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Chris Beagan has been named Sayreville head football coach

Greg Tufaro
@GregTufaro

Chris Beagan, a former Sayreville High School football captain, is returning to his alma mater as the successor to head gridiron coach George Najjar, whose program generated national headlines with a sexual assault and hazing scandal.

The Board of Education approved Beagan, one of 45 applicants for Najjar's vacated post, as its new head football coach on Tuesday night, effective immediately.

Beagan was also hired to begin teaching health and physical education at the high school starting Sept. 1 at a salary of $82,053.

In addition to his $12,051 coaching stipend, Beagan will receive $5,573 to serve as the high school's strength and conditioning coach, also effective immediately.

"I believe it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, which is the reason I considered it," Beagan said of coaching at one of the state's most successful public school programs. "When the job opened up, it was a dream job and that's why I'm back here. It drew me back."

Beagan said he will immediately commence an "exhaustive search" to fill his coaching staff, and that he plans to meet with his new players as soon as possible.

"I don't like to take things and change the schedule too much," he said. "I know generally we would meet with our parents in May. Given the situation with the new hire, I'd want to get in front of them as soon as possible to answer any questions they may have and certainly introduce myself to the new players."

A 1990 Sayreville graduate, Beagan previously taught health and physical education at the high school, where he also served as a defensive coordinator in football under Najjar and as a head coach in wrestling.

Sayreville parted ways last month with Najjar, a member of the New Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame who led the Bombers to 20 consecutive NJSIAA playoff berths and who remains popular among players and students at the high school.

Beagan spent the past 11 years turning around the football program at Monroe, where he won a Greater Middlesex Conference White Division championship as a rookie head coach in 2008 and helped the school claim its first sectional title the following season. He was an assistant at Monroe from 2004-07.

Chris Beagan (left) celebrates with his coaches after Monroe beat Middletown South in the Central Jersey Group II Championship in 2009.

The decision to leave Monroe, where he compiled a 39-33 record as a head football coach and is a health and physical education teacher, was difficult for Beagan, who lives in Monroe with his wife and their two children.

"It was a very difficult decision, in part, because of the opportunity they provided me," Beagan said. "I owe a great deal to the administration and the people of Monroe. They've treated me and my family wonderfully."

A graduate of Montclair State University, where he was an All-American wrestler, Beagan began his football coaching career as a Sayreville assistant in 1997, helping Najjar claim the first of his four sectional championship at the high school (the Bombers won three consecutive titles from 2010-12).

Former Sayreville head football coach Sal Mistretta, who was Beagan's high school mentor, said he believed Beagan is a great hire to help the school community move forward in the scandal's aftermath.

''He's a Sayreville kid," Mistretta said. "He understands the background, and the fact that he has coached in that program under the previous coach (Najjar), I think that's a definite plus. Regardless of what went on, there was a lot of support for the previous coach, and I think that having someone that was a part of that and embraced that can only be a positive for the transition to the new direction that they want to go."

The school district also adopted on Tuesday night policy and procedure revisions regarding supervision to which Beagan and all coaches must adhere in the wake of the football scandal. Those coaches would also be required to complete training modules on the prevention of harassment, intimidation, bullying and hazing and to share that information with players and their parents at team meetings.

"I think what we're implementing is all very good and it's practical, but it's never going to take the place, either collectively or any item individually, of common sense when we deal with supervising youth," Board of Education President Michael Macagnone said. " You need to be present and I think that's the issue. We do have things in place that is going to allow that to happen. The new coach is very well aware of what transpired and I am certain that he is going to implement those procedures to make sure the locker rooms are safe."

Seven Sayreville players were charged in connection with the hazing and sexual assault of four teammates inside the high school football locker room over a 10-day period last September.

All of the criminally charged players have been suspended from school and will be tried as juveniles. No Sayreville coaches were criminally charged.

MyCentralJersey.com football analyst Marcus Borden, a member of the NJSIAA and New Jersey Football Coaches Association Halls of Fame, said Beagan's hiring is a "coup for the school district and the community."

"One of the unique opportunities that a school district has is the ability to hire someone that has come through their system," Borden said. "They understand the community probably better than anybody else because they've been a part of it."

Borden said he believed Sayreville football players and their parents will immediately be impressed with Beagan's organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail, demeanor, personality and coaching ability.

