Football back in N.J. town
After scandal-ridden, shortened ’14 season, Sayreville returns
SAYREVILLE, N. J. The large corkboard behind Chris Beagan’s desk in Sayreville High School’s football office is mostly bare, with a couple of exceptions.
There’s the 2014 team photo, taken before the season was canceled because of a hazing scandal that reverberated nationally. Then, there is the 2015 team’s schedule, which opens Sept. 11.
As the Bombers return to the gridiron — conditioning and weightlifting this week, with training camp opening Aug. 17 — job No. 1 for the new head coach and everyone around him is to move forward without losing sight of the past.
That’s hard. Monday news broke that juvenile court found two former Sayreville players not guilty of sexual assault, stemming from last year’s scandal, and an attorney for one of them lashed out at the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office.
For the new coach and his players, turning the page is going to require all hands on deck.
“The kids feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility,” said Beagan, a former Sayreville player and assistant who returns home after building a fine program at Monroe. “There’s been a renewed sense, a rebirth, of accountability. It’s, ‘I’ve got to make sure I’m not just taking care of myself but I’m responsible for my teammates’ behavior as well.’ ”
Coaching staff members, some of whom were around last year, also will bear that responsibility.
“It’s bigger than football,” Bea- gan said. “We’re here for them in all facets of their lives — academically, socially if they need us. Of course you want to win, but you don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture. We’re coaching kids, and we’re coaching a game.”
That game means a lot to the people of Sayreville.
“I’ve been coming to games since I was 6,” said senior Anthony Porcaro, a two-way lineman. “My uncles played here; my dad played here. Sayreville football is a part of me, and it’s a part of the community.” They’re good at it. During two decades under George Najjar, who was fired amid the scandal, the Bombers were one of New Jersey’s most successful public school teams. They piled up championships and sent players to major-college programs.
But this season is about more than winning, and everyone knows it.
“We have to show we’re good people outside of football, too,” Porcaro said.
“We want to set an example around the school and around the town,” added senior defensive back Michael Bertrand, who owns a 4.0 grade-point average. “People are excited that football’s back, and we’re going to feed off that excitement hopefully.” Beagan likes what he has seen. “There were a few kids who maybe didn’t come out because of the enormity of the situation, but for the most part they really stuck together,” he said.
The coach said he hadn’t given a big speech about behavior and dealing with outside perceptions. That probably will come later, once camp starts. In terms of monitoring his players’ conduct, he said, the staff would follow the protocols in place to make sure everyone is toeing the line.
“Where there’s supervision needed, we’ll supervise,” Beagan said. For now, there’s “a sense of relief that we’re going to get back to playing, get back to normalcy.”