Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
In 2023, the Bernards football team won its first-ever state sectional championship of the playoff era.
Starting quarterback Connor Laverty and his 1,727 yards passing and his 17 touchdowns? Graduated.
Top receiver Jake Caldwell with his 42 catches for 594 yards? Graduated.
David Brothers and his 13 sacks on defense? You know the answer.
And yet, returning runningback Logan Stephens (676 yards, 10 TDs) is back, as are Jack Morra, Max Austin and more on the offensive side of the ball, while sophomore defensive lineman Thomas Diemar and his ten sacks are back, and Bernards is doing what it did all of last year.
They’re winning, and the Mountaineers are 2-0.
No doubt a lot of that is the players, but a significant amount is Jon Simoneau, the head coach who has built such a culture of passionate, smart football players – who happen to also be very talented – that Bernards can keep winning despite all the turnover in personnel.
He knows they may not be as deep as they were last year, but they are talented in their own way, the way every team is different from the one before it.
With wins over Monmouth Regional and Hillside to start the season, Bernards is 2-0 for the second straight year, and this week has another tough one on tap, at Tapp Webb Field in Alexandria where they’ll play the annual Mountain Valley Trophy game against Delaware Valley. The Mountaineers have won two straight in the series.
Click below to hear Bernards’ head coach Jon Simoneau talk about the team’s 2-0 start and how it’s reloaded from last year’s title team:
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