WEEK 7 : NORTH JERSEY NIGHT LIGHTS

Friday afternoon I was fighting some serious New York/New Jersey traffic. It seemed like people were getting a jump on the holiday weekend. A couple of wrong turns and missed exits in New Jersey is a death sentence. My GPS looked like a three year olds art project and I pretty sure I owe EZ pass about 4,000 dollars at this point.  I probably should have left earlier but being a rookie at this I am learning as I go. The Traveling Coach game of the week pits the (3-2) Union City Soaring Eagles taking on the (3-2) Old Tappan Golden Knights. This was a huge game for two teams who both made their respective group title games in 2018 and have playoff aspirations this season. So far this season my choices have been based on a rivalry or top teams in their states but this week was a little different.  This week the draw to this game was based on the uniqueness of the North Jersey venue.

Roosevelt Stadium is perched on the roof of the High School. The massive building is right in the heart of Union City, NJ. The story goes that the city once was home to two high schools. Union Hills and Emerson high schools held one of the longest rivalry games in New Jersey football history.  The traditional Thanksgiving Day game was played for 88 years. In 2007, they played their final game with Union Hills defeating Emerson 20-8 which brought the series to a dead heat 40-40-9. This would be a perfect ending to a rivalry that would now become a partnership.  In 2008, both school merged to form Union City High school. As they were constructing the school building there was nowhere to put the athletic facilities in the heavily populated area around it. So they decided since they couldn’t build around the building, they built up instead. They built a 2.500 seat turf multi-sport athletic complex and started a new tradition “The Eagles Nest”

 As you could imagine with this back story parking was a challenge. I found a spot about five blocks from the complex. I made my way over to the stadium. It was a nice night for football about 63 degrees but wind was certainly going to be a factor. I arrived to the game at about 6:10, bought a ticket, grab a program, and headed to the roof.  As I got to the top of the staircase the wind was wiping. Windy days are surely enhanced by an elevated stadium. The first thing you notice as you enter the stadium is on both ends of the field you have two historic views. On the entrance side you can see about 6 miles away, above local business and apartment buildings, was the picturesque skyline of New York City. I wondered if after 10 years they take it for granted on what a beautiful site it can be as the sun goes down and the city lights up. On the other side was MetLife Stadium. This side might have a little more meaning to the players and coaches.  New Jersey High schools play their Championship and bowl games at MetLife stadium. As a coach with championship goals I would definitely remind my team everyday that their goals and dreams athletically are only 5 miles away in the swamps of East Rutherford. Talk about visual motivation. As a lifelong New York Giants fan that would be the ultimate experience. I can remember my brother John and me going to a Giants draft party event at the Meadowlands in 2004. The significance of this event was twofold. One, unbeknownst to us they were going to allow the fans at the draft party that day to go onto the field. We were in awe and walked with a slow reverence the length of the field. Two, this was also the day the Giants drafted Eli Manning. The Giants Organization brought Eli to the field that day and introduced him to the fans. Roles were reversed as he was in the stands and the fans were on the field. I’m getting myself too much into the weeds here. I’ll save my Eli Manning blog for the off-season.

Both teams began to warm up sandwich between two New York/New Jersey historical sites. Old Tappan came out in their white jerseys, white pants with their Gold helmets. Union City came out in their navy blue jerseys, navy blue pants, and white helmets. Union City symbol was the University of Miami “U” in the school colors with a “C” inside of it. It looked like Navy was playing Penn State.  I went and sat in a couple of different places in the stands. The stands were only on one side of the field, covered with a roof over them, went about 14 rows up, and stretched the length of the field. The press box/coaches booth was built into the stands.  The only drawback to the roof overhead was the pillars created a lot of obstructed views. I was finding myself constantly in the “Uecker seats” (named after announcer of the brewers Bob Uecker who always had an obstructed view seat in the miller lite commercials) as I moved around the stadium.

As I was looking for the best place to sit I began to see the cheerleaders, color guard and band file in from both teams. I found this surprising but his is my first game where there was a band at the game and in this instance both teams’ bands where at the game. If the band, color guard, and football teams work together it can create a perfect high school football atmosphere pregame, halftime, and during the game. Their enthusiasm during the game no matter what the score was awesome.

