Kubik Emerging as Madison Coaching Icon

Editor's note: This is the first in a weeklong series leading up to the North Jersey Section 2, Group II championship game between Madison and Summit Friday night at Kean University at 7 p.m.

It was 1998 when the football team earned its fifth state championship in school history.

It would take the Dodgers another dozen years before they would earn the right to once again hoist the state sectional trophy.

Now, just one year after Madison’s perfect season—a year that saw the Dodgers go 12-0 on the way to their first state title in more than a decade—Madison has a chance to earn back-to-back state titles when it faces Summit in the North Jersey Section 2, Group II sectional championship Friday night at Kean University. 

It’s a far stretch from that 12-year championship drought, and despite graduating key players from one of the most successful seasons in Madison history, one constant, head coach Chris Kubik, remains at the helm. 

After spending more than a decade as an assistant coach at high schools in New Brunswick, Verona and Whippany Park, Kubik was hired by Madison in 2007, earning the first head coaching job of his career.

But in his first two seasons at the helm, the Dodgers struggled. Unable to finish either season with a winning record, Madison combined to a 7-13 mark, failing to win its lone playoff game (a 40-6 loss to West Essex in 2007).

Since then, Kubik-led teams have emerged as a force in the high school football world, earning a 31-3 record over a three-year span, including two consecutive 10-win regular seasons, a current 24-game winning streak, six playoff wins and two-straight sectional final appearances—including last season’s .

Coaching on the field named after Madison icon Ted Monica, the Kubik name is quickly garnering respect of its own—and in only five years.

But despite the unmistakable success, Madison's head coach is quick to defer all credit to those around him.

“My coaches are outstanding at going over technique with the kids,” Kubik explained. “They just do a great job of drilling what we need them to do. And not only do they do that, but they make it fun. Practice is a grind in general, but we try to make it a situation where kids enjoy being there.” 

“[The coaching staff does] a great job of getting so many different people ready to play,” he continued. “We meet in the offseason and get an idea of who can play where, but at the end of the day we really use the offseason to find who can play multiple positions and we actually teach people to play multiple positions, which allows us to bounce guys around.”

With Dodger teams consistently reloading with talent each seasson, Kubik gives  a lot of credit to the Madison junior varsity team, which owns a winning streak that spans over two years, according to the head coach, as well as the junior Dodger football program.

“Our JV team hasn’t lost a game in two-and-a-half years, so those guys have been outstanding,” he said. “And of course, there are varsity assistants who coach the JV, too, and they just take so much pride in that team doing well. And our junior program is outstanding. They really do a great job of getting kids out and teaching them fundamentals, keeping them involved in the program and that’s what we want.”

While Kubik's words ring true, 31 wins over three seasons is a difficult feat to ignore.

Leading to the lopsided win/loss record is Kubik's innate understanding of his players’ abilities, a strong work ethic that spills over to the rest of his team and a determination to have teams stick to his hard-nosed, aggressive approach on both sides of the ball.

When considering those factors, it’s no surprise that Kubik’s Dodgers have quickly moved into the forefront of the high school football scene.

“No. 1 is we focus on the weight program, that’s a huge thing for us,” he said. “That’s what kind of closed the gap from the other teams when we were getting beat physically early on. Now we’re in year five of the weight program, so that’s obviously a strength for us.”

According to Kubik, who spends a lot of time working with the Madison offensive line, the formula for winning isn’t very complicated. Run the ball and play tough defense, and you'll win games.

“That’s how you win championships,” he said. “Even when we weren’t [winning titles] yet, even though we were trying to build that, if you want to win championships you’ve got to be able to run the ball, especially at this time of the year, and you’ve got to play great defense. Any coach will tell you that’s the formula.”