People outside Salem County are starting to notice what undefeated Schalick has been putting together
CENTRAL JERSEY GROUP I
Friday’s Semifinals
Shore (6-3) at Schalick (10-0), 7 p.m.
Glassboro (6-3) at South Hunterdon (9-1), 7 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE — The football team at Schalick High School is quietly turning into one of the biggest comeback stories in the state.
At 10-0, the Cougars are one of four remaining undefeated teams in the West Jersey Football League and one of 16 left in the state in any classification. But outside of their community in Salem County hardly anyone is noticing.
Until now.
Where once the team’s “coverage” consisted of maybe three paragraphs off the call-in sheet on Friday nights, one of the larger media outlets in South Jersey finally stumbled upon the Cougars’ story and sent a reporter to practice earlier this week. A TV station from Philadelphia is due in Thursday on the eve of their Central Jersey Group I semifinal game against Shore Regional. There is said to be ‘mutual interest’ in playing in next year’s season opening Battle at the Beach extravaganza in Ocean City.
What makes it even more compelling is just four years ago, in coach Mike Wilson’s first season with the program, when this year’s senior class were wide-eyed freshmen, they were 0-7 with about two dozen players who probably weren’t ready for varsity competition. None of the other 15 unbeaten teams have come from that far back, although three (Weehawken in 2021, Roxbury in 2020 and Holmdel last year) have had one season of just one win at any time in the previous three years.
“I think it’s great for the kids, they’re finally getting recognition for all their hard work over the last four years,” Wilson said. “It’s new, it’s refreshing, I’m happy for the kids they’re finally going to get the recognition they truly deserve. Now they have to learn we can’t read our own press clippings. There’s still work to be accomplished.”
This undefeated stuff is relatively new to the Cougars, who haven’t been 10-0 since their 12-0 season of 2004, but Wilson has been 10-0 before. It was 2019 as an assistant coach at Mainland Regional, where the rebuild he helped undertake there was similar to what he’s done at Schalick with admittedly some of the same concepts.
That year his team got through the regular season undefeated and then lost to rival Ocean City just a week after beating it in the annual Battle of the Bridge rivalry for the division title. It’s a loss his coaching buddies talk about all the time and he admits still stings whenever they do.
The Cougars have built their success story with a genuine be-where-your-feet-are, one-game-at-a-time approach with players who have grown with the program.
And through that approach they now have an offense full of dynamic skill players, a line that allows them to control the clock and a defense that’s been hard to move on — most of whom will be back next season. They have literally outgrown the WJFL Horizon Division they’ve dominated the last two years and are prepared to be competitive on whatever stronger division they’re sure to be dispatched to in the next rotation.
“I knew we had a good group of younger, we had good kids coming up from the youth program, so we knew they were brighter days ahead, but to get as one of my assistants said this good this quick I don’t think we knew that,” Wilson said. “I knew we would be better every year but we have really exceled this year, we have really jelled as a team.
“I told the kids today in practice we have an opportunity in front of us, let’s not take it for granted. We have a very winnable game in front of us, let’s not take anything for granted right now because football is so unforgiving you may never get this chance again.”
Current Schalick athletics director Doug Volovar didn’t hire Wilson to succeed long-time coach Seth Brown, but he has had a front-row seat to the whole metamorphosis. As an assistant principal at the time he was involved in the interview process and then served as Wilson’s receivers/defensive backs coach in that difficult first year.
Among the elements Wilson brought with him from Mainland were establishing a weight room for strength training and injury prevention and a re-engagement with the booster club. Both continue to be an integral part of the program.
“It’s become not just a football team, it’s become a football program,” Volovar said. “Things have gotten so much better. The program has progressed. Mike has filled in all the pieces and pushed all the right buttons at this point in time to get us to where we’re going in this direction.
“Obviously it’s taken a lot of hard work from not only him but everybody else who’s involved. For us, being a small community, there’s a ton of buy-in from everybody that’s in the community and even in the school and we’ve gotten nothing but support. Without foundation you can’t build a house.”
All the players remember those tough early days and that’s what makes this ride so fun for them. The Cougars lost their first 11 games under Wilson and 13 of their first 14, usually giving up a lot and scoring very little. They have gone 20-3 since. It’s the best run in the program’s history since they went 29-3 between 2003 and 2006.
‘’Me and (tight end) Ryan Johnson, our freshmen year we went 0-7 and we really got our butts kicked every game,” senior receiver Jake Siedlecki said after the win over Gloucester Catholic that completed their first undefeated regular season since 2006. “This game meant a lot for both of us and the program. To go 0-7 to 9-0 in four short years, it’s unbelievable. To play a part in that … means a lot.”
Of course, with the new-found success comes a whole new set of distractions. Like the sudden media attention that’s fallen upon them in the run up to the biggest game of any of their players’ careers.
“We have to focus on the game ahead and go 1-0 every week,” Wilson said, repeating the mantra of the season. “As you stack the wins staying focused is even harder. Like I told the kids (Monday) for the first three years it was kind of nice because people kind of ignored us as a team. Now we have to learn how to ignore the distractions and how do we handle success. That’s a big learning curve right now. We’re being successful and people are noticing and that’s awesome because of all your hard work, but we have to learn how to stay focused and continue to build upon that and not get distracted by what we did last week.
“The other thing is we have to resist the temptation to do things different. Even though the competition is better, we’re getting deeper in the playoffs, we are good enough as we are right now and we have to continue to get better at the things we’re doing and eliminate the things that can beat us and avoid the temptation of trying to do something that we don’t usually do on the field and continue to get better at what we’re already doing.”
Shore makes the 100-mile drive across the state with a 6-3 record and a team that had a chance to shake up the South Jersey Group 1 seedings had they beaten undefeated Group III Holmdel in the final regular season game. They were sixth overall in the South Jersey Group I UPR.
The Blue Devils run a true Delaware Wing-T offense that confounds their opponents so close to the real thing TE-DE Jackson Whitacre has committed to the Blue Hens. The defense has shut out two of their last three opponents. Both teams are coming off first-round shutouts.
Cover photo by Heather Papiano
Riverview Sports News 