NORTH BERGEN AND BEYOND — Exactly a month ago, Jimmy Crane was excited about becoming the new head football coach at North Bergen High School, after he was the dark horse candidate to emerge to replace the legendary Vince Ascolese.
After Ascolese retired at the end of the 2011 season, one that culminated with the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group IV state championship, a search committee weeded through a laundry list of candidates and came up with the least likely successor in the 53-year-old Crane, who was a long-time assistant coach at successful programs in Texas.
“First and foremost, I consider it to be an honor to be the new head coach and following a guy who had done so much for football in North Bergen,” Crane said at the time. “I mean, for Coach Ascolese to be in the same place for so long, it showed how much he loved this program and I can’t even begin to try to replace that. I am just going to try to uphold the tradition. As a new head coach, I’m not going to try to do a lot of things differently.”
As it turns out, Crane will never get a chance to coach the Bruins. An informed source told the Reporter that Crane was terminated early Thursday morning. He had also been hired as a history teacher March 1.
A call was made to Mayor Nicholas Sacco Thursday morning, but Sacco said he was in Trenton and handling state legislative business, not Board of Education business. (Sacco is also an assistant superintendent in the schools.)
Calls to Superintendent of Schools Robert Dandorph and Athletic Director Jerry Maietta were not returned by press time, nor was a call to Crane.
Township spokesperson Paul Swibinski said he was not aware of Crane’s situation when he was contacted for comment.
However, later in the day, school and township spokesman Phil Swibinski issued a statement. By phone, he said that Crane resigned from the teaching position as of the end of the year for personal reasons. Swibinski said that this means he can’t coach next year. He said Crane technically hadn’t been hired yet as coach, but was in the process of being hired.
However, Crane already had begun workout weight sessions with the returning players and also had conducted meetings with prospective assistant coaches.
Swibinski’s statement said:
“Jim Crane submitted a letter to the Board of Education and myself this morning indicating that he would be resigning from his teaching position at North Bergen High School as of the end of the school year, citing personal reasons. As of this time, no coaches for the Fall 2012-2013 season have yet been hired for any sport and since Mr. Crane will not be teaching in North Bergen in September he will not be coaching the high school football team. In the short time we have known him he has been an absolute gentleman and we wish him well in future endeavors. We will be reviewing applications by other candidates and hope to come to a decision on a new coach soon.”
This story will be updated if more information is received. For related stories, see links below. – Jim Hague