COVER STORY
Before the first game of the 2020 season, Prep Football’s winningest head coach announced it would be his last campaign on the sidelines. After 33 years, 273 wins, and five state championships, Coach Rich Hansen hung up the headset at season’s end. But save the retirement cards and balloons; he will continue in the other role he has come to define over the decades—that of Prep’s athletic director— which leaves little chance of taking it easy any time soon!
A Vocation, Never a Job
by John Irvine, ’83, P’11
There are a handful of people who did not graduate from Saint Peter’s Prep, yet have grown to love this place as much as any alumnus and come to leave an indelible mark at Grand & Warren. Charlie Rooney, Ana Garcia, Father Tony Azzarto, S.J., and Father Jim Keenan, S.J. come to mind. You can certainly add Rich Hansen to that list. Hansen joined Gerry Bellotti’s coaching staff in 1982 as defensive coordinator and to oversee the weight room, but he was soon asked to substitute in the physical education department while Milt Berkowitz recovered from an illness. That coaching position and “temporary” teaching spot turned into 39 years of dedicated service to Prep—and counting! As Hansen recalls, “When I interviewed with [then-President Fr.] Joe Parkes, it was like talking to John Wayne. He sold me on his vision to reenergize the athletic program and thereby resurrect the
belief that Saint Peter’s was the school for boys to attend.”
With competition from other local schools and downtown Jersey City’s lack of appeal at that time, enrollment was down and, by extension, so were the athletic programs. Hansen credits Gerry Bellotti and Joe Parkes for understanding that a successful athletic program was essential for the life of an all-boys school. In 1983, the team went 6-3—its best record in 16 years—and the rebuild was underway. In those first five years, Hansen was given more and more responsibility. Bellotti gave him autonomy over the defense, invited him to bring in other assistant coaches, and had him represent Prep at all coaches’ association meetings. Bellotti was, quite simply, preparing his successor. In 1988 he stepped away from football in to dedicate his full attention to his Director of Development position. That was the year Rich Hansen became head coach and took over as Athletic Director; North Jersey football and Prep athletics would be changed forever. “In ’88 we were a very good 9-1 team,” Hansen remembers, “but the 10-1 State Championship team in 1989 put us on the map. That team did not have a D-1 player, but those guys were gritty and absolutely loved playing for Prep. We just caught lightning in a bottle.” Other state championships would follow (’94, ’05, ’14, ’19), but Hansen is quick to recall the great teams that did not finish with a ring. “’04 and ’07 were fantastic teams and in ’93 we gave up 19 points all season, but lost 7-0 to Don Bosco.” With successful teams come a long roster of great players. Hansen is reluctant to single out individuals, but he does point to the arrival, in 1991, of Paul Que and Damian Locricchio as a turning point for the program. Que and Locricchio were known throughout Hudson County and as Hansen puts it, “Que was the first marquee player of that era to come to Prep, and other players would soon follow.” That group matured into the championship team of 1994. “In those early years, it was tough to convince players (and families) to select Prep,” Hansen recalls. “Thirteen-year-olds had to believe that they could handle the academic grind, the daily commute, the demands of our training—all for the chance to get a great education and to go to (and 12 SUMMER 2021 n PREP MAGAZINE