The game was kicked off with the PA announcer declaring “UC” and the crowd responding in Unison “you know”. What I am sure UC did know was how Effiecent the Old Tappan offense was. Unlike other teams I have seen this year these teams both like running the football. Old Tappan played in what I would call a power spread offense. The Quaterback in shotgun but they ran traditional run plays: power, sweep, iso, and dive. The Golden knights on their opening drive had a good balance of pass and run plays that culminated with a touchdown pass from Senior Quarterback Nico Orecchio. Orecchio who is a first year varsity Quarterback threw two first half touchdowns on 4 possession. I must be on a streak now after first year Quarterback Jack Wallace went off last week on the road and now it was Nico’s turn to put on a show. When the extra points went through the PA announcers would declare it a “boulevard special” as the ball would sail over the net and into the street below. Orecchio’s dual threat ability was aided by a big aggressive offense line. The standouts were on the left side of the offensive line with seniors 6’2” 280 pound Pat Passalacqua and 6’1 299lbs Will Kim. Passalacqua and Kim were driving Union City defenders off the ball all night and held speed rushing Defensive end Cory Fitch (9 sacks) at bay most of the night. Passalacqua also anchor a defense that bent but never broke keeping talented senior Running Back Zahir Abdus-Salaam out of the end zone (11 on the season) for the first time this season. It was 21-6 Old Tappan at the Half.

The Union City Band came out and really put on a show at half time and their song list was incredible. They played three songs from the Rocky soundtrack so clearly they had me at eye of the tiger. They followed that up with “Gonna Fly now” and “take me back” and closed the show with “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire. As a coach I never cared about a halftime show because you’re in the locker room coaching so you have tunnel vision at that point. I really enjoyed this and so did the crowd singing along with the songs. If they could add “Dancing on the ceiling” and “Up on the Roof” I might make a return visit next season.  I spoke with some of the bus drivers for Old Tappan who said they took seven buses to get to the game that carried the band, cheerleaders, color guard, and fans. We talked about how unique the venue was and how a couple of the extra points ended up hitting the top of them. They asked me if I was a scout, which is a question I have been getting the last couple of weeks. I told them about the blog, that I thought the band was excellent, and it was an impressive turnout for a road game.

The second half was more of the same for Old Tappan. On their first drive Union City turned the ball over on downs. The Golden Knights then took over and went on a 10 play drive that consisted of nine run plays and closed out by Orecchio to Senior Jake Piccinich with a 5 yard touchdown strike. The biggest highlight however of the second half was after a Union City interception; Patrick Passalacqua played a screen perfectly and with one hand picked off a Union City pass attempt. I am sure at some point next week big Patrick will be asking his coach about putting in some pass plays for him offensively at Tight End. The final score was 31-6 with an impressive road performance by Old Tappan. I am sure as the buses pulled out they peered over at MetLife stadium and realized that win will keep hope alive for a trip there in early December.

I usually start this article with a pregame sports bar/wing review. This week I struck out as far as sports bars go. I had planned on going to Terminal One sports bar but I arrived there after sitting in traffic and couldn’t find a place to park. I didn’t want to be late for the game and bailed on Terminal One. So after the game I had a Dilemma. I figured if I was in Jersey I might as well go to a diner. Right down the street from Union City high school is the Coach House Diner. I know it’s not a sports bar but this is the next best option. I walked in, was greeted, and said I’ll just sit at the counter. After giving my seat preference I was just handed a menu. I know this is a diner but to just hand someone a menu at the door was not a good first impression. I was like them saying “you don’t want to sit at a table well here is you menu good luck”. After I sat down I wasn’t waited on for at least 15 minutes. I was already frustrated but I was here and I was doing a wing review. Luckily they did have TVs on at the counter playing the National Championship series. Once someone finally acknowledges my existence I got water. Five minutes later someone asked if I was being helped. The wait staff seemed disorganized on who was in charge of the counter section. I looked through the menu which was typical diner fare but I was looking for wings. I saw they had a “dinner portion of their delicious Buffalo wings” on the menu. I asked the waiter how many wings were in the dinner portion. He responded 7 to 10!!!! Now I know I haven’t worked in restaurants for a while but last time I checked I shouldn’t getting a range when asked how many food items are in an order. I thought to myself maybe I’ll give this clown a price range of how much I would like to pay. By this time I was pretty pissed off. My wings finally came out and there where 16 of them. Either the waiter felt the steam coming out of my ears or he is just as good of a  math student as I was. The wings were ok as I expected from diner wings. They had decent flavor and the crunch was good. My wife and I always say after eating anywhere if you get food that is a 6 and the service is outstanding it can elevate the experience and I would come back. The same goes the other way as well.  These wings are a 2 star recruit. They had some potential but they didn’t do the little things to make themselves better. The kind of player the skips some film session and was late for practice. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

Next week I am regrouping on a bye week

Look for a double header week 8.