Storied Sayreville football program will resume play in 2015

SAYREVILLE – Schools Superintendent Rick Labbe, who previously stated he was considering shutting down the storied Sayreville High School football program beyond the 2014 season, announced during Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting that the Bombers will return to action this year.

"I believe very strongly after the last several months that football is a very important part of our athletic programs and our community and therefore, in counsultation with our Board of Education, I am pleased to announce to you this evening that we will have a 2015 football season," Labbe said. "I commend the Board and the community for their continued, unwavering support."

Labbe canceled the remainder of the 2014 campaign at all levels on Oct. 5, five days before seven Sayreville players, aged 15 to 17, were criminally charged in connection with the hazing and sexual assault of four teammates inside the high school locker room.

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One of the state's most successful public school programs, Sayreville won three consecutive NJSIAA sectional titles from 2010-12 and saw its string of 18 consecutive playoff berths come to an end with the cancelation of the 2014 season.

Who will coach the Bombers in 2015 is to be determined.

Veteran head coach George Najjar has been suspended indefinitely with pay from his tenured physical education teaching position at the high school since Oct. 16, the day the school district commenced an internal investigation into his football program.

"If Sayreville decided to bring football back, I think it's a good move," MyCentralJersey.com football analyst Marcus Borden, a member of the NJSIAA and New Jersey Football Coaches Association halls of fame said.

"The kids in the long run are the ones that would suffer without football. I think it's part of the fabric of the community and needs to be brought back, but certainly there needs to be a rehabilitation process.

"I don't think X's and O's are the top priority. I think everything needs to be put in perspective in terms of what's important. Basically, you start with the key word of respect – respect those around you, whether on the field, in the classroom or in the community."

Borden said he believed the future of Sayreville football should be a joint endeavor involving the borough's two Pop Warner programs, community leaders, the Board of Education and school officials from the superintendent to the athletics director.

"It's an entire community project," said Borden, who has been a longtime parishioner at Our Lady of Victories in the borough, who helped run a summer football camp at Sayreville High School for more than 20 years and whose wife Toni works at Head Over Heels gymnastics academy in the town.

"Football is that important in Sayreville, and it can remain important as long as everything is put in the proper perspective," said Borden, a resident of neighboring South River who, as founder of the MyCentralJersey.com Snapple Bowl, returned the charity all-star football game to Sayreville last summer following an 18-year hiatus.

Borden said he plans on asking school officials if they would be willing to send two senior football players to represent Sayreville in Snapple Bowl XXII, which will be contested this summer at Kean University.

During an Oct. 12 interview with MyCentraljersey.com, minutes before the start of an anti-bullying rally and vigil for the alleged Sayreville victims at the borough's Kennedy Park, Labbe said the future of the football program beyond the 2014 season could be in jeopardy.

"The question of whether we are going to have a football program going forward is a critical one I am now going to be addressing," Labbe said on Oct. 12. "I'm going to make the decision based upon sound rationale, which includes very concrete data and information."

Labbe played football at Upsala College, where he was a team captain, and served as an assistant football coach under Sal Mistretta in the early 1990s at Sayreville, where Labbe began his career in education.

"It's not like he doesn't understand the impact of football at Sayreville," Mistretta previously told MyCentralJersey.com. "He knows it all too well. He's not an outsider."

School Board President Kevin Ciak previously told MyCentralJersey.com that Labbe labored over the district's decision to shut down the football program.

"He's not only taking a stand, he's also coming at this with the compassion of a father and a football coach, knowing how difficult this is for our players," Ciak said. "He's very confident that as a program and as a district we can come back stronger as a result of taking this position."

The alleged hazing and sexual assaults took place over a 10-day period beginning Sept. 19, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. All of the criminally charged players have been suspended from school and none will be tried as adults.

None of the coaches have been criminally charged. Four assistants were also suspended with pay from their tenured teaching positions on Oct. 16, but all were reinstated on Nov. 18.

Najjar was also stripped of his responsibilities as the school's strength and conditioning coach, a title that top assistant Mike Novak has assumed.

More than 1,100 of Najjar's supporters have 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 has compiled a 165-54 record during 20 seasons at Sayreville including a 21-13 postseason mark. He previously coached at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he went 94-32-1.

A member of the New Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Najjar 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 has repeatedly denied interview requests since the scandal involving his program came to light.

Staff writer Greg Tufaro: gtufaro@mycentraljersey.com