New Head Football Coach Named To Lead Bridgewater-Raritan High School

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Daniel (DJ) Catalano was named as the new head football coach at Bridgewater-Raritan High School during the District’s Board of Education meeting on Feb. 21.

The Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District administrators opted to remain in-house and promoted Coach Catalano to the top position after he had served as the defensive coordinator and one of Coach Rick Mantz’s chief lieutenants this past fall.

Catalano, who teaches Health and Physical Education at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, stepped in to replace Mantz, who announced his retirement as head coach on Dec. 9 after one season on the sideline at Basilone Field.

Becoming a head coach has been a dream of Catalano who worked his way up the coaching ladder to achieve his goal.

"Bridgewater-Raritan is the crown jewel program in Somerset County," Catalano said. "When I was working at Rutgers (defensive assistant 2013-2014) I always thought that Bridgewater-Raritan was one of the best jobs in New Jersey."

Catalano's football career began in Montgomery High School. A 2006 Montgomery grad, he went on to play one season at Monmouth University before he transferred to Northern Michigan University where he started all four seasons and earned Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors in 2010.

His performance as a defensive lineman at Northern Michigan earned him a spot in the
Division 2/Division 3 All-American Bowl in 2010.

He was later a member of the Team USA that captured the gold medal in the International
Federation of American Football (IFAF) World Championships in 2011.

That same year he participated in the training camp for the Sacramento Mountain Lions
in the United Football League and then in 2012, he played for the Cleveland Gladiators in
the Arena Football League.

Catalano launched his coaching career on the sideline at his old high school, Montgomery, and under his former coach, Zoran Milich. After one season coaching the defensive line at Montgomery, he was the defensive assistant at Rutgers for two seasons and then worked up in Morris County at Randolph High School where he was the defensive coordinator in 2015-2016.

He shifted to Monmouth County’s Neptune High School where he was the defensive coordinator for one year before he landed at Somerville High School where he served as defensive coordinator from 2018-2021.

From Somerville, he came over to Bridgewater to serve as the defensive coordinator.

"Coach Mantz told me that one day I would take over this program," Catalano said.

Catalano outlined his plans moving forward.

"We will run an offense that will give our players the best opportunity to make plays in space and not make the defense dictate the game to us," Catalano said of his offensive scheme. "We will get the ball to our best player, either as a running back or a quarterback. We will dictate the tempo."

One student Joe Spirra was excited for Catalano to take over.

"I am psyched," said Spirra, who plays as a linebacker for Catalano. "This is the perfect way our off-season can happen with him being named head coach. Everyone here feels that way."