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Dunellen's Diaz receives MyCentralJersey.com's Borden's Baller of the Year award

Greg Tufaro
@GregTufaro

Already hobbling so badly on one ankle that he had to be moved from fullback to his natural offensive line position earlier in the year, Alain Diaz injured his other ankle in the Dunellen High School football team’s season finale.

Marcus Borden presents Dunellen's Alain Diaz with the 2016 Borden's Baller of the Year award on Dec. 9, 2016.

“I noticed the kid’s heart,” said MyCentralJersey.com football analyst Marcus Borden, who covered Dunellen’s last game of the 2016 campaign against Middlesex on Thanksgiving Day.

“He wasn’t coming out of the game no matter what. He just went back to the huddle gutting it out, like a true Destroyer. It was like, ‘You’re gonna have to carry me off the field.’ I knew the kid was hurt and I knew he was thinking, “This is my last day in a Dunellen uniform,’ and he was just not coming out of that game. It was just amazing. Play after play – as they were trying to get back into the game – he epitomized the toughness of the kids in that community, a blue-collar town that lives and breathes football.”

One of 24 players from the Greater Middlesex Conference nominated for MyCentralJersey.com’s Borden’s Baller of the Year award, Diaz is the second annual recipient of the award. The criteria for nomination included on-field performance, leadership, intense desire and other intangibles such as thriving under pressure, being coachable and representing the school-community in a positive light.

Each of the players received a specially designed commemorative T-shirt, courtesy of Sports Paradise and Rudy Heierling, with the official Borden's Ballers logo on the front and the names of all of the nominees and their schools on the back. Each of the players also received a commemorative plaque which Prestige Imaging designed.

“He’s got tremendous character,” Dunellen head coach Dave DeNapoli said of Diaz. “He’s liked by everybody and respected by everybody.”

A week before its loss to border rival Middlesex, Dunellen, among the 10 smallest of New Jersey’s 340 football-playing public schools, snapped a 19-game losing streak, the second defeat of which came to Shabazz in the 2014 North 2 Group I championship game at Kean University.

Diaz was an offensive lineman on that star-studded senior-laden squad, which is regarded among the finest in school history.

“Playing for us as a sophomore, Alain got plugged in at guard midway through the season and has been a starter ever since,” DeNapoli said. “He’s been one of our hardest workers in the weight room every day. He doesn’t miss a practice and doesn’t complain. It’s always about the team.”

Before the start of the 2016 campaign, DeNapoli needed a tough fullback who could serve as a kick-out blocker in Dunellen’s unique single- and double-wing attack, which the coach has forever likened to “offense in a phone booth” for the close proximity of players to one another at the line of scrimmage.

“I told the coaches, ‘I think I’m going to try Alain there,” DeNapoli recalled. “When the summer started, I whispered in his ear, ‘Don’t get your hopes up, but I think I’m going to try you at fullback.’ A little smile went over his face.”

DeNapoli said he cautioned Diaz, “That doesn’t mean you are going to touch the ball,” reinforcing his need for a blocking back.

Diaz skillfully opened holes for his backfield mates, earning the right to get some carries. Diaz was so successful rushing the ball on his initial attempts that Dunellen kept calling his number.

“We give him the ball, and he’s like a bull, he doesn’t go down,” DeNapoli said. “He was leading the team in rushing at one point.”

Shortly thereafter, Diaz injured his ankle. Despite Dunellen’s trainer working with him daily, Diaz could not return to the backfield. As a result, he returned to his natural position as an offensive guard.

“He could barely walk by the end of the season,” DeNapoli said. “He’s limping around, but he doesn’t ever come out. He just gave us such tremendous leadership. He’s been great with the young kids.”

An inexperienced team that features just three senior starters, Dunellen relied heavily upon Diaz and his fellow upperclassmen, especially as the team navigated its way through one of the state’s longest active losing streaks.

"Losing 19 straight games after we had a very successful season was challenging," Diaz said of the losing streak, which began one week after Dunellen avenged a playoff loss to Hoboken with a victory at Columbia Park. "After that (2014 sectional semifinal win over Hoboken) ended, I looked around at all the faces of all my teammates and coaches. Everybody was so happy. The fans tried to storm the field. It was just a great atmosphere to be in and is something I will always remember for the rest of my life.

Win or lose, Dunellen has always maintained a sizable and rabid-fan base, despite an enrollment of around 350 students.

“It really is incredible,” DeNapoli said of the support his gridiron program receives, including interest from Dunellen alumni who keep up with the program on the coach’s Facebook page via their current addresses from different states across the country.

“When a team wins, everybody comes out and supports the team – of course that happens all over the country – but whether (the Destroyers) are 10-0 or 0-9, the support and love is always there.”

A banner inside the locker room at Columbia Park proclaims, “Once a Destroyer, Always a Destroyer,” a motto that the borough, whose population is barely double the enrollment of Old Bridge, the Greater Middlesex Conference’s largest high school, has seemingly forever embraced.

"Since I started playing there, immediately there was a sense of family," Diaz said. "The coaches were great to us. All the players – we knew each other growing up – we are all friends. We were just a big family. I played Pop Warner and I loved football, but once I hit Dunellen, the love for the sport got even bigger."

Dunellen held a fundraiser in town a year ago to raise money for the high school’s weight room. The event generated more than 200 attendees and in excess of $25,000.

“Guys are walking up to me, giving me checks for like $1,000, and I’m tearing up,” DeNapoli said. “They are giving me money and thanking me. We get a lot of support for a small community. It’s just awesome.”

Using his ability to network, DeNapoli, who always wanted an anchor from a ship to augment the atmosphere at Columbia Park, relied upon a connection to the football program to secure one.

The anchor, which weighs approximately 2,500 pounds and measure about 4 feet by 6 feet, currently rests in the borough garage but is expected to be placed on a concrete slab outside the locker room and field house before the start of next season, which bodes well for the Destroyers.

"I think the next couple of years, they are going to be very successful," Diaz said. "I know they are going to work very hard and in the next few years and the years to come, have a chance to win."

Diaz was the figurative anchor of a football team whose hunger only intensified as the losses mounted.

After squandering fourth-quarter leads in narrow defeats to Metuchen (28-22) and South River (27-20), Dunellen snapped its losing streak with a 50-20 victory over North Warren.

“There wasn’t one week where our kid didn’t want to really practice, or where our kids thought the season was over,” DeNapoli said. “It wasn’t’ like, ‘We can’t wait until basketball comes.’ They were playing every game and working harder and harder each week.

“It was great for them to get a victory.”