New field of dreams

Salem CC finalizes purchase of property that will become the football team’s practice facility and hub for all of its outdoor sports

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT — The Salem Community College football program had a practice facility in theory for the last month or so, but now the Mighty Oaks have a practice facility.

The school announced Thursday it had finalized the purchase of a six-acre plot of land adjacent to the Carneys Point Rec Complex to serve as the practice facility for its new football program and future hub for all of its outdoor sports. The purchase price was $115,000 to be paid over a 10-year mortgage..

“Obtaining this practice site was crucial to our football program,” college president Mike Gorman said. “The cooperation and support of the Carneys Point Township Committee past and present made this step possible.”

School officials still have to walk the grounds for a better assessment of its use, but football coach Jay Accorsi said he hoped to have the roughly two dozen players already on campus on the field for spring practice in April.

In time, the plan is to construct a building on the site to serve training, storage and other needs.

“It really means a lot for the department as a whole because we’re going to be able to consolidate our outdoor sports into one location,” athletics director Bob Hughes said. “But specifically for football, it allows us to move forward with the tangible parts of building this program.

“Coach Accorsi has been great about adjusting and moving and going with the flow, for the lack of a better term. This is allow us to have firm ideas of where things will be, what will be in places. We don’t know when we’ll have them yet, but we’ll have a much more solid and firm idea of what it is exactly we’ll be able to have.”

The college’s board of trustees approved bringing football to campus in November and it formally launched the program in January with the introduction as Accorsi as the head coach. The former Rowan head coach had been serving as the consultant during the exploration of starting a football program and was named interim head coach in the run up to the official launch.

The program has only two coaches on staff to date – Accorsi and Joe Dougherty – but Accorsi recently got approval to hire two more assistants. He hopes to have those positions filled by April and has had “large interest by a lot coaches” to join the staff.

The plan is to play an eight-game schedule this fall with home games being played in county high school stadiums. The opponents include a home-and-home set with Sussex County, the only other junior college in New Jersey playing football, and single games with Erie CC, Hudson Valley CC, Nassau CC, Thaddeus Stevens, Army Prep and Navy Prep. The formal schedule with dates and venues is expected to be announced soon.

Finding a suitable practice facility was perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting the program off the ground. The school had considered four properties before settling on the site known as Twins Field. The property sits just beyond the outfield fence of where the Mighty Oaks play their home baseball games. 

“When Mike sent me the email that we finally closed I really excited,” Accorsi said. “It was like of like a breath of fresh air and relief because we’ve been talking about that field and facility for such a while that it’s good to finally have it done. 

“I’m super excited. That was the one piece that kind of finalized the whole situation here for starting football. To have that finally completed it’s awesome. It’s great.”