By Walter Elliott
Cover Photo By Mustafa Hooten – D1 Media Pro
WEST ORANGE – First, township elders, educators and sports-oriented residents in West Orange celebrated their high school football team’s first-ever NJSIAA state championship with a Hometown Champions Celebration outside of the Municipal Building here Dec. 10.
WOHS Mountaineers footballers, boys and girls soccer players, cross country track and fielders, cheerleaders and the Marching Mountaineers band were escorted from a dinner at the Nicholas Anthony restaurant to the municipal building plaza that Saturday night.
Mayor Robert Parisi and Acting Superintendent of Schools Hayden Moore led a salute to the student-athletes and their supporters, starting with school district Acting Athletic Director Steve Zichella, WOHS Principal Oscar Guerrero and Mountaineers Head Football Coach Darnell Grant.
Grant, in his fourth season since moving from his Irvington alma mater, helped lead the Mountaineers to an 11-win and two-loss overall 2022 season record. The 1991 Irvington High School graduate helped WOHS to win their first-NJSIAA State North Section 2, Group 5 championship.
WOHS’s state football championship is the first since the former West Orange Cowboys and Mountain High School Rams became the Mountaineers with the 1984-85 school year. (The West Orange Public Schools had WOHS absorb the 1960-84 MHS and move into the latter’s building.)
The Saturday night celebration reminded ones of the motorcades and rallies held for the championship-winning Irvington Blue Knights and East Orange Campus High School Jaguars Jan. 8, 2022 and Dec. 11, 2021. Dec. 10, 2022 however, was held at night for five more sports teams and the marching band.
Although the West Orange Mountaineers basked in their Dec. 10 spotlight, there were other “Local Talk” area high school football teams who looked back on their gridiron seasons with measures of accomplishment.
Details of WEST ORANGE MOUNTAINEERS season include a 1-1-0 record in the NJSIAA Super Football Conference against National White Division rivals Bloomfield (won 34-7) and EOCHS (lost 25-12)
The other teams hailed for their titles included:
- Boys Soccer NJSIAA North 1 Group 4 Sectional Championship. (Had finished second in the Group 4 State Final.)
- Girls Soccer won second straight Essex County Tournament Championship. (The 16-6-1 tie Mountaineers reached the North 1 Group 4 State Final.)
- Cross Country Boys were undefeated, 12-0 in the SEC Liberty Division Championship. Sana’a Smith (WOHS Class of 2023) won the Liberty Championship XC individual crown.
- WOHS Cheer Team first place in Randolph Rampage meet.
- Marching Mountaineers won Best Music in the NJ Marching Band Directors State Championship on The College of New Jersey’s Ewing campus. (WHOS also reached the Bands of America Regional Championship Finals at Rutgers for the second time.)
NEWARK’s WEEQUAHIC INDIANS, who came within minutes of reaching their second straight Section 1 state championship finals Nov. 11, found solace in the North 1 Group 2 Sectional championship and the Nov. 24 Soul Bowl.
The Indians’ 11-2 record includes a 10-1 regular season that climaxed with a Nov. 11 21-10 victory at home over Cedar Grove. They left Untermann Field with their second straight sectional title and a ticket to the semifinal game in Somerset Country’s Franklin Field.
WHS, despite playing on a windy Franklin High School Field Veterans Day, was leading the Mountain Lakes Herd, 20-7 entering halftime. The Herd, however, came back with 22 points in the second half and kept the Indians to a field goal for a 29-23 final score.
WHS ended the season by feasting on South Ward rival Malcolm X. Shabazz Bulldogs, 68-8, at the latter’s home field Thanksgiving Day. The Indians set the pace with 14 first quarter points and by answering the Bulldogs’ 8 eight points with another 34 of their own in the second quarter.
The Nov. 24 annual classic victory was WHS’s third straight.
NEWARK’s WEST SIDE HIGH SCHOOL ROUGHRIDERS used their 4-0 undefeated streak in the Patriot Red Division for an overall 7-2 record that got them into the Oct. 29 Section 1, Group 2 quarterfinal game.
The Patriot Red champions, however, found themselves in a defensive battle against the Dumont Huskies, where all the scoring was done in the second quarter. A blocked extra point kick made all the difference with a game-ending and WSHS season-ending 7-6 final score.
The IRVINGTON BLUE KNIGHTS, who won their first North 2 Group 4 Sectional Championship with an 11-2 record last year, saw their repeat championship bid end by Northern Highlands in the Nov. 4 semifinal round.
IHS’s 8-3 overall record, included 3-1 in their Freedom Red Division. They ranked second to the 4-0 Union City squad.
The EAST ORANGE JAGUARS, who enjoyed a 12-0 undefeated season and the North Group 5, state championship last year, won this season’s Freedom Red divisional championship. The Jaguars went undefeated, 3-0, over the Bloomfield Bengals (2-2) and WOHS (1-1). This was incorporated into their 4-6 overall season record.
This team, then as now, include scholar-athletes from East Orange School District’s STEAM Academy and Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts.
The GLEN RIDGE RIDGERS ended their 5-5 regular season by winning the NJSIAA North Jersey Group 1 regional invitational tournament here Nov. 10.
GRHS, under first year head coach Manj Singh, doubled up on the Hawthorne Bears’ 7-0 first quarter lead before halftime. The Ridgers went on for an overall unanswered 36 points for a 36-13 final score at Hurrell Field that Saturday.
Glen Ridge competes in the North Section Group 1 National Red division. Singh, Montclair High School Class of 1996, had coached the Bloomfield Jr Bengals youth program and, until last year, Montvale’s St. Joseph Regional High School Knights.
