After two less than successful seasons as the head football coach at Bayonne High School, Frank Blunda was beginning to hear the criticisms and the catcalls from hometown faithful who have simply grown to expect fantastic football in the fall – and weren’t getting it.
“My wife would sit in the stands and hear what the fans were saying,” Blunda said. “I told her that she had to either tune them out or stay home, because they were always going to say how they felt, good or bad.”
Usually, it was bad. Blunda wasn’t feeling the heat, but he knew that the vultures were lurking. Producing a team that didn’t qualify for the NJSIAA state playoffs and hovered right around the .500 mark (6-4 two years ago, 5-5 last season) wasn’t going to cut it.
“But going into this season, I felt better than I did in the prior years,” Blunda said. “I think it was basically because of the experience factor. Last year, we started five sophomores who had to play varsity right away and basically had a very young team. Most of those kids from last year returned this year.”
Plus, the team’s best performer, running back Tony Hall, was unable to play at all last season.
“I just thought the year of experience, plus the kids we had coming back, was going to make a big difference this year,” Blunda said. “I knew we were going to do better things this year.”
Turnaround
But no one could have ever imagined just how well the Bees would do in 2007. After losing their season opener to Hudson Catholic, the Bees have rolled off five straight wins, including a shocking 16-6 upset of North Bergen last week in North Bergen and a 28-0 whitewash of Lincoln Saturday afternoon at Caven Point Cochrane Field.
At 5-1, the Bees currently stand in third place in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group IV power point rankings (with 37 points) and should clinch the school’s first playoff berth since 2004 with a win this week against Ferris.
The Bees trail only state-ranked Piscataway and Hunterdon Central in the sectional power point standings. Bayonne won its first and only NJSIAA title in 2002 and suffered first-round playoff losses in 2003 and 2004. The Bees’ victory over North Bergen last week was the first time that Bayonne defeated North Bergen since knocking off the Bruins in the first round of the 2002 state playoffs en route to the state title.
But it’s refreshing in a football-starved town like Bayonne to be talking and thinking the state playoffs once again.
“Every game and every week is critical,” said Blunda, who was a standout quarterback at Marist High School during his playing days and a teammate of current Cleveland Indians pitcher Joe Borowski at Marist. “I’m happy for the kids. They know what the last few years have been like. They’ve bought into what I want to do and it’s certainly nice to see them smile at this time of year. We took it week by week, talked about beating Emerson, then did it, then talked about North Bergen and did it. Week by week. We have a more confident team now. All the things we talked about before the year are falling into place. And there’s no substitution for confidence.”
Probably the biggest reason why the Bees are confident has been the play of standout running back Hall, who has emerged as one of the top go-to backs in Hudson County. The 6-0, 185-pound Hall has been an offensive force, rushing for nearly 160 yards in the win over North Bergen and collecting over 100 more in the win over Lincoln.
“He’s done a great job,” Blunda said of the senior, who is certainly destined for All-County honors. “We’ve never been fortunate to have a back like Tony. He makes all our other players better.”
Senior Nelson Delgado (5-11, 220), who was one of the best linebackers in the county last year, has been a force at fullback.
“He’s the heart and soul of this program,” Blunda said. “He’s a true fullback in the purest sense. He blocks for Tony and runs when he has the chance. He plays well on both sides. The kid has worked his tail off and he’s been so consistent. He does everything right.”
The third Bee back is senior Mark Johnson (5-9, 160), who is scat back-type of performer.
“Johnson can play any position we ask him,” Blunda said. “He’s a strong safety on defense, but we move him up and play him all over. He’s extremely versatile.”
The quarterback is senior Sean Caldwell (6-3, 170), who was a wide receiver until the first game of the season, when starting quarterback Matt Rosati went down with a knee injury.
“He was converted to quarterback from wide receiver in one week,” Blunda said.
It sounds a lot like another former Bayonne standout who also wore uniform No. 3 during his playing days and had to go from wide receiver to quarterback during his senior year. Danan Hughes went from receiver to signal caller in 1987 and led the Bees to the state championship game before heading off to the University of Iowa and then a long career in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Ironically, Hughes was at the game Saturday to see the Bees play for the first time in a long time and realized that Caldwell was the son of a former classmate.
“Sean has done a great job and I can’t ask for anything more from him,” Blunda said.
Senior Michael Raccioppi (6-0, 225) is the only senior on the offensive line, but Blunda believes his anchor is “an intelligent football player who does a lot for us.”
Others on the line include guards William Rodriguez (5-10, 215) and Nick Ruggirello (6-1, 205) and tackles Michael Nevith (6-4, 275) and Jose Figueroa (6-1, 230).
Blunda knows that the Bees still have some work to do, that upcoming tests against Ferris and the state’s No. 2-ranked team, St. Peter’s Prep, will be battles as well.
“We can’t be content where we are,” Blunda said. “But we told the kids that if we beat North Bergen, then our main goal and objective would be making the state playoffs. That’s the goal now, getting back into the state playoffs again. I haven’t been there as a head coach. The kids haven’t been there in a while, so they’ve responded well to that challenge.”
The state playoff berth is there for the taking. Not many people believed that it was possible with this group, especially after last year’s 5-5 performance. There were doubters in the stands in the stadium named after the man who brought the Bees to the state playoffs year after year, namely the late Don Ahern. It looks as if Blunda is about to take this team there.
“We can do this and that overall confidence is carrying this team a long way,” Blunda said.
Jim Hague can be reached via e-mail at either OGSMAR@aol.com or jhague@hudsonreporter.com