Tag: awards

by Mike Pavlichko

Coming off COVID shutdown and winless season, Piscataway earns CJSR’s “Turnaround Team of the Year” honors in ’22

The fall of 2020 was not an easy one for Dan Higgins, or his players. When the district shut down the fall sports season due to the COVID-19 pandemic – one of two districts to do so in the Big Central Conference that year, the other being Carteret – Higgins all of a sudden had no team to coach.

And it wasn’t just the fact there were no games. There were no practices, no weight room, no film study, no team meals. Nothing.

Some players even moved on to other schools.

To return in 2021 made things normal in a way, but not in another, as the program – no doubt hurt by a year away from football – struggled mightily. Seniors had not played since their sophomore year. Young contributors, normally key to the Chiefs’ success, saw their football IQ stunted. And the varsity went 0-8, its first winless season since 1968.

After a loss in the opener to Hunterdon Central, one could be forgiven if Piscataway hung its collective head. Instead, they went 6-2 to the rest of the way, to finish 6-3, with a berth in the state playoffs, just three seasons removed from becoming the first Middlesex County school to go 13-0 when they won the inaugural North Group 5 “bowl” game at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko talk with Piscataway head coach Dan Higgins:

Honorable Mentions:

The Spotswood Chargers had a remarkable turnaround in 2022 under second-year head coach Chris Meagher. After winning seven games in Andy Cammarano’s final three seasons before stepping down, Meagher’s team struggled mightily in 2021, going 1-8 and getting shut out five times in the process, scoring under six points a game. This year, they went 7-3 – amazingly missing the playoffs, another story for another time. They improved to 19 points per game on the offensive side, while pitching one shutout and holding four teams to single digits on the scoreboard.

Another great turnaround happened in South Plainfield, where the Tigers rebounded from a 2-8 season in 2021 – where they lost half of those games by eight points or less – to run the table in the 2022 regular season, winning their first-ever division title, taking the Big Central’s United Silver Division crown. They went 8-0 before falling in the playoffs at home to Camden Eastside, their first loss of the season.

by Mike Pavlichko

Despite injury, Knights’ Haughney picks up CJSR’s “Longevity Award”

While he suffered a season-ending injury in his sixth game of the season, it still feels like Owen Haughney has been an Old Bridge Knight forever.

A dual-threat quarterback, it was a disappointing ending in a promising season, but Haughney had one heckuva career, and was named Central Jersey Sports Radio’s “Longevity Award” winner for 2021.

Despite the injury, Haugney went 52-82 passing this year for 823 yards and 9 TD with just two picks. He also rushed 60 times for 336 yards.

In his career, he racked up 2,533 passing yards and 26 TDs. He easily would have passed 3,000 had he not gotten hurt this year. Haughney threw for over 100 yards in 14 career games. He also had 732 career rushing yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground.

Click below to hear Dom Savino talk with Old Bridge’s Owen Haughney:

Honorable mentions included Colonia’s Josh Oluremi, who has rushed for over 2,000 yards and passed for over 1,800 in his career, as one of the most electrifying players in the Big Central Conference. Mike Leanza also was recognized, a senior who rushed for 1,000 yards this year in seven games, despite breaking his leg late in the season and missing his team’s playoff games. Also noted was Matt Marchesi of South River, the son of Rams’ head coach Rich Marchesi, who just finished his 33rd season. Matt has been a water boy for his dad since he was five, and hasn’t missed a practice in 12 years!

by Mike Pavlichko

Teammates go down, Bird steps up; North Plainfield senior wins CJSR’s “Leadership Award”

The North Plainfield football team entered the 2021 season with three captains. But it wasn’t long before two of them were down for the count: Keiahn Grenald, and Khan-Yae Stevens.

Stevens was Central Jersey Sports Radio’s “Jack-of-All-Trades” last year – and an honorable mention for Two-Way Player of the Year – meaning he does a little of everything, and now that was missing. And Grenald is one of the more electrifying players in the league as well.

In stepped senior linebacker/H-back Jordan Bird, who may helped keep the team together after a 1-3 start to go 5-1 the rest of the way, finishing 6-4, to go 13-5 the past two seasons. It helped the Canucks go .500 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2007-08.

Click below to listen to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dom Savino talk with Jordan Bird:

Honorable mentions in the “Leadership Award” category include Connor Tracy of Governor Livingston and Josh Oluremi of Colonia.

Tracy is the son of GL offensive coordinator Bill Tracy, the former Ridge coach. As the starting quarterback the last two years, he’s thrown for 1,129 yards and 10 TDs. But more importantly, he was a “consummate leader” all year, and came in early before practice to work with a young ballclub in a rebuilding year. His coaches call him “a great role model and leader for our program regardless of circumstance,” referring to the Highlandeers winning just one game this year.

Oluremi, a QB/CB for the Patriots, rushed for 1,594 yards and 20 TDs this year, while throwing for 954 yards, but more notably led by example. A two-year captain, he has a 3.9 GPA and is a member of two honor societies. He also participates in the “Heroes and Cool Kids” mentorship program in the district middle schools.

by Mike Pavlichko

East Brunswick has breakthrough year under Steinfeld, named CJSR’s “Turnaround Team of the Year”

After a pair of seasons hovering around the .500 mark, a close, heartbreaking loss was not the way East Brunswick wanted to start the 2021 football season.

But that feeling didn’t last long.

After a tough 27-24 season-opening loss in the Battle of Route 18 to Old Bridge, the Bears reeled off eight straight regular season wins, before falling in the first round of the playoffs to Toms River North.

Their 8-2 mark – following a 4-5 debut season under head coach Andy Steinfeld, and a 4-4 mark in his second campaign during last year’s COVID-shortened season – earned them this year’s Central Jersey Sports Radio “Turnaround Team of the Year” award.

Representing the Bears on Thursday night’s awards show was runningback/linebacker Gianfranco DeGuida, a senior co-captain who ran for 442 yards this season, while contributing on defense, and blocking two extra points on special teams.

Click below to listen to Gianfranco DeGuida talk with Mike Pavlichko:

St. Thomas Aquinas checks in as an honorable mention. The Trojans had a steadier progression over three years under Joe Vigilante, who debuted with a 2-8 season, went 4-6 last year, and finished this year 9-1, with 8 wins on the field (one was a COVID-related forfeit). They allowed just nine points in the regular season, all coming in their finale against Delaware Valley, after shutting out their first seven opponents of the campaign.