A year in the making, Salem CC to officially kick off inaugural football season Wednesday, school officials say goal not only to increase enrollment, but ‘change lives’
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – Not even the biggest snowstorm in a decade is going to derail Salem Community College from launching its football program.
Like a tush push from the 1, the Mighty Oaks are determined to see this thing they’ve been working on for nearly a year across the goal line. The acorn gets planted Wednesday at 4 p.m. in festivities in the school’s Davidow Theater.
“We are completely ready to go,” SCC athletics director Bob Hughes said. “I think it’s just a culmination of a lot of people’s hard work and efforts and it’ll be great to show the world not just what we’re doing but why we’re doing it. I’m excited for the community and excited to really put this thing into motion.”
School officials are expecting upwards of 200 people for the event, which is free and open to the public. Of course, the fallout of this weekend’s snowstorm could impact the turn out and some elements of the festivities, but not enough to dampen the level of anticipation the likes of which they hadn’t seen here since re-launching athletics in 2019.
“I don’t know if weather will have an impact on that or not, but we’re going to be there,” president Mike Gorman said. “We’re having this kickoff literally and figuratively come snow or high water.”
The school has been exploring the possibility of bringing football to campus since retired Rowan University head coach Jay Accorsi brought the idea to president Gorman last spring and gone about it in what Hughes called “cautiously and in a calculated fashion.”
After going through Accorsi’s exhaustive research, the board of trustees green-lighted the program in November, installed Accorsi as interim head coach to get recruiting off the ground, and will formally introduce him as the program’s first head coach during Wednesday’s event.
The team has secured a practice facility on property adjacent to the Carneys Point Rec Complex, will undertake a spring practice and begin play as a JUCO Division III independent this fall.
With Wednesday’s launch, Salem will join Sussex CC as the only two-year colleges in New Jersey playing NJCAA-sanctioned football and the only two between Central New York and Louisburg, N.C. It’s that wide footprint and underserved player population that gives Accorsi confidence the initiative can succeed.
The two colleges have different motivations for starting their programs. Sussex went into it with the hopes of raising revenue to keep its institution viable. Salem sees it as a means to increase enrollment, but with an even more noble purpose.
Salem officials estimate an influx of more than 100 new students because of the introduction of football and its associated programs. Gorman said at last look the school received 54 new applications for the second semester from football alone. Similarly, it had received 19 new applications because of the volleyball program that will begin play in the next academic year.
“The more important part of this is what we’re going to be able to do for those young people who are applying and coming into our program,” Gorman said. “We’re going to change their lives. That’s the long and short of it. We’re doing this not necessarily to boost enrollment, but to get to another segment of our population and change their lives.
“This is a big deal, but there have been so many other big deals (in his 11-year tenure as president). Every commencement is really a big deal. If you ever attend one of our graduation ceremonies, there’s one moment in time that kind of captures everything that we’re about.
“We ask for the students to stand and be recognized for different categories and activities they’re involved with, but when I get to the line where I say if you’re the first one in your family to attend college stand and be recognized more than half the class always stands up. That’s a dynamic moment. That’s the kind of thing we’re chasing with this. How can we make sure these young people have a chance at something better than they’d have otherwise?”
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