Legacy opener

Schalick has a lot of history with opening-night opponent Gloucester City; Cougars to recognize 2003 title team, former player

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE – If Mike Wilson weren’t coaching football, chances are you’d find him wandering around some old Civil War battlefield soaking in all the history it has to offer.

He’s been to almost all of them. The self-described “history nerd” could probably give you a tour of Gettysburg off the top of his head and make it just as real as if he were standing under a witness tree watching the battle unfold in front of him.

History is a big part of the talks he gives his Schalick football team and it’s the underlying theme as the Cougars open their season at home Friday night against Gloucester City.

The teams may be 30 miles apart but have a rich history together. The Cougars have played the Lions more than any team in their football history (43 times). You could look it up. Assistant coach Frank Amar did. 

“One of the coaches said we’ve played them so much how come they’re not our trophy game,” Wilson said. 

The teams have played almost continuously since 1977, missing only in 1989 and 1990 and 2018-21. Gloucester won the first meeting 12-0 and leads the series 29-13-1, but the tide has turned in recent years with Schalick winning 12 of the last 18. The Cougars’ first win came in 1984.

There’s more history than that surrounding this game and this season. The Cougars will recognize the 20^th anniversary of their 2003 South Jersey Group I championship team and honor the memory of former player and local legend Anthony Allen, who lost his battle with cancer during the offseason.

No Schalick player will wear Allen’s jersey number this season and the team will wear a commemorative “42” decal on the back of their helmets in tribute to a player whose legacy in the community goes beyond the football record book. 

“I think it’s important to remember history,” Wilson said. “We talk about that a lot with the kids, the history of our program. It’s important for the kids to know what came before them so they can build on that.”

The Cougars will be out to make some new history Friday night. They haven’t won a season opener since 2019 (Palmyra 30-8) – the year before Wilson became head coach – and lost to the Lions in last year’s opener 21-0 when the series renewed after a four-year break.

“We’ve been preparing for this game probably the past month,” fullback Riley Papiano said. “We’re more than ready for this game, getting every single player as we can the most ready we can be for any team we’re going to be playing.”

It’s certainly not an easy opener. The Lions are a hard-nosed, blue-collar type team that went 9-3 last year and return 13 starters from a group that lost to Willingboro in the Central Jersey Group II final.

“We felt looking at our division schedule and our goal is to play playoff football; we needed to somebody with a higher strength index,” Wilson explained. “They were junior heavy last year, we were kind of senior heavy and this year we’re switched. They were last year what we are right now.”

The Cougars may be a little younger than their opening-night opponent, but they have a returning group Wilson says “who can play with anybody.” They’ve also added a dimension the Lions didn’t see last year. 

They have injected enough of a passing element to their offense to make teams respect that part of their game and Kenai Simmons has come along to become an effective dual threat. Simmons says it will make them “way harder” for teams to stop them this season.

“We’re ready,” Wilson said. “As a coach you always want more preparation, but we’re ready to go.”

Photo: Kenai Simmons (L) has moved to quarterback with an increased role as a passer for the Cougars and Riley Papiano is in a new role at fullback.