Ramapo bringing back longtime assistant as new football coach
Ramapo may have its man. Multiple sources, including those close to the situation, have indicated to NorthJersey.com that current Demarest head football coach Nick Guttuso has been offered the job as head football coach at Ramapo.
Any head football coach would have to be approved by the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education. The Board has a meeting scheduled for Thursday night. As of Tuesday afternoon, there was no agenda posted for the meeting.
Sources say it came down to Guttuso and two other candidates, one with a North Jersey background and another who coaches in Central Jersey.
Guttuso is a Ramapo alum who played for Mike Miello, then Drew Gibbs.
After graduating from college, Guttoso was brought on by Gibbs to be an assistant, first with the freshman team, then as a varsity assistant. He was the Raiders' line coach and was part of five sectional championship teams with the Green Raiders. Gibbs tragically died at a football practice in 2021 just before the Green Raiders sectional final game against Northern Highlands.
Ramapo hired Mike DeFazio to replace Gibbs in March of 2022. DeFazio went 20-4 in two seasons with the Green Raiders, including leading them to the Group 4 state final in 2023. DeFazio stepped down in January for reasons that were never made public.
Guttuso has been the head coach at Demarest the last two seasons, finishing 1-8 each season. Plans are for that program to compete in the SFC Ivy Division, which was created for struggling programs to boost their participation and success, in 2024.