"Chris was an outstanding defensive coordinator while at Sayreville coaching under George," said Borden, who coached at East Brunswick from 1983 to 2012. "They had one of the toughest defenses we faced. They were well prepared. That transitioned over into his being the head football coach at Monroe. They were always well-skilled and well-drilled."

Beagan, whose parents were also born and raised in Sayreville, has said that the borough is "a great place to grow up."

When news of the Sayreville football scandal first broke last September, Beagan told MyCentralJersey.com that he had "concern for the student-athletes and all the people involved. I, like everybody else, really don't know too much, but my heart breaks for the people I care about and those I have close relationships with."

Beagan, coincidentally, helped Sayreville weather another storm three years ago. His team was the first to play at Sayreville after Superstorm Sandy devastated sections of the borough in October 2012.

"People in Sayreville are resilient," Beagan told MyCentralJersey.com at the time, noting he had been in touch with some former players who were part of rooftop rescues as first responders. "I expect an awful lot of emotion from the fans and probably from the community right on down through the players. It will be electric on the field. It will just be good for three hours or so to get people back to normalcy."

Mistretta said Beagan, a star linebacker in high school, led by example as a player and has developed into an excellent role model for student-athletes.

"As a captain, the kids respected him," Mistretta recalled. "He was a very good player in a time that we were just beginning to build a program, so it was that transition time from being everyone's Homecoming Game to starting to be a team that people were getting concerned with. The kids respected him. He led, not with a lot of rah-rah, but (through) hard work."

Borden, who attended the preseason training camps of every GMC football-playing school last fall and also covered every league member at least once as MyCentralJersey.com's football analyst, said he believes Beagan is among the most respected coaches in the conference, if not the state.

Monroe coach Chris Beagan works with his team during preseason football practice in 2013.

"I got a chance to be up close and personal with all the coaches on the sidelines in terms of their demeanor and how they handle themselves throughout the game, and Chris has an excellent demeanor," said Borden, founder of the MyCentralJersey.com Snapple Bowl, a charity all-star football game in which Beagan has coached for close to a decade. "He's intense, but he's not a screamer. He has the respect of his players, coaches and the parents with how he handles himself."

Beagan succeeds a coach who remained popular, even as he was being transferred last week from the high school to teach physical education at Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School in the district.

Many of Najjar's charges, according to the New York Daily News, wore T-shirts to school last week with the words "48 MINUTES TO PLAY" and "A LIFETIME TO REMEMBER" framing a picture of Najjar on the front. Najjar's coaching credentials adorned the back of the T-shirt above the words, "Tough times don't last. Tough men do."

Najjar, who earns just under $86,000 annually according to public records, had been suspended with pay as a tenured teacher since Oct. 16, the day school officials began an internal investigation into his football program.

Four assistants also were suspended with pay from their tenured teaching positions on Oct. 16, but all were reinstated on Nov. 18. Najjar was reinstated last week upon being reassigned to the elementary school.

Sayreville essentially fired Najjar as the high school's head football coach on Feb. 5, posting that position on the district's website with an application deadline of Feb. 19.

Sayreville had its string of 20 consecutive NJSIAA playoff appearances snapped last season after the Board of Education canceled the remainder of the year in late September amid allegations of locker-room misconduct. Schools Superintendent Rick Labbe reinstated the football program during a Board of Education meeting in January.

Najjar compiled a 165-54 record during 20 seasons at Sayreville, including a 21-13 postseason mark.

He guided Sayreville to a 12-0 record in 2012 as the Bombers finished undefeated for the first time since 1949 and only the third time in school history. Najjar previously coached at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, where he went 94-32-1.

Beagan was 0-5 lifetime as a head coach against Sayreville. Monroe was outscored 178-43 in the first four meetings between the schools.

After falling 56-26 to Sayreville in the 2013 regular-season finale, both schools met the following week in the NJSIAA playoffs with Monroe nearly pulling off a stunning upset in a heartbreaking 35-34 loss.

More than 1,100 of Najjar's supporters signed a petition, which was presented to the Board of Education in November, asking that the district take into consideration their comments when determining the coach's future.

Najjar repeatedly has denied interview requests since the scandal involving his program came to light.

Contributing: Staff writer Susan Loyer