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sports&recreation THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2013
Kearny moves ahead with new coach Edwards
SPORTS VIEW Contact Jim at Ogsmar@aol.com
NA’s McCarthy preps for another high school grid season As August quickly turns into September and the summer rapidly dwindles away, Dennis McCarthy gets a little more excited. It’s not as if the North Arlington resident is not a fan of the summer months, it’s just that September means his favorite time of year – the return of high school football. You see, McCarthy is the premier surveyor of high school football talent in New Jersey. For the last 23 years, the McCarthy Report – compiled with precise detail by McCarthy and his son David – has been the must get for major college football recruiters. Plain and simple, if the recruiters want to know who to look for in New Jersey high school football, they need to look no further than the McCarthy Report. Mind you, unlike many of the new-fangled tout sites found on the Internet, the McCarthy Report is not provided to the general public. Its subscription list consists of only the top colleges in the country and no one else. The McCarthy Report for the Class of 2014 almost didn’t take place.
“The NCAA wanted to put us out of business,” said McCarthy, who works out of his North Arlington home. “The NCAA wanted to clamp down on the big sites, because they were making money on recruiting. I think I’m just a little schmuck. They wanted us to change the subscription price with everyone. What it’s done is eliminated the small schools, because let’s face it, the smaller schools can’t afford to pay what a school like Ohio State pays.” So it means that there are fewer NCAA Division II and Division III schools that subscribe to the McCarthy Report. Because of the restrictions, McCarthy has decided to give their list of top New Jersey athletes, ranked from 101 to 200, to schools at no cost. The only list that continues to be via subscription is the Top 100. “We want to help the smaller schools that have been good to us,” said McCarthy, who has already received permission from the NCAA to continue through next season. McCarthy is ecstatic see VIEW page
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Photo by Jim Hague
The Kearny High School football team welcomes a new head coach in 2013 in Nick Edwards. From l. are linemen T.J. Witt, Nick Springer, Edwin Machuca, Edwards, Byron Quevedo, Owen Martinez and Joe Rodriguez.
By Jim Hague Observer Sports Writer
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ick Edwards has been the head football coach at Kearny High School for only a few weeks now, but he’s already beginning to like what he sees. “The amount of kids we have in training camp is the biggest thing,” said Edwards, who was hired to replace Pete Llaneza, who resigned at the end of last season. “We have 70 kids in the program and 45 with the varsity. That’s a good start. That’s a positive start.” Edwards said that he wanted to change the face of Kearny football from the outset. “I think from Day 1, when we first met with the kids, that we all knew things were going to change,” Edwards said. “We want to compete and that’s the first thing we have to do. The program hasn’t done much
about competition in recent years. Right now, Kearny has a football team, but we want it to be a program.” Edwards knows that the battle ahead is not going to be easy. “It’s going to be tough,” said Edwards, a teacher at the high school who was an assistant coach for a few years. “I know Kearny is a soccer town. But the main thing is to stay on the path and keep moving forward. We can’t try to do too many things at once. It’s going to be taking it one day at a time.” Edwards said that the response to his coaching has been positive. “The attitude has been great,” Edwards said. “We always have had about 40 kids in the weight room. Training camp has been really tough, but we made it tough to give the kids some mental discipline as they move forward.”
Edwards is implementing a new offensive scheme which is taking time to learn. “We’re running the spread offense, but we’ve kept the option part of it,” Edwards said. Senior Tim Soto (5-foot-11, 165 pounds) is the starter at quarterback. “He’s used to running the option, so we’re working on throwing the ball,” Edwards said of Soto. “But he has good speed running with the ball. We want to utilize him in the pocket throwing the ball.” Soto is backed up by sophomore Christian Rodriguez (5-8, 165), who Edwards said “is going to be very good.” One position where the Kardinals don’t have to worry about being good is at running back, where senior Gabriel Xavier returns. The three-year start Xavier (6-0, 185) gained see COACH next page