Late coaching changes jolted what was otherwise a calm offseason in the Big Central Conference; Here are the ten schools with new football coaches

The springtime departure of Joe LaSala from Woodbridge and the controversial dismissal of Andy Steinfeld at East Brunswick added to what otherwise would have been a calm off-season in the Big Central Conference for coaching changes.

With 14 new coaches in 2022, and another ten for 2023, only six schools would have seen new mentors this year in the BCC. That would have been the fewest since the transition from Year One to Year Two in the league, when only six schools – Spotswood, Dayton, Middlesex, Plainfield, Roselle and South Plainfield – changed coaches.

But Joe LaSala resigned from Woodbridge in late March, leading to three other changes: Joe Goerge left South Brunswick to lead the Barrons, Ibrahim Halsey left Roselle to replace Goerge, and Tyrone Turner left his Co-Defensive Coordinator job at Plainfield to take over at Roselle.

Then, just a couple of weeks before preseason practice began, Matt Pazinko was elevated from Offensive Coordinator to interim head coach at East Brunswick.

Here’s a look at the league’s new mentors heading into 2024:

East Brunswick – Matt Pazinko: Described by his former boss as his “right-hand man,” Pazinko – who, like Steinfeld, played for, was a captain, and coached under longtime mentor and current Central Jersey Sports Radio high school football analyst Marcus Borden – will have to help his team tune out the noise after the events of late July and early August. Little will likely change in the offensive scheme, as all of Steinfeld’s assistants remain on staff. The Bears will try and rebound from back-to-back one-win seasons after going 8-4 in 2021.

Middlesex – Robert Swercheck: When they say people do stuff “for the kids,” they mean a coach like Phlip McGuane, who stepped down after a cancer diagnosis. All indications are his prognosis was good, but he didn’t want the team to suffer if he had to spend any time away. So, he stepped aside, and in comes North Brunswick alum Robert Swercheck, who had been holding down the fort at Scotch Plains-Fanwood since head coach Austin Holman stepped aside for personal reasons mid-season. Swercheck takes over a Blue Jays team that went 7-2 a year ago, its best showing since going 8-2 in 2019.

Roselle: Tyrone Turner: “Go out and have fun” is how Turner put it to his new kids, as he takes over a Rams’ program once coached by his most recent boss. James Williams preceded Ibrahim Halsey before leaving for Plainfield, and Turner was his co-defensive coordinator with the Cardinals. Prior to Plainfield, Turner – an East Orange Campus alum – was offensive coordinator at Weequahic in 2015 and 2016, with the Indians going 12-0 and winning the North 2, Group 1 title over Shabazz. He later became the head coach at Shabazz, going 13-23, improving the team to 5-6 his final season in 2022, before heading to the Queen City.

Sayreville – Mark Poore: Though the Bombers went 8-2 in 2023, Don Soflikanich is out after one season, and Sayreville alum Mark Poore is in. He was an assistant under the program’s last three head coaches, including Sofilkanich, Chris Beagan and George Najjar, for whom he played in the early 2000s. His senior year, the Bombers went 10-1, their only loss coming to Scotch Plains Fanwood in the North 2, Group 3 semifinals. A quarterback, he threw for over 1,000 yards that year and ran for 500 more. Poore also brought on former North Plainfield coach James DiPaolo as offensive coordinator.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood – Shawn Johnson: A former standout for the Raiders at , Johnson coached the Scotch Plains-Fanwood PAL youth team to a Super Bowl victory, and retired last year as a juvenile detective as a sergeant, spending 25 years with the department. SPF was in a bit of flux last year, with head coach Austin Holman leaving mid-season and Bobby Swercheck keeping things going, but he’s now at Middlesex. The Raiders were 1-3 when Holman left, and lost their next four before closing things out with a pair of wins over JFK – ironically, Holman’s previous coaching stop – and South Plainfield.

South Brunswick – Ibrahim Halsey: The Vikings were right in the middle of the late-Spring coaching carousel in the Big Central Conference. The vacancy at Woodbridge lured away Joe Goerge, and Ibrahim Halsey getting hired by South Brunswick left Roselle looking for a new coach. The Rams were 17-16 in three years with Halsey at the helm. The 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year in New Jersey starred at Elizabeth, then in the Big Ten at Illinois. The Vikings are coming off back-to-back 5-5 seasons under Goerge, and won their last two games last season over Howell and Egg Harbor.

Union – Jason Scott: When you’ve worked under the previous coach – as Jason Scott did for Lou Grasso – for nine years, you’re bound to pick up a thing or two, and probably not mess too much with success. After all, he helped lead Grasso’s 2019 Farmers to the North 2, Group 5 title and a 12-1 season that just adds to the tradition at The “U.” Though 5-6 last season, that’s just a cyclical public school hiccup; the future looks bright at Union in 2024.

Voorhees – John Hack: An Immaculata alum, where he played for the legendary Pierce Frauenheim, he later coached there, then at Morris Catholic. Now, he’s at a public school in Glen Gardner taking over for Ricky Kurtz, whose Vikings had four losing seasons before breaking through last year, going 7-4. But Kurtz stepped down after a ten year run, during the first five of which he was an assistant. Though they graduate top runnignback Brandon Kurzeja and his 1,070 yards, Voorhees rushed for a mind-boggling 3,081 yards last year, and they have two junior backs returning who contributed nearly 600 yards and five touchdowns last year in Antonio Sauchelli and Matteo Tramutola.

Westfield – Matt Andzel: The first alum to coach the Blue Devils in its long and storied history, Andzel takes over for Jim DeSarno, who retired to take the Athletic Director post, after Sandra Mammary,at the end of the year. So, the former head coach truly got to pick his own replacement. A 2007 College of New Jersey graduate, he played for DeSarno’s predecessor, Ed Tranchina, from 1999-2001. Westfield is one of the legendary programs in Central Jersey, and won three straight North 2, Group 5 titles from 2015 to 2017, all coming over Bridgewater-Raritan at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, going unbeaten all three years. Andzel was on the staff during that run, and takes over a team that went 6-5 last year, beating solid teams like Hillsborough and Thanksgiving rival Plainfield.

Woodbridge – Joe Goerge: After two years in his second stint at South Brunswick, Joe Goerge has moved North to coach the Barrons. Goerge won the Vikings their only state titles – three of then in a seven-year stretch where his teams were 63-17. Woodbridge is loaded, so talent won’t be an issue. But Goerge has run option a good portion of his career, so it’ll be interesting to watch if he works any of that in or lets senior QB Derek Anderson fling it to his twin brother, Bryan whenever he gets the chance. The Barrons were 6-4 last season, dropping their last two games, to Sayreville and Ridge.

DID YOU KNOW?

There have been 40 coaching changes in the Big Central Conference since its inaugural season in 2020. Some have had multiple changes, like Somerville, which started with Dallas Whitaker, then Ian Pace, and now Matt Bloom.

In the end, there are 22 schools who have the same head football a coach now as they did four seasons ago. (Two of them had a change, but didn’t play varsity in 2020. Carteret sat out fall sports that year, and Matt Yascko left to become offensive coordinator and coach his son at Edison; Kevin Freeman was hired in the spring. And Highland Park hired Shawn Harrison after the 2019 season to replace Derrick Nobles, but the Owls didn’t have the numbers to field a varsity team that year.)

Here are the 22 schools who have not had a coaching change during their time playing in the Big Central: