St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison has named Matthew Silvestri as its new Athletic Director, the Trojans' successor to Jerry Smith, who announced his retirement in early June after six years at the helm. Silvestri comes from Pioneer Academy in Wayne, where he helped launch and expand the athletic department to 14 programs, including boys' and girls' basketball and volleyball, boys' soccer and wrestling.

The longtime coach, who's been at the same school for decades, is hard to come by anymore. Just this year, the Big Central Conference lost two football mentors who long predate the superleague. Earlier this year, Zoran Milich stepped down at Montgomery, having started the program quarter century ago, and last week it was Dave DeNapoli at Dunellen putting away the clipboard.

Carteret got touchdowns from four different players as the Ramblers beat Perth Amboy 28-7 in the 98th meeting between the longstanding rivals, winning their fourth straight game in the series. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play live from Carteret, NJ, on September 5, 2025: 1st Half 2nd Half

One of the most decorated players in Hillsborough football history - who came to Rutgers after playing his final high school game there in 2021, a win over Kingsway in the South Group 5 Regional Championship to finish 13-0 - has announced he's leaving the Scarlet Knights. Thomas Amankwaa will be entering the transfer portal next Monday, announcing the decision on Twitter Wednesday…

All year long, and even before this year, Phillipsburg's motto has been D.I.G. That's Discipline, Ignore The Noise, and Grit. They have lived that to the letter all year long, and despite a pair of losses to two very good teams - Ridge back in late September and Easton on Thanksgiving - it has gotten them where they are today. Or, more accurately, where they'll be Wednesday night.

After two years of playing down to Group Champions in New Jersey High School Football, the Big Central has joined the party, and CJSR analyst Marcus Borden talks about it all with Mike Pavlichko on our final edition of "Gameday with Marcus Borden" this season! Mike and Coach Borden take a look back at Thanksgiving Day games between Plainfield and Westfield, along with Phillipsburg-Easton, then delve into the Stateliners' Group 4 Championship Game at Rutgers Wednesday night against Winslow Twp. Click below to listen to the State Finals Edition of "Gameday with Marcus Borden":

The Manville football team had only made the playoffs five times prior to this season, which has been a dominant one against Big Central competition any way you slice it. Turns out, after coming up empty in all five previous appearances, the sixth time was the charm. The fourth-seeded Mustangs got two touchdowns from Isaiah Bennett, two from Sam Echeverri - one on a run and one on a pass from Josh D'Ambrosio - and a run from D'Ambrosio himself en route to a 35-0 dismantling of fifth-seed Asbury Park Friday night in the Central Jersey Group 1 first round, to give Manville its first playoff win in program history.

It wasn't always easy, and for others it was. You never know what you're going to get in Week Zero football, but nine Big Central Conference teams came out with wins in 15 games on the opening night of the 2025 high school football season. In the Big Central Game of the Week presented by Bellamy & Son Paving, Spotswood got three touchdown runs and a TD pass from senior quarterback Se'mir Tolbert Brimage in a 38-0 shutout of Middlesex at home.

With the NJSIAA's Cutoff Weekend for high school football next week in New Jersey, Central Jersey Sports Radio is taking a closer look at the race for the playoffs, including who's in the running for top seeds, who's in, who's jockeying for position, and who has some work to do just to get in, or stay in the hunt. We'll break down each supersection, with individual team analysis for all Big Central Conference schools.

Playing football in high school is a time-consuming affair. There's weight room, film study, practices, travel to games, and all of that is on top of the typical school work there is to be done. But playing and coaching? For Bernards' David Silva, it's no problem. So in addition to being a solid lineman on a very good defensive squad for the Mountaineers - with 67 tackles, drawing double teams so his teammates could make plays - Silva helped coach the school district's eighth grade team this year.

