Longevity Award – Central Jersey Sports Radio

Longevity in football isn’t easy. Injuries are such a huge part of the game.

And lest we forget, we’re all watching 14- to 18-year-old athletes out there. Not everyone is on the same talent or maturity level to handle the big stage.

Connor Laverty was never one you’d have to worry about, though.

A four-year letter-winner for Bernards, and a three-year starter at quarterback, Laverty went 28-5 in the role, leading the team to a school record 12 wins in 2023, and the North 2, Group 2 title, the first sectional playoff crown in Mountaineer history. (Bernards was declared champions in the pre-playoff era in 1969 and 1970.)

In that championship game, Laverty threw a go-ahead touchdown pass late that helped withstand Lakeland’s field goal as time expired, sending it to overtime, where he ran in the game-winning score.

Simoneau says he didn’t miss a single snap due to injury in all that time, as he piled up over 1,000 career rushing yards. This season alone, he threw for 1,727 yards and 17 touchdowns, with just one pick.

Scroll down below the interview for Honorable Mentions.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Bernards senior Connor Laverty:

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Will Deady, Ridge, FB/S: Deady closed his Red Devil career with 2,616 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns, while grabbing 44 passes for another 745 yards and three scores. On defense, he had 105 tackles, five interceptions, a forced fumble and a touchdown. After breaking in his sophomore season, he recorded back-to-back thousand-yard rushing seasons his junior and senior years.
A.J. Bosch, Woodbridge, WR/RB/FS/KR/PR: Yes, Bosch does a little of everything. A three-year starter for head coach Joe LaSala, Bosch tallied 877 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in his career, made made most of his impact as a receiver: 134 catches and 27 touchdowns for his time as a Barron, both school career records. He was 45 yards shy of 2,000 receiving yards in his career. On defense, he logged 70 tackles and five interceptions, plus a touchdown.
Patrick Smith, South Plainfield, LB/RB: The only four-year starter honored, Smith finished his career with 2,523 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns. He also had 299 yards on kick returns this year, a season after leading the state in kick return average.
Michael Schmelzer, Jr., Montgomery, QB: With his team 0-4 in his sophomore season, Schmelzer led his team to wins in their next three games, and made the playoffs. He finished 18-6-1 as a starting quarterback, and is the only QB in program history to lead the Cougars to back-to-back-to-back playoff berths. He also owns the school record for career touchdown passes with 51.

by Mike Pavlichko

He got his first varsity touch his freshman year, and his first start in Hillsborough’s first-ever meeting with Colonia his sophomore year.

From start to finish, he compiled 3,169 career rushing yards, and 37 touchdowns, narrowly missing a third straight thousand-yard season that he would have captured had it not been for a global pandemic. (He finished with 958 yards in a season where he was on pace for a career high had it been a normal year.)

And it felt like Sean Levonaitis did all of that in about six seasons in Hillsborough.

He actually did it in four, it just seemed like he was around forever.

Maybe that was because his brother Scot was a Raider standout at wide receiver, who played his senior year in 2014 and finished with 1,811 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns.

But there were three years between the brothers, lest they be confused, although Scot was always one Sean looked up to.

Sean, a 5-7, 175 pound senior is the first winner of the Central Jersey Sports Radio Big Central “Longevity Award,” given to the conference player who has made significant contributions to his team for at least three seasons at the varsity level, at any position on either side of the ball.

Click below to hear Dom Savino’s conversation with Sean Levonaitis about his long Raider career:

Three other players were considered Honorable Mentions for the Longevity Award: Bernards QB Teddy Gouldin, Watchung Hills QB Chad Martini, and North Plainfield linebacker Adam Elsais.

Gouldin put together a career for the record books, quite literally. He finished his career with 4,733 passing yards, 54 career TD passes and 68 touchdowns overall in his career, part of a portfolio including more than a half-dozen Mountaineer all time records and/or firsts.

REWIND: Bernards cruises past Johnson behind Gouldin, balanced attack

Martini nearly reached the 5,000 yard mark in the passing game, hurling for 4,941 yards, including 1,544 his sophomore year, as well as 21 career touchdowns. He was a four-year starter, and a captain for the last three, as well as a leader for Rich Seubert’s squad on the field and in the classroom.

Elsais helped lead North Plainfield to its best season in a decade, a 7-1 campaign that may not have happened without him. Elsais stuck through the lean years, with the program going 4-6 last year, but 3-18 combined his freshman and sophomore years. Through it all, he was a defensive stalwart, amassing 323 tackles in three years as a starter. He also led by example in the classroom, ranking third in his class in GPA, according to his head coach, Jimmy DiPaolo.

LISTEN: Elsais, Canucks cruising to best start since 2010