Their numbers may be few, but the players participating in Salem CC’s first spring football practice are committed to the vision and setting the base for the larger group coming in August
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – Ben Secouler thought he was done – with football and all that it represented for his future. He tried to make a go of it at a small college in Vermont but it just wasn’t happening for him. Twice he went, twice he came home. The school had a beautiful campus, the academics he wanted and, of course, football. What it didn’t have was proximity to his South Jersey home and he returned to settle into a life as a working man taking on-line college courses wondering what might have been.
Then one day he was scrolling through his social media and came across an item that has the potential to change his life. He saw Salem Community College was starting a junior college football program, the first of its kind for miles around. Suddenly, the fire to play again was rekindled. He was going to be back in the game.
“I saw this and I just had to grab it up,” said Secouler, who last played in 2022 as a senior at Cherry Hill West. “And I was very grateful for it, too, because I thought I was done. I thought I was just being a working man going to school. It gives me another opportunity to play, to do what I love, and also get an education. That’s a big goal of mine. I want to be the first in my family to get a degree. It’s definitely a blessing. It kind of just fell into my lap, so I had to take the opportunity.”
Aiden Alexander thought he was done, too. He went to Kutztown, his only real opportunity after a productive high school career at Kingsway, for the fall 2024 semester, where he redshirted, but he never really felt comfortable and transferred to RCSJ-Gloucester to focus on his academics. He reached out to D-IIIs like Rowan and Montclair for a shot, but got no response. When he saw his high school coach post an item about Salem’s start-up, he jumped at the chance and now has recovered the confidence he lost in his previous experience.
“I know I’ve still got talent,” the defensive back said. “My goal is to go D-I and try to make it to the NFL. My coach posted something on Twitter about Salem starting a new football program. It’s 15 minutes away from me; that’s a God-given shot right there. Why not? I thought it was over until I got an opportunity here. I feel like it’s a God-given opportunity, a second chance to get to the next level.”
Stories like Secouler and Alexander were typical among the six players working out for the hour or so that represented the mid-point of the Mighty Oaks’ inaugural spring practice and will be throughout the 80 or so that will join them in August.
They are exactly the type player retired Rowan head coach Jay Accorsi had in mind when he pitched the idea of having football to president Mike Gorman in the spring, bringing the sport to campus not as some Last Chance University but as a second chance for the many players of the region, some two years or more removed from the game, who fell through the cracks but still had the desire and ability to play. Not only would they get a second chance to play the game they still loved, but also a college education they may have given up on because the game passed them by.
“All of them have a very interesting story and interesting path, and that’s kind of going to be what the program is,” Accorsi said, “trying to help young men figure out what they’re going to do not only academically and socially, but athletically and football wise and help in their journey. They all have a different story that’s pretty unique and interesting. That’s what I’m excited about. I’m excited about all the others who are going to join us that have all those interesting situations as well.”
Sean Ferebee last played in a real football game in 2021, his junior year at West Deptford. He didn’t play his senior high school season after transferring back to Williamstown and had no college ball thereafter. He’s just been working and training and hoping for an opportunity. Because it’s been so long that coaches have had eyes on him, he knows he has to work 10 times harder than the players around him to prove himself, but he’s hoping to show it’s never too late.
“That’s why I’m back here,” he said. “I missed it a lot. Every time football came around I always missed it the most, but when this opportunity came around I felt like it would have been good for a fresh start. To be honest I used to trick myself into thinking it was too late and then I got out of my own head, saw this opportunity and decided to take it and give it 100 percent.”
“I’ve got a chip on my shoulder being as though I didn’t get to play my senior season (in high school). A lot of people doubted me, but I’m here to make a name for myself.”
Brian Pritchett hasn’t been away from it as long as Ferebee – the 2023 high school season was the last year he took snaps – but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He tried to hook on with Sussex CC, the other junior college in New Jersey offering football, and Lackawanna, and sent feelers to other JUCOs around the country, but found no success.
He kept the faith that something would come along and kept training for when it did, and when Salem CC popped up, he pounced.
“I missed it a lot,” he said. “Every time I went to work it’s the first thing on my mind; I want to play football. I was working night shift and the only thing on my mind was football. I’d rather be in college in a dorm getting my rest for practice in the morning instead of being their working at night.
“This is amazing. I feel like if we do pretty good this will bring a lot of opportunity, a lot of players from Jersey, to come here instead of having to leave.”
That’s what Jermar Jones had to do to play at a level he thought best fit his ability. The West Deptford safety played at Chestnut Hill in 2023, but he was so aggressive in the weight-restricted sprint program they put him at defensive end. He just “didn’t feel like I was supposed to be a part of that” and sought something more. The next year he tried to catch on with D-II Savannah State without success, but he learned something about the process along the way.
“I found out that football can become real political, especially with the NIL and transfer portal, so I just wanted to find somewhere where I would just be able to play the game of football and actually love it for the game of football and not for no money, not for anything outside that can distract me away from the main focus and that was to get better each day I decide to play football.”
And that’s what he sees in his chance with the Mighty Oaks.
“It’s definitely a second chance, not just for me but for JUCO football in Jersey,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of shine here on the whole JUCO scene in New Jersey so I think this brings a lot of eyes to the guys who don’t get enough attention, especially the guys who go under shown … I feel like this is our time to get those guys an opportunity to showcase our talents and get a second chance at this. High school was the first, but this is now the opportunity we’re given again by God and by the football gods to be able to play the game we love.”
M.J. Hall was a two-sport athlete at Woodstown. He had offers to play basketball out of high school and even thought about going into the military, but still had a yearn to play football. When Accorsi told him he needed a player like Hall in the slot, the idea of a local player playing for the hometown college started to have a lot of appeal. He even talked with the basketball staff about playing both sports, but said basketball would have to wait until after football.
He absolutely gets what having a football program at Salem means in the big picture.
“it means a lot because where I’m from, you’re not really looked at in Woodstown,” he said. “To be here and play at the next level, it’s a good opportunity. Everybody’s dream is to be DI and go to like Alabama or something like that, but JUCO, D-3, D=2, D-1l, you still made it. You can always go from here up higher. It’s just all about opportunity and how you present yourself.
“I feel like this program was needed because out of south jersey we don’t go to like big schools. For us to have an opportunity here and be