Though it was a memorable season in so many respects, Phillipsburg's first trip to the state finals - and the Big Central Conference's first team to make it there - didn't go nearly according to plan. Two first-half Stateliner interceptions led indirectly to Winslow Twp. touchdowns, as the Eagles built up a 28-0 lead after the first 24 minutes, and topped the Stateliners 35-0 in the NJSIAA Group 4 final at Rutgers Univeristy's SHI Stadium in Piscataway, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Most people would not have been surprised whoever won Saturday afternoon's game between Phillipsburg and St. Joseph-Metuchen. But few probably figured the No. 1 Stateliners and No. 6 Falcons would have been scoreless at the half, and probably fewer would have predicted a shutout in either direction. But stout play up front on both sides of the ball was the decisive edge, and the Falcons came out with a 21-0 win at Brenner Family Field on the "Big Central Game of the Week" presented by Bellamy & Son Paving, one that will send ripples throughout all the media rankings, including Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Last week, under the lights on a cold night in a do-or-die playoff game at Ridge, every time Colonia needed to make a play, a senior stepped up and delivered. Down 6-0 early and back on defense in the second quarter, senior R.J. Wortman's pick-six helped give Colonia its first lead. Down 13-7 late in the first half, senior Julien Jones rumbled in from six yards out to tie the game just before the break.

Joe Ascolese, the Watchung Hills football team's Offensive Coordinator who has spent nearly two decades on the program's staff over two stints, has been named the Warrriors' new head coach, following the recent departure of Rich Suebert. The move was approved Tuesday night by the Watchung Hills Regional High School Board of Education, according to Athletic Director Dan Root. Ascolese has been the team's OC since 2019, and also was with the program as an assistant from 2005 through 2015.

After retiring from football with the New York Giants in his mid-30s with a Super Bowl ring on his finger, Wisconsin native Rich Seubert and his family moved to California for a few years, where he coached a little football at the high school level. But eventually, he came back to the East Coast, returning to New Jersey, and started coaching the offensive line at Watchung Hills.

Former Woodbridge standout Anthony Nyers is the new head coach of the JFK football program, after his hire was approved by the Woodbridge Board of Education last Thursday night. The Woodbridge Board of Ed oversees all three district high schools, including Kennedy, Colonia, and Woodbridge. Nyers had spent the past year working as the wide receivers' coach and Offensive Coordinator at Westfield under Matt Andzel, who just wrapped up his second season as the successor to Jim DeSarno.

High school football is at it again. According to a report out Thursday from Shore Sports Insider (formerly Shore Sports Network), the NJSIAA's Leagues and Conferences committee has recommended that the NJSIAA move back to snaking playoff brackets in each section, rather than splitting them up geographically. Snaked brackets are intended to "balance" them. In that process, when the top 16 in North and South in each group are determined, teams are placed into sections with, for example, the top overall seed in Central, then seeds 2 and 3 in South, then 4 and 5 in Central, 6 and 7 in South, and so on.

When John Hack took the head coaching job at Voorhees two years ago, he told his athletic director the only other job he'd ever take would be in the his own home district, where he and his family live, up at Mendham. Two years later, that's where he's headed. Hack was approved Monday night by the West Morris-Mendham Board of Education to be the new head football coach at Mendham, replacing Ethan Jeros, who was brought back following a 4-6 season.

After three seasons leading the JFK football program, Mike Henderson handed in his resignation on Monday to spend more time with his family. Henderson confirmed the news to Central Jersey Sports Radio this week, saying it was a "difficult decision to make," but says he has two young children at home - two years old and nine months - and says he "didn't want to be absent for either responsibility," family or coaching.

The New Jersey Football Coaches Association has come out with the 2025 edition of its "Super 100" All-State team, with nearly two dozen Big Central Conference standouts being honored. The NJFCA Super 100 is chosen by coaches among its members, and 25 are recognized in each of four sections - Central, South, North 1 and North 2 - with non-publics included as well.

With the 2025 Central Jersey Sports Radio Big Central Awards Show in the books, we decided to take a look back at all the award winners we've had in the show's six years. So far, we've honored 111 different players and 34 of the Big Central's 59 teams, and that's not even counting all the Honorable Mentions in the various categories.

Everyone knows the Phillipsburg mystique, but Frank Duffy prefers to call it "the standard." The measuring stick by which all Stateliner teams are judged. That stick has 758 marks on it, one for every win the program has, the most in New Jersey history, spread across 120 years of football that sometimes has taken them to Pennsylvania, more often here at home in the Garden State, and - like next year - will see a mix of Pennsy and Jersey schools on the schedule.

As always, there were tons of great performances across the Big Central during the 202 high school football season, and it's not always easy choosing the Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week Award. But, of course, thanks to Central Jersey Sports Radio founding sponsor Joe Bellamy - without whom none of this would be possible - somehow, we figure it out.