It’s mid-August, which means that St. Peter’s Prep head football coach Rich Hansen is already hard at work.
“We do what we do,” Hansen said. “From a football standpoint, we’re doing the same thing we’ve done for the last eight or nine years when we opened on Zero Week [the first week of September]. The process was the process. We embrace it.”
But this year is a different year for Hudson County’s premier football program.
For one, the Marauders will open the season in three weeks, but this year, the Marauders will open the season in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday Sept. 2, against Blessed Trinity of Atlanta, one of the nation’s top-ranked teams.
The game, which will mark the first time any New Jersey football team has played on foreign soil, will be played at 2 p.m. Dublin time at Donnybrook Stadium as part of the American Football Showcase.
Six American high school teams will play at Donnybrook (what a fitting name!) in the first-ever American Football Showcase, sponsored in part by Aer Lingus.
At 11 a.m., Westminster School of Atlanta will face Community High School of Naples, Fla., followed by the Prep-Blessed Trinity game and then capped by Marist of Atlanta facing top-ranked Belen Jesuit of Miami in the nightcap.
Plus, the Marauders will play this year in the new-fangled Super Football Conference, which will give the Marauders a tougher schedule of games and will take them away from feasting on weaker Hudson County foes.
It’s a new league that Hansen serves as the vice-president.
Finally, St. Peter’s Prep is putting the finishing touches on a state-of-the-art training facility/office complex that is being built directly adjacent to the existing Rev. James J. Keenan, S.J. Field that serves as the school’s home practice facility.
The Guy Perkins Athletic Complex, named after a Prep graduate and former football player who donated $1.5 million to the construction, is set to be operational by the end of this month.
So needless to say, Hansen, as the head football coach and athletic director, has to oversee the construction of the facility while preparing to begin a new football season.
“I’m overly sensitive trying to focus on football,” Hansen said. “I’m handling the project with different people. I have to make sure that the weight room equipment is right and that the floors are being laid down. I’m dealing with the design part of it. It is a little tough to manage, but the kids are working hard. They keep on plugging along and we do what we have to do.”
Hansen was asked about the trip to Ireland.
“To be the first New Jersey team to do this is awesome,” Hansen said. “No other high school player in New Jersey history can say they played in Ireland. Some of our kids have never been on a plane. Others have never been away, so it’s exciting for them.”
Hansen had to worry about 75 or so kids getting passports in order to go to Ireland.
“It was a little time consuming,” Hansen said. “We also had to worry about fundraising and all the other dynamics involved. Then we have to worry about trying to win the game. We’re facing a very good team. This is not an exhibition. It’s for real. We have to keep that mentality for the entire trip to Ireland.”
The Marauders will leave on the Monday prior to the game and return on the following Monday.
Then the Marauders begin their domestic schedule a week later.
“I think it was important to have the next week off to get the kids acclimated again,” Hansen said.
When they return, they will be facing a killer schedule that includes regular season games with Don Bosco Prep, St. Joseph of Montvale, Bergen Catholic and Paramus Catholic.
“I’m excited about being away from the other competition,” Hansen said. “We have to bring our ‘A’ game every week. This isn’t the be all and end all of the problems, but in the end, this will be good for us. There will have to be changes down the road and we will evaluate it after a year or two. But it’s the best we can do right now. For it to work the right way, we need to have everyone come to the table.”
Right now, schools like Delbarton and Pope John of Sparta have balked about the fairness of the competition. Pope John begged out of facing St. Peter’s in the third week of the season, forcing Hansen to scramble and find a suitable game in the Peddie School.
“With the Super Football Conference, we’re going to make the best of it,” Hansen said.
As for his new facility, Hansen cannot suppress his excitement.
“It’s going to be a top-flight facility, better than some colleges,” Hansen said. “We’re going to provide a top shelf facility for our players. I’m grateful that Guy stepped up and put his name to it.”
Some Prep followers are already calling the new facility by a nickname, calling it “The Perk.”
“It’s going to be one of the best facilities in the state,” Hansen said. “The kids are very happy with it. It’s going to make life easier for us.”
Another new aspect to Prep football this season is the use of drones to film practice. The drone flies above Keenan Field and gives the coaching staff a different perspective.
“It makes filming practice easier,” Hansen said of the drone, which cost less than $5,000. “It gives us superior angles than a stationary camera. It’s easy to run. It is just improving what we do in practice. We can’t use it during a game, but it’s good for practice.”
Hansen said that the drone flies about “150 feet off the ground,” and is operated by one of the coaches.
“It just gives us a better look,” Hansen said. “It makes things easier to evaluate going on. It has been great for us.”
New league, new way to start the year, new facility, new technology – all that Prep has to offer and we haven’t even gotten into personnel yet. That will come in the season preview in a few weeks. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached via e-mail at OGSMAR@aol.com