Salem CC board takes another step toward starting football, extends consultant’s contract a month, buys time to digest data, close gaps
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – The Salem Community College board of trustees heard the most extensive proposal on the athletic department’s plan to bring football to the campus in 2026 Thursday night and although sentiment generally appears favorable the policymakers weren’t quite ready to green light the program.
The board heard a comprehensive 90-minute presentation from athletics director Bob Hughes on the viability of bringing the sport to the college for the first time. The body wasn’t expected to approve the measure at this meeting, but it did keep the door open by extending the contract of consultant Jay Accorsi through Nov. 30 to bring into focus some remaining open questions.
“I wasn’t going to push for a decision at this point in time because I don’t feel we were ready to make a recommendation to the level that we wanted,” Salem CC president Mike Gorman said. “I would not push them to reach a premature conclusion. I will ask them to reach a conclusion, but I wouldn’t have forced the issue that we need to know tonight. I don’t think that would have been in their best interest.”
He anticipates taking the question to a vote Nov. 20 “as long as a couple of things fall into place between now and then.”
The extension gives the board’s members time to digest all the data in the 75-page report Hughes presented before it can consider signing off on such a large investment. Research indicates it will cost between $350,000 and $400,000 in initial start-up costs with about one-tenth of that needed by January if the Mighty Oaks plan to play in the fall of 2026.
The November target will allow the new program, if approved, to start hiring coaches, recruiting players, buying equipment and getting the word out.
“The timeline will not wait for us,” Hughes said.
“My biggest concern right now is making sure we do our full due diligence,” board vice chair Jason Supernavage said. “This is a much bigger risk and investment than this college has ever seen when it comes to athletics, at least during my tenure here. This is one of those things I would not want to get wrong just because the emotional side of it looks like it’s something we want to have.
“It’s not that I’m anti the concept of adding. I think it’s a great idea, but before I feel comfortable putting support behind it I think there’s a lot of logistics the board should feel obligated to find out because this number is going to be so large I wouldn’t want to get it wrong. This is a big boy. This is not monopoly money. This is one of those I’d like to see specifics and not generalities.”
Hughes called football “the next logical step and natural progression” in the college’s growth.
Starting the program could bring an additional 100 students immediately to campus. When the school brought back sports in 2018, it saw an increase of 140 students, only about half of whom were athletes.
“For me, it lines up with our mission and I wouldn’t be talking to you if I didn’t think it did,” Hughes said. “If I didn’t believe that this serves our mission I wouldn’t be so full-throated behind it.
“I believe strongly that this can bring a campus together and I want to see what that looks like here. This is a moment that we have an opportunity to do something that people probably 10 years ago didn’t think was possible. For us it’s a chance to say we have this possibility, that we have a purpose here and we’re ready to partake in the next step.”
The most immediate question is securing a practice site. The Mighty Oaks will start talking with the National Junior College Athletic Association next week about declaring the sport and hope to hold a spring practice with 20 to 40 players, but they need a place to hold it. The preferred space is the Carneys Point Rec Complex, which currently serves as the home for the Mighty Oaks’ baseball team, but there are logistical issues with the township to consider.
Other venues being considered are the nearby YMCA fields and the Walnut Street Field in Salem City that was once the game-day home of Salem High School. The Carneys Point Complex is appealing because it would allow the Mighty Oaks to unify all their teams in one location.
“If we can’t get a commitment on the site all bets are off,” Gorman said.
Games are expected to be played in local high school stadiums, starting with Pennsville and Penns Grove. Officials expect a short schedule of at least six to eight games the first year.
Accorsi told the board the climate is right for a junior college football program to flourish in New Jersey and Salem is the “right fit” to get the ball rolling.
Gorman said he’s never had a negative reaction from anyone in the public arena when he’s brought up the idea of football at Salem. The votes are believed to be there from the board to approve it. Typically the board has supported the president’s recommendation when it finds a proposal is well researched.
There is only one two-year school in New Jersey that currently offers football – Sussex County CC – and the conditions under which it started the program are said to be “vastly different” than the reason Salem is considering it.
Sussex did it to save jobs within the college. Salem is doing it to bring more students on campus. When the Mighty Oaks revived their athletics program in 2018, student enrollment increased by 140, and less than half of those new students were athletes.
The addition of football could open the door for other activities for students, Hughes told the board. He finds the prospect of the first Homecoming football Saturday at Salem CC particularly exciting.
The athletic department already has been fielding calls from prospective football players once word started getting out the school was moving towards the sport.
“There is no way I could get 100 students tomorrow in another way,” Gorman said. “There’s just no other pathways that would bring us 100 students that rapidly.”
Administrators at other JUCOs in the state are watching and selfishly hoping the Mighty Oaks can make a go of it. The thinking there is if Salem can do it, so can they.
Riverview Sports News 