Will Bergen Catholic football travel next year? And Jamboree question
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Welcome to our first Varsity Aces Mailbag. We’re the people covering North Jersey high school athletics. You can find us @VarsityAces on Twitter and Instagram. Should we do a BeReal account? I mean, should we? Or is that just a fad?
No question is off limits and I’ll try to answer every one we get. Send me an email at CooperD@northjersey.com or send me a DM on Twitter. It’s all good. The questions can be about anything, especially ice cream. I am an expert on North Jersey ice cream.
Before we get going, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and remember the great Mike Scala, the former Montclair State University sports information director, who died last week.
When I started out in New Jersey, I worked for the Montclair Times and every week in the sports section I did an “MSU report” on all the big games/events going on at the university. Mike was the point person for all of that. I was young and dumb, but eager to please. Mike was just the best person ever to work with. He would suggest stories. I would suggest stories, and he would line them up. I learned so much from him. He gave me so many good opportunities.
After I moved on, I would see him at Wayne Valley football games and he would send me his immaculate stat reports. We spent some time together at a softball game on campus a couple years ago. Mike had the cancer then and felt weak, but was bouncing back. He also sat in the booth and did Jets stats. I hope he knows how much I appreciated all the work he did for me, and the entire sports media world in New Jersey. He was the best.
All right, mailbag time.
Do you think Bergen Catholic will play at Cardinal Gibbons next year?
From Anthony in River Edge
Walking out of the stadium Saturday (man, it was hot), I bumped into two Gibbons fans/parents standing on Oradell Avenue. They looked lost, so I stopped and asked if they were OK. They said they were. I said, “see you next year” and the dad looked at me and said “great, but how about you don’t bring all your guys.” He said it laughing. I told him some of the Bergen defensive lineman were graduating.
These out-of-state games are always interesting. You never know what you’re going to get on the field. Sometimes they’re great match-ups. Sometimes they’re duds.
Our North Jersey teams usually travel more often than teams come here because it costs much more to stay here. Like, there’s no $69 dollar a night hotel on Route 17, you know?
On the field, Bergen-Gibbons was a mismatch. Bergen dominated the game, and even though schools ‘agree’ to home-and-home games, those are just words and quickly forgotten.
I do know that Bergen probably won’t do a major trip next year, meaning I doubt they’ll fly anywhere, which may mean that they’ll want to go down to Raleigh and play Gibbons. But if another team in that vicinity pops up, they can always switch and connect with Gibbons another year. I think I’d rather see Bergen play Our Lady of Good Counsel next year in Maryland.
What was the biggest thing talked about at Super Football Conference Media Day?
From Greg in Fair Lawn
It was COVID.
The biggest surprise to me was how many coaches and players talked about COVID. I know we all have COVID fatigue, please, I get it, but how if you were a senior football player right now, this could still be like your first full-time season.
2020 was a bust (when you were a sophomore) and we forget how last year COVID was still an issue with some teams missing games and practice time. Rich Hansen III at St. Peter’s Prep brought it up right away, talking about how his team missed two weeks of preseason prep because of a COVID shutdown and how this was his team’s first real, full, normal, preseason since 2019.
That was the biggest surprise, that and how they didn’t put out any cookies for the media. I like white chocolate macadamia nut cookies the best.
What am I supposed to do on my Thursday nights without the Jackals?
From Barbara in Montclair
Now you’re talking to a former Jackals play-by-play radio man here, back when radio was a thing. I did the job for a year. I wrote the best story I ever did about my experience that year. It was a blast, traveling all over the Northeast. Anyone else remember the Bangor Lumberjacks? Anyone?
Did you know that what the people at Montclair State wanted was for the Jackals to be the Staten Island Yankees, the single-A affiliate for the Yanks? But that never happened.
I still went to at least one Jackals game a year with my boys and walked around. It was a fun night. But in 25 years, the stadium never got any nicer, the in-game promotions never got much better. Listen, I used to broadcast Tackle the Jackal races, because they were so popular. That was 20 years ago. You have to evolve and change or you die.
Also, the ticket prices went up. I had a friend a couple of years tell me that they had seven season ticket holders. Seven! The new owner also owned the Sussex County Miners and sank most of his resources into that team.
But hey, my friends tell me the Jackals aren’t dead. I think they’re heading to Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson. I’m not sure they’ll draw a lot more fans there than in suburban Essex County, but it’ll be great to have baseball in Hinchliffe.
Which Bergen County public schools have the best chance at making a run in the Jamboree?
From @GetToTheBaja
Delightful, a basketball question just as football season is starting up. But this is a great question. The 2023 Bergen Jamboree will mark the 30th anniversary of maybe the best Bergen County boys basketball story of all time, Bogota winning the Jambo title in 1993 under coach Jay Mahoney. The Bucs are still the last Group 1 school to do it.
I guess the better question is … what counts as a good run these days for a public school in the Jambo? Is anyone beating Bergen Catholic or Don Bosco? Bosco will have Dylan Harper, and maybe we will finally get to see Elliot Cadeau in a Bergen jersey. So is a good run for a public school getting a semifinal spot?
It comes down to the usual suspects. Ramapo usually has the game to match the big guys. Hackensack is always a team to watch. What Pascack Hills has done the last decade is truly remarkable.
Is there a Group 1 school out there that can make a run? Midland Park loses Luberoff. Emerson lost Itani. Maybe Waldwick? Rendzio gives the Warriors a punchers chance against anyone, but Group 1 schools need size and experience to even think about making the Jambo semis. That combination just doesn’t come along very often.
But if I had to pick the Jamboree Final Four right now, here in August, I’d say Bergen, Bosco, Saddle River Day and Ramapo.
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