Rene Portillo had the world on a string six years ago, when he took his Dickinson boys’ soccer team to the pinnacle, the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group IV state championship game, only to fall to Ridge.
But the idea of anyone taking any Jersey City public school team to a state title soccer game was extremely impressive and practically earth shattering.
Portillo was then able to take that success and take it to the next level, namely college soccer.
“I got some opportunities to come my way and I opened myself up to other ranks,” Portillo said.
Portillo left Dickinson to become an assistant coach at Rutgers-Newark under head coach Kevin East, the former New Jersey City University head coach who has built up the R-N program.
“Kevin and I coached together with the Jersey Knights Academy in central [New] Jersey,” Portillo said. “I thought it was a good move for me professionally. It was difficult to leave Dickinson, but I felt it was the right move.”
When Miguel Perez stepped down at Dickinson after last season, it left Dickinson athletic director Rich Nisbet without a head soccer coach.
Nisbet made one call — to none other than Rene Portillo.
“Rich called me up and said that the position opened up,” Portillo said. “I’m a little older now, and I have more experience. I figured that this could be the right time for me to go back. I had some unfinished business at Dickinson.”
The only problem was leaving friend and colleague East at Rutgers-Newark.
“At first, he thought I was going backwards,” Portillo said. “But after we talked and I told him how much I wanted to do it, he decided that it was a good move.”
It sure was, for Portillo to keep both coaching positions, causing a complete coaching rarity of a man coaching on the high school and college levels simultaneously.
“I love working with kids on both levels,” said Portillo, who is a teacher at Snyder. “As long as I keep going, I’ll be fine. This is a move that benefits everybody, because coaching at Dickinson, I get to see the Hudson County kids play and maybe I can talk to them about coming to Rutgers-Newark.”
As for Dickinson and his unfinished business, Portillo said he saw a lot of hope and promise with the Dickinson program.
“I saw the potential right away,” Portillo said. “At first, I was hoping that we could just be competitive.”
However, the Rams have been more that competitive this season, posting an 11-5 record thus far with the state playoffs looming in two weeks.
“The kids have all shared the vision,” Portillo said. “They believe in themselves. They’re here to win and they’re hungry. I think this team is a little better than the one who went to the sectional finals.”
The Rams have been using two goalkeepers in senior Adam Cassidy and junior Albahir Cazun. The two have been sharing duties for the last two seasons.
“Sometimes I split halves with them, sometimes games,” Portillo said. “They’re working well together. They are good friends and great teammates. The competition is good between them as well.”
The defensive back line is solid, but very young. One center back is Amine Daddou, who is only a sophomore, but has a world of talent.
“He’s very good and very confident back there,” Portillo said of Daddou.
The other center back is junior Edwin Fernandez, but the two outside backs are both freshmen in Oscar Garcia and Jeffrey Castro.
“I made it perfectly clear that the best players will play,” Portillo said. “They’ve earned the right to play. It doesn’t matter that they’re freshmen. These are the best players. I am excited about them. We have a good future ahead of us.”
Junior David Garcia is one of the center midfielders, along with sophomore Frank Oramas and junior Jonathan Salazar. It’s a little different formation, having three center midfielders, but Portillo thinks it works.
The other midfielders are junior Luis Laing, who has 13 goals this season, and freshman Mark Chavez.
The Rams play with just one forward in sophomore Hassan Camara, who has 12 goals this season. Senior Ashraf Sodki is a key contributor coming off the bench to play either midfield or forward.
But Portillo is juggling his calendar well and he has the Rams playing well again heading into the state playoffs…
An interesting game this weekend pits undefeated Hudson Catholic, yet to surrender a single point, facing Hoboken, with both teams scrambling and jockeying for NJSIAA state playoff positioning.
Both coaches, namely Lou Zampella of Hudson Catholic and Lou Taglieri of Hoboken, are downplaying the remarkable scoreless streak.
“I have not said a word about the scoring streak to the kids, not one bit,” Zampella said. “Sure, maybe the kids bring it up, but it’s not something I bring up. You just want to win the game. This is why you coach and why you play, for big games like this. It’s going to be a fun environment. I like the way we’re running to the ball and giving hustle and effort. The kids all know Hoboken’s reputation. They do a great job and I’m in awe of their program.”
Taglieri, whose team is 4-2 coming off a tough 40-6 loss to Lincoln last week, is now trying to get his team to a top seed in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I playoffs. Right now, the Red Wings are third behind frontrunner Brearley Regional and Newark Collegiate.
“This is not about zero points or the amount of points scored by the opposition,” Taglieri said. “This is about the amount of power points we would get with a win. Hudson Catholic is a handful. They do a lot of good things. That’s why they’re unscored upon. They’re back to the [Rob] Stern days and Louie is a product of Stern. Louie has turned them into a program again. He’s got it going on. We don’t care about the streak. But we better come to play or the streak will keep going.”…
The Hudson County boys’ soccer tournament will come down to a final Saturday between Kearny and Union City. The two teams have met twice already this season, with Kearny winning both matchups. They say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season, so we’ll have to see about the undefeated Kardinals and the 15-2 Soaring Eagles…
Hudson Reporter High School Football Top Five: 1. St. Peter’s Prep (4-2). 2. Lincoln (6-0). 3. Union City (4-2). 4. Hudson Catholic (6-0). 5. Hoboken (4-2)…
Hudson Reporter High School Soccer Top Five: 1. Union City (15-2). 2. St. Peter’s Prep (11-4-1). 3. Dickinson (11-5). 4. North Bergen (9-7). 5. Secaucus (11-6). –Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.