Good afternoon everyone. While I sat in self imposed exile during the basketball season, I did happen to catch a number of articles. In addition to the one that I just posted to the blog about Franklin and Wardlaw-Hartridge joining the Greater Middlesex Conference, there was another that talked about St. Joseph’s taking the long awaited big step into football. In an article from the Home News-Tribune on January 25, 2009, St. Joseph’s plans to put together a junior varsity team for freshman and sophomores only this coming fall, and a freshman team in 2010. If everything goes right, the Falcons will be playing their first varsity game in the fall of 2011.
I remember when I was a kid in my first two years of high school talking with my childhood friend Dave Koenig about St. Joseph’s having a football program. I thought that the day St. Joe’s having a football team would never come. Now, it has. Recently, the school chose longtime Carteret head coach, and former Monroe assistant coach, Bob Molarz to be the first to take the reins of the program. Molarz worked during the basketball season as one of the assistant coaches to former Carteret standout and hoops coach, Dave Turco, who has made his mark at St. Joe’s with four straight twenty win seasons, and an 85-24 record since taking over for Mark Taylor after the 2004-05 season.
Two of the other parochial schools in the conference, Bishop Ahr and Cardinal McCarrick have full fledged football programs. After a number of years in mediocrity, the Trojans have enjoyed a resurgence over the past few years, and qualified for the Non-Public III State Tournament each of the past two years. In 2008, Bishop Ahr lost a hard fought matchup to Camden Catholic in the opening round, 34-27. McCarrick on the other hand, is still finding itself. St. Joe’s will definitely be a formidable competitor for Ahr, which has owned football in the GMC since the league’s inception in 1986 while other parochial schools such as St. Peter’s and St. Pius disbanded their programs, and later closed their doors for good. St. Joseph’s entering football opens another direction in what is becoming a growing rivalry between Ahr and St. Joe’s, which are just minutes apart from each other.
The GMC is ready to welcome St. Joseph’s football with open arms when it is ready. A Falcons football program will be a fine addition to the gridiron that already exists in the conference. Teams such as Piscataway, Sayreville, Bishop Ahr, Carteret, Woodbridge, Old Bridge, Highland Park, and South River have perennially been in the chase for sectional championships while schools such as Metuchen, South Brunswick, New Brunswick, and Middlesex have been coming on in recent years. The Falcons are also looking to strive to challenge some of the major players in Non-Public Football such as Immaculata, Camden Catholic, Holy Spirit, Don Bosco, and Bergen Catholic in the coming years.
With St. Joseph’s expanding to football as well as Franklin and Wardlaw joining Timothy Christian as soon to be members of the GMC, there is a lot to be excited about if you’re a GMC fan. As with other new things, GMC Hoops, which has begun coverage of high school football within the past two years, will be there to cover the Falcons when they take the gridiron in 2011, or whenever it is ready to complete this big step.