Tag: Rick Mantz

by Mike Pavlichko

Mantz resigns after one season at Bridgewater-Raritan due to “personal health and family issues”

Less than a year after becoming the new head football coach at Bridgewater-Raritan, Rick Mantz has stepped down due to “personal health reasons and family issues.”

The news was announced Friday afternoon by the Bridgewater-Raritan School District.

Mantz led Bridgewater-Raritan to a 4-6 season in his inaugural campaign after coming out of retirement to take over for longtime head coach Scott Bray back in early April of this year.

For the time being, the district says Assistant Head Coach D.J. Catalano is running the off-season conditioning program, while also assisting student-athletes with college recruiting. The early National Letter of Intent Signing Period is coming up later this month, on December 21st.

Mantz informed Bridgewater-Raritan High School Principal Dan Hemberger of his decision via letter.

In the district’s statement, Hemberger wrote “Rick Mantz has made a significant contribution during his brief time as head coach. He has restructured the internal operations to resemble a college program, elevated expectations for our student-athletes both on and off the football field, and energized he coaching staff and overall football community.”

Superintendent Bob Beers added, “Rick was an outstanding coach and leader of young men during his tenure. … He has set the program on the right path and i wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”

Before coming to Bridgewater-Raritan, Mantz had most recently been Director of High School Relations at Rutgers from 2016 through 2020.

Mantz won a state championship as a player in 1980, kicking the winning field goal in the title game, then won another as head coach at his alma mater in 2000, defeating heavily-favored Sayreville for the Central Jersey Group 4 title. He was 81-39 in 16 seasons with the Raiders, and also had a successful run at South Brunswick, snapping a three-decade playoff absence in 2008. He’s coached future NFL players like Shaun O’Hara (at Hillsborough) and Mohamed Sanu (at South Brunswick).

by justinsontupe

Mantz, Panthers all business as Bridgewater-Raritan hosts rival Hillsborough

As Rick Mantz prepares for his first home game as Bridgewater-Raritan’s head coach, it would be easy for him to get lost in sentimentality. Not only will Friday night be his first time coaching from the home sidelines at John Basilone Memorial Field, but it will be against Hillsborough, his alma mater, and first ever head coaching job.

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Mantz kicked a game-winning field goal to win the Raiders a state title in 1980, and coached them to a tile in 2000; those were their only crowns before last year’s dominating 13-0 season, which Mantz was excited to see.

“It’s always hard. I grew up there. I went to school there. I coached there. Hillsborough is always going to be a special place to me,” Mantz said. “But when it comes down to it, they’re the next team on the schedule. It’s not about all that other stuff. It’s about our kids lining up and playing ball.”

In a vacuum, it’s another opportunity for the ninth-ranked Panthers (1-1) to make a statement in the Big Central. After falling to Passaic Tech in the season opener, Bridgewater-Raritan rallied to defeat Union (previously sixth in the media poll), 7-6, behind a fourth quarter touchdown run by Antoine Hinton. It doesn’t get any easier with No. 4 Hillsborough (1-0), the 2021 Central Group 5 and South Jersey Group 5 Regional Champs, whose last loss came almost 22 months ago, making the short trip north in the Big Central Game of the Week on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action from John Basilone Memorial Field, with kickoff slated for 7 pm. Pregame coverage begins at 6:45. Click here to listen live.

Click below to hear Justin Sontupe talk with Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Rick Mantz:

by Mike Pavlichko

Bridgewater-Raritan rallies, edges Union, earns first win for Mantz with Panthers

With the game scoreless going into the fourth quarter at Memorial Field, it looked like whoever scored first – Bridgewater-Raritan or Union – might score last and win the game.

Finally, Union broke through on an Omar Ibrahim touchdown catch from O’Malley King with 10:06 to go in the game. But, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty moved the PAT back. That would prove to be critical, as the kick failed, and the Farmers’ settled for a 6-0 lead.

On the next possession, the Panthers answered. Antoine Hinton capped a long 69-yard drive with a 2-yard jaunt into the end zone to tie the game. And with the PAT good, they had a 7-6 lead that they would hold onto to win it.

