Matt Liparini fakes the handoff to Andrew Trumbetti during football practice at Demarest High School. Monday, July 15, 2013. STAFF PHOTO BY; KEVIN R. WEXLER
Wait, I am behind again, last night was actually Stop 3 in the summer tour: Westwood, for the Westwood/Emerson 7 on 7. I will get to that in a minute.
Earlier this week I spent part of the morning up at Demarest where the Norsemen are getting ready for a very unusual football season. I honestly wasn’t there so much to see the Norsemen, who were just working out in shirts and shorts, as much as I was to detail what could be the start of a very big, new trend in North Jersey HS public school football.
I don’t remember who it was exactly, but it was someone from Teaneck, a football player, who kept asking me on Twitter about the Teaneck football schedule. This was all during the time when Bosco, Bergen and Joes were putting together their football schedule, and basically, he wanted to know what out of state teams Teaneck was going to play.
I tweeted back at him that, probably no one, but that there was no one stopping Teaneck from playing any out of state games, that the way the Big North Conference was set up, there was plenty of chance for schedule flexibility. I think he understood.
So then the question becomes why? Why don’t more North Jersey public schools start seeking out games outside of state borders, and no, I dont really mean, Florida, but Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, because all of the public schools in those states are facing the same issues the ones in New Jersey face – they have non-public schools who they don’t want to play either.
Another thing I could never reconcile is how a lot of public schools, I mean, a lot, find a way to send their baseball/and or softball teams south for Spring Training, because the weather in March isn’t that nice. And I tell you what, I’ve never done the research on it, but it sure seems like teams that are successful are teams that do that. Want to know a real secret to the success of Saddle Brook softball and Indian Hills softball? It’s the 10 games/practices they get down in Florida while other teams are working in the gym. You can’t tell me that doesn’t help in the season.
All right, so back to Demarest. It is not surprising that among all the public schools in North Jersey, Demarest would be one of the first to jump in and schedule some out of state games. Why? I will give you 3 reasons.
1. It’s a very good school system.
2. The athletic director, Greg Butler, has done this before, plus he coached at Don Bosco recently, so he kind of knows the model-type to follow.
3. Andrew Trumbetti.
Let’s talk about No. 1 first. To do something like this…well, yes, the process is different than it is at the non-public schools, but not that much. If anything, at a public school, you just have an extra layer of bureaucracy to go through….meaning a Board of Education, the superintendent, the business administrator. At the non-publics, there is still bureaucracy, but not as much. When I talked to Butler and Demarest coach Tony Mottola, they both explained the process, and how you just have to have things organized and prepared. No superintendent likes to be surprised with anything going on in his/her district. I also though, must commend Northern Valley in this case for letting Butler and Mottola do their jobs and trusting them to put it all together.
Because, the logistics are not easy, especially with a football team, not just the team, the sheer personnel, but the equipment. Lugging 60 pairs of helmets and shoulder pads through baggage claim is a pain.
The main reason I think, why most public schools are wary is the money. But again, the non-publics and Demarest show it can be done. The cost of the trip down to Florida will be about 900 bucks a player. That’s no small amount, but the team did lots of fundraisers, they talked about selling these discount cards at local merchants. I mean, how smart is that?
And they are doing all of this just for a game scrimmage?! They will play Arlington Country Day in a game scrimmage at Disney Wide World of Sports on Aug. 30th, Friday night. But even though its a game scrimmage, trust me, Demarest will play it straight. And this goes back to point No. 2 and what I really was impressed with what Mottola and Butler said, and that is, Demarest will also play a JV game Saturday at Disney. So basically every kid who raised the money and gets to go on the trip will also get a chance to play. That’s really smart.
Then, in week 3 (heck, I dont know what to call it, since some teams are starting Sept 7, most are starting the 12th) maybe it’s week 4, but it’s Sept. 27th, Friday night, Demarest is going to play Delaware non-public state champ Caravel Academy. This is because the Norsemen were scheduled to play Paramus Catholic, but PC is going out to Ohio to seek and destroy, so Mottola and Butler went looking for a game. Mottola said they thought they had Valley Forge Military Academy lined up but Valley Forge backed out (its funny how many coaches always say other teams “backed outâ€) but they found a willing partner in Caravel.
Now, about point No. 3, I’m only half-kidding about that, it sure is nice to have a player on your team with a reputation, and Trumbetti certainly has that. He’s one of the top recruits in New Jersey, heading to Notre Dame, and I’m sure when Mottola and Butler called other schools, they could point to that as a sign that this is a quality program that produces good players. In fact, Mottola pointed out to me that the Norsemen had six players go on and play in college last year.
I thought of a few other things, like, you know, Demarest really hasn’t been all that successful the last few years. I mean, they have been middle of the road, not bad, but not exactly worldbeaters either. Mottola is 18-22 in 4 years. But this type of journey just shows the belief they have in this program. Almost like saying….we’re all in this year. Heck, they may get whipped in both the game scrimmage and by Caravel (I’d love to go to Caravel myself if the schedule works out) but at least they tried. And while going to Disney every year for football may not be possible, getting Caravel on the schedule again is possible, in fact, unless the game is a total washout (a hidden fact in these out of state games is no one wants to play some1 again if they really killed them the first time) I would bet Demarest will be in the same situation again in 2014, so I think it will work.
And I’m interested to see what North Jersey public school is next, to me, the next natural school would be Old Tappan, they have a pretty talented team with a possible breakout star in Jordan Fowler. Ramapo could do this, I use to joke with Drew Gibbs that they should play Ramapo of New York and settle the score once and for all, Wayne Hills, Paramus, and yes, even Teaneck. There are willing partners across state lines, all somebody has to do is ask.