Some high school football teams look forward to the big homecoming game. Garfield is already looking forward to homecoming season.
The school’s brand new FieldTurf stadium was originally scheduled to be ready in time for the 2023 season. However, that was not the case and the team ended up playing its home games at Junior Boilermakers Field at the city’s recreation center.
“It’s artificial turf and a decent facility … but we didn’t have any locker rooms, so we really had nowhere to go at halftime,” Garfield coach Pete Santacroce said Aug. 14 at NJIC Media Day.
“Everyone thought we would be on the new field last year. And then when it never happened, morale dropped a little bit.”
It seems the results reflect this. The Boilermakers lost their first seven games and fell to 1-8, their lowest winning percentage in over a decade.
“There are no excuses. We didn’t put our best product out there last year,” said Santacroce, who is entering his sixth season. “When I started, we were building a good culture and last year we lost some momentum. So the goal is to rebuild that culture and I think being on campus really makes a big difference.”
The tradition
The program has a long tradition of playing at home. Before Garfield School Stadium was built in the 1940s, the Boilermakers played many games across the river at Passaic Stadium in the late 1930s, according to The record Archive.
This included two consecutive undefeated seasons in 1938 (9-0) and 1939 (10-0), which were part of a 21-game winning streak and included a mythical national championship title in the latter year.
The coach of those teams, Art Argauer (1930-45, ’56-58), remains the program’s all-time winningest player with a record of 114-49-10. Second is Steve Mucha (85-115-2 from 1991-2011), who not only coached Santacroce in high school but also two of the Boilermakers’ NFL alumni, Luis Castillo and Miles Austin.
Santacroce (20-23) needs three wins to tie Ed Kotwica, coach of 1991 New York Jet Wayne Chrebet, for fifth place on Garfield’s win list.
MORE: Insights into the high school football teams in Bergen and Passaic counties
The challenge
Youth and inexperience will be the biggest hurdles the Boilermakers will have to overcome to get back on track. There are 36 freshmen and sophomores in the program, all of whom played junior football, according to Santacroce.
“We only have nine seniors coming back, and we don’t even expect all nine to play much,” the coach said. “But those nine are still extremely motivated to change what happened last year.”
Among them are the seniors who represented Garfield at NJIC Media Day: Rafael Hernandez, a tight end/defensive end in his second year of football, and last year’s top tackler, linebacker/O-lineman Anthony Nolasco.
The quarterback will come from the new class of ninth and tenth graders.
“Sophomore Talib McCullough and freshman JJ Nolasco — Anthony’s younger brother, actually — seem to be the two best right now,” Santacroce said. “They support each other, but they also challenge each other, and that’s raised the bar for everyone.”
Expectations
Despite last year’s decline in win-loss, Garfield has been one of North Jersey’s more stable teams overall over the past decade. From 2013-2022, the Boilermakers finished .500 or better seven times and reached the state playoffs four times.
“I don’t want to put a number on it,” Santacroce said. “But obviously the goal is to be competitive, to try to keep up in the league, and we need to be at least above .500.”
“Last year we didn’t win a single game in the league and that’s unacceptable,” he added. “We want to make sure the culture reflects what we want our kids to look like, not just on the field but off the field. And once you start doing that, the rest will take care of itself.”
schedule
29 August: against Lodi, 5 p.m.
5 September: in Becton, 6 p.m. in Riggin Field
13 September: at Cresskill/Emerson, 7 p.m.
20 September: vs. Palisades Park/Leonia, 6 p.m.
27 September: in Elmwood Park, 7 p.m.
October 5: at Montclair Kimberley, 2pm
October 12: against Lyndhurst, 1 p.m.
October 18: To be announced
October 25: To be announced
