Wall Schools Advertise For New Head Football Coach

WALL, NJ — The Wall Township School District is advertising for a head football coach, the first clear signal that the football program will continue after a hazing scandal that has rocked the community.

The ad on NJSchoolJobs.com was posted Friday, just days after a school board meeting where a parent demanded to know what the district was planning. He said there had been no formal communication with the players since before Thanksgiving, when the district canceled the Thanksgiving football game against Manasquan.

That game and the team's participation in the NJSIAA playoffs both were canceled in the days after the hazing scandal first surfaced publicly on Nov. 9.

Since then, several students have been charged with hazing, attempted criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact, false imprisonment and harassment in connection to incidents that happened in September and October in the Wall High School football locker room, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said Jan. 10. The prosecutor's office has not identified them because they are juveniles.

The scandal has included allegations that multiple students held a victim by his arms and legs while another poked him with a broomstick. Last week, an attorney for three victims said the incidents happened repeatedly. Read more: NJ Student Hazing Incidents Happened Repeatedly, Attorney Says

Three coaches were suspended in November, including Anthony Grandinetti, the head coach, according to an Asbury Park Press report.

"What's next for the players left in the aftermath of what took place in that locker room," Rogers said at the Jan. 18 school board meeting. "All they have been told is the season has been scheduled, but what about the preparation for that season?"

Rogers said his son had recently toured another school and was weighing the possibility of transferring because the future of the football program at Wall was unclear.

"What's next for my son, a 15-year-old sophomore football player who loves his friends and his teammates dearly and wants nothing more than to stay at this school?" Rogers said, adding that other players were considering transferring as well.

"There has been zero discussion with this team about their future," he said.

Part of that preparation typically involves offseason work in the weight room. Rogers said there has been none, and called it "a very serious health and safety concern for my son and his friends."

Grandinetti and two other coaches on the team — Michael Cerminaro and Joseph LaFerlita — had their winter sports assignments rescinded at the Dec. 14 meeting. Grandinetti was to supervise the weight room; that duty has instead been assigned to James Rochford, according to the board agenda from December.

In addition to the coaching suspensions, athletic director Tom Ridoux was suspended. Nick Pizzulli was approved at the Dec. 14 school board meeting to serve as acting athletic director. Pizzulli, a former athletic director at Red Bank Regional High School and former president of the Shore Conference, worked at Sayreville High School in the aftermath of the 2014 hazing scandal at that high school.

The advertisement for the head football coaching position says the school, which has 1,000 students, is seeking "an experienced Head Varsity Football Coach to build upon a history of success."

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