, the schedule that have crafted for this year do not have any rivalry games outside of Edison, so this unfamiliarity and far travel to many of their away games, might be just what they need to be successful.
Administrators said they believe football will help unite the school community, past and present.
"We hope in the future it will provide a focal point for our fall gatherings like Foundation Day and alumni reunions," Walsh said. "Right now we don't have a central fall event for our alumni to come back to and meet each other. We basically have to manufacture something."
St. Joe's first football coach will be Robert Molarz. He has served as an assistant basketball coach for the Varsity team over the past couple seasons. He was highly successful as a football coach at Carteret with a record of 59-21 and stepped down after the 2005 season. The rest of St. Joe's coaching staff is made up of former Carteret players Jin Ra, Paul Nelson, Brian Joseph, Brian Cherepski and Chris Kennedy as well as St. Joe's grad Chris Harring.
Used some information/quotes from St. Joseph High School of Metuchen Adding Varsity Football Article by Greg Tufaro, Staff Writer for the Home News Tribune, Article published on January 25, 2009; Also used St. Joseph Preparing For Varsity Season Article by John Haley, Staff Writer for The Star-Ledger, Article published on September 30, 2010.
Below is St. Joe's schedule for this upcoming season.
Tuesday, August 30th TBA @Immaculata (scrimmage)
Thursday, September 1st 4:00 @ Edison (scrimmage?)
Saturday, September 10th 1:00 @ Sussex County Technical School
Saturday, September 17th 1:00 @ Marlboro
Saturday, October 1st 7:00 @ Blair
Saturday, October 8th 1:00 vs. Moore Catholic
Saturday, October 15th 1:00 @ Cedar Creek
Sunday, October 23rd 1:00/TBA? vs. Morristown-Beard/TBD?
Saturday, October 29th 1:00 vs. Montclair Kimberley
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