WW-P excited for new era as co-op program
After a year of proposals, appeals and political tension, the West Windsor school district finally has the opportunity to proceed this fall with a groundbreaking movement: a co-op varsity football team.
At the NJSIAA’s annual meeting in December in Robbinsville, enough member schools voted in favor of a proposal to allow larger schools with low football participation to form co-op programs under specific conditions, including the forgoing of divisional championships and state tournament competition.
Later that month, Superintendent Dr. David Aderhold announced to the community that West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North and South would be combining for the 2018 season, which begins Friday night against Trenton.
South will be hosting that game as well as games on Sept. 14 and Oct. 19. The other home contest on Sept. 28 will be held at North. Both schools will have their own homecoming.
Head coach Jeff Reilly, who led the North program that played only a junior varsity schedule last year, is one of 12 coaches in the new co-op program.
“They seem pretty excited. A lot of people are talking in the community,” Reilly said. “A lot of people want to see what the outcome is, but ultimately they’re very happy that the program is strong numbers and they’re excited to see what we’ll have this fall.”
Signup meetings began in the springtime, and throughout the summer the program consistently fielded close to 60 kids at every weight-room session. There are now 58 players in the program, which is far more than either school recently had individually.
The high number of coaches also allows for more specialized instruction to each position.
“That was our biggest angle into it was like, ‘Let’s try to stay as two-platoon as much as possible,’” Reilly said. “The way we practice, we’ll have a day we call offenseheavy and defense-heavy. We’re like, ‘Alright, today, if you’re a two-way player you go to offense today.’ But otherwise those guys always play offense that are not (twoway). So it’s kind of worked out nicely.”
Early in the summer, the team brought in a motivational speaker, Lee Rubin, to set the tone. The players and coaches discussed core values and had a variety of icebreaker activities.
Varsity and JV practice at North, while the freshman team practices at South. The roster is split virtually 50/50 between the two schools, Reilly said.
“You have to remember, these kids, they did go to elementary school and they played youth football growing up, and they played recreational sports growing up. So they’ve known each other,” Reilly said. “But there is the angle, too, of coming from different high schools. I felt like in the summertime they were definitely, you could sense, you walk in the room and there’s definitely two groups. But then as we got into football and we started practicing and got into it, that’s kind of diminished.”
The team will be wearing black uniforms with black helmets. The logo has ‘WWP’ inscribed on a half-blue, half-green shield. Behind the shield are a saber sword and a knight sword crossing. There is no defined mascot.
Junior Luke Johnson, a North student, is in his first year as the starting quarterback, bringing elite-level athleticism as one of the area’s top milers in track.
Other players to watch are senior receiver Jahmiq Johnson, senior lineman Brian Zhong, senior linebacker Andrew Zhong, senior safety Bobby Hendry, senior lineman Charlie Dey and junior lineman Cory Easter.
Reilly said the strength of the team currently is its perimeter speed on offense.
“We run that spread, read-option offense, so it could be hard to defend,” Reilly said. “Our offensive coordinator, Jeff Torralba, he’s a real good offensive mind. He’s been doing this now for about five years and he really is a student of the game.”
After the opener, West Windsor’s schedule includes Princeton, Hamilton, Notre Dame, Hightstown, Nottingham, Allentown and Steinert.
“We’re just happy to go out and play football and do the best we can, and rebuild this program and get kids interested in playing football in West Windsor,” Reilly said. “We’re excited to get into it.”