The win was the first for Rick Mantz at his new school, with the Panthers now 1-1. And they will head into next week’s big rivalry game against Hillsborough on a high note.

Mantz won a state title there as a player in 1980, and as a coach in 2000, and now will coach against his alma mater. And while he’s done it before while at South Brunswick, this one will be different, as he leads the Raiders’ biggest rival.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will broadcast that game live next Friday night.

Click below for postgame reaction from Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Rick Mantz:

by Mike Pavlichko

Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Ed. approves Rick Mantz as Panthers’ new football coach

When last we left Rick Mantz on Central Jersey Sports Radio, he was delving into the history of Hillsborough football, where he left a lasting impact on the program, winning championships both as a youth growing up in town playing for the Raiders – kicking the game-winning field goal in the 1980 title game – and later as a head coach, in 2000, over heavy favorite Sayreville.

All because Hillsborough was about to win another one, finishing the 2021 season a perfect 13-0, with Kevin Carty Jr. at the helm as head coach, his did on his staff, and Rutgers-bound Tommy Amankwaa joined by Jay Mazuera, Will Dixon, and a host of others.

Mantz later turned around programs in South Brunswick and Passaic, but tonight, officially finds himself on the other end of Route 206 in Somerset County.

Tuesday night, the Board of Education approved Mantz to be the Panthers’ new football coach, replacing Scott Bray, who was 79-73 from 2007 to 2021, including a pair of 11-1 seasons in 2015 and ’16, and three straight trips to the sectional finals from 2015-2017, where they lost all three times to undefeated Westfield.

Mantz is a football legend. In addition to his stellar record from his teen years to adulthood at Hillsborough, he also turned around South Brunswick, and spent two years in a rebuilding effort at Passaic. He’s 113-69 in over a quarter century as a head coach.

Mike Pavlichko got a chance to talk with the new Bridgewater-Raritan head coach shortly after the Board of Ed. approved his hiring, and Superintendent Robert Beers welcomed Mantz to the district:

by Mike Pavlichko

Mantz still has vivid memories of ’80, ’00 Hillsborough state champs

Hillsborough has been to three four state title games, and three of them involved Rick Mantz.

An offensive and defensive lineman for the Raiders, he kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime that delivered the Raiders their first state championship in 1980, a 10-7 sudden death overtime win at Giants Stadium over New Jersey’s top-ranked team, Madison Central.

By 1992, he was the head coach, and in 1996, the Raiders were back in another final. That one they lost to Middletown North up at the Meadowlands, but in 2000, they were back in a title game, where they knocked off the No. 4 team in the state, Sayreville, 16-13.

Mantz wasn’t on Hillsborough’s 1974 playoff team, which lost in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall to Middlesex, but he remembers that game, too.

We caught up with the Hillsborough High School Hall of Famer this week, to talk about those championship games, as the Raiders get set to host North Brunswick Friday night for the Central Jersey Group 5 title, their first ever final to be played at home, at Noonan Field.

Click below to listen to Rick Mantz talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Rick Mantz talks facilities, academics, and his plans for Pingry

He says his golf game isn’t going so well, and he misses coaching football.

But really, anyone who knows Rick Mantz couldn’t have expected him to be gone from the sidelines for very long.

Mantz – who had perhaps his greatest success as the head coach of Hillsborough, but also turned around South Brunswick’s program and coached for a spell at Passaic – will be back on the sidelines after spending three years at Rutgers as high school relations coordinator, hired earlier this week as the new head coach at Pingry.

The Big Blue have been playing a mostly prep school schedule since 2017, when it left the now-defunct football version of the Skyland Conference.

And while Mantz says there’s no immediate plans to change that, he also believes there’s no reason Pingry – with what he says are top notch facilities and academics – can’t compete with schools like Morris Catholic, St. Joseph-Metuchen, Bishop Ahr and Immaculata, its nearest non-public competitors, geographically-speaking.

Click below to hear Rick Mantz talk about his plans for the Big Blue with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: