JP Stevens football players huddle before a 2022 pre-season scrimmage. (Source: @hawksfootball10 on Twitter)
JP Stevens is looking for a new head football coach, as the program and Joe Rovito have parted ways after three seasons.
The job was posted Monday by the Edison Board of Education on its district jobs portal.
Rovito’s Hawks were 0-21 under his tenure from 2020 to 2022, but Stevens is mired in a much longer stretch of defeats. They have lost 31 straight games – the second longest active losing streak in the state – dating back to 2018.
Only Highland Park has lost more games in a row, 42 straight, with its last win coming against Metuchen on Thanksgiving 2016.
The last JP Stevens football win came on October 26, 2018, a 29-14 victory over Monroe. That was its final win of the season in a 4-6 campaign under Joe Riggi, whose final season came in 2019, going 0-8. The Hawks’ last .500 season was in 2006 under Frank Zarro, when the team went 5-5, and haven’t had a winning season since Zarro’s 2003 team went 6-4.
His 2001 squad went 12-0, winning the Central Jersey Group 4 title 14-7 over Old Bridge.
Both high schools in the district are in the market for head coaches, as Edison head coach Matt Fulham announced his retirement earlier this year after his veteran Eagles squad won the Central Jersey Group 5 title, its first sectional championship since 1991.