Season Preview: Bergen Catholic Football

Nunzio Campanile enters his second season as head coach of the Bergen Catholic Crusaders football team after a successful first season.

The team went 10-2 and made it to the NJSIAA Non-Public IV State Championship game where they lost and 19 players from that team went on to play college football. The outlook for this season is also quite positive.

 “While we graduated some excellent seniors, we believe we are poised for another great season," said Campanile. "We believe we will get tremendous play out of our defensive line, our defensive backfield, and our wide receiver corp. We believe that with the players we have, we should compete for a state championship every year.”

The Crusaders defensive line, defensive backs, and wide receivers should be particularly strong this season with the return of players such as Hunter Kisleick, Mike Gerst, James Dawson, Chucky Wingate, Jagger Brady, and many more.

The season will kick off in Philadelphia when the Crusaders take on Lasalle College High School on September 10. Other highlight games include: rivals Saint Joe’s Montvale and Don Bosco, along with St. Peter’s Prep, and Plant High School from Tampa, Florida.

With practices underway, Campanile is pleased with what he has seen so far.

“We are very happy with the progress we've made in practice so far this summer. We obviously graduated some great players, but our guys understand the expectations we have at Bergen Catholic. They expect to work hard and perform. We have some strong senior leaders and two great classes of underclassmen to support them. Our practices have been highly competitive, and that is one of the benchmarks of our program,” he said.

Although the team lost many important seniors, the remaining players are more than able to step up, replace them, and make the team one of the strongest in New Jersey this season.

“While we have an extremely challenging schedule, we also have very high expectations," said Campanile. "We believe that we play many of the best teams in New Jersey as well as a few of the best teams in the country, that’s a great opportunity for our kids.  We play that schedule because we expect to be the best football team in New Jersey.  We understand that this will not be easy, but we wouldn't play this aggressive a schedule if we were looking to be a good team. We want to be the best.”