MONTCLAIR- It’s really been a rapid-fire last six months for Montclair’s new football coach, what with being named to the post in late February, then having to form a new-look coaching staff in rapid fashion plus reshape junior football in town with the long-standing Montclair Cobras coming on board to help jet-start the new Junior Mounties for sixth, seventh and eighth-graders.
Summer came next, including continued time in the weight room and workouts on Woodman Field, plus plenty of ‘skull’ sessions while continuing to get accustomed to a new staff and system and hear from a bevy of special guest speakers, including NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, all in an effort to re-energize one of the more storied high school football programs in the state which has had its ups and downs the past few seasons.
There were also a few of the now familiar summertime 7-on-7’s included on the calendar in June and July before a ‘dead week’ prior to the official start of pre-season practice on Aug. 10, with a couple of scrimmages included in the past two weeks in order to further get ready for what’s to come once the real game action commences.
Now that time has finally arrived, which is the kickoff of a brand-new era of Mounties football as alumnus Manj Singh - who used to run pass patterns for coach Ed Lebida in the mid-1990s - is now the program’s third different head coach in as many years as he looks to put his own stamp on the history-laden program which is now anxiously awaiting its season opener vs. a longtime North Jersey rival in Ridgewood with a 1 p.m. kickoff this Saturday, (Aug. 29) at Woodman Field.
“We’re certainly very excited about playing our first game, no doubt about that,” said Singh, who previously headed the programs at both Verona and Glen Ridge. “Ridgewood, which has its own great football history, is running a whole new offense for them with the spread being put in this year after many years running the Wing-T, most of those with Chuck Johnson as head coach.
“Brian Gibbs, who had been at Pope John and who I knew when he came into St. Joe’s (of Montvale) when I was leaving that program, is now their offensive coordinator for (head coach) Torre Watson, and he has a very good football pedigree as both a player and a coach and should provide a nice new energy for them.
“It might be good for us that they are running the spread and we’re not preparing for the Wing T which is an offense teams don’t see a lot of anymore. Whatever the case, they are always a well-disciplined program and we’re a young team looking to make our mark in our first game.
“It could very well wind up being an evenly-matched game and it should be an exciting game for our players and also for our fans as a new era of Mountie football begins!”
Montclair, which graduated just five seniors off last year’s 1-8 squad, had a strong performance in a quad scrimmage on Aug. 17 in Newark with recent 2-time Group 2 state runner-up Shabazz as the host team with Teaneck and Franklin also on hand.
“We did what we had to in order to compete well with Shabazz which has another very talented group entering the season with high expectations,” said Singh. “We scored on them and they didn’t score on our defense which played very well, and we were also without a few of our key players.
“Still, even though it was a good day all around for us we certainly also realize that it was just a scrimmage.”
The Mounties defeated Orange, 18-0, this past Saturday (Aug. 22), at Woodman Field in a final pre-season scrimmage as the defense shined again helping to produce most of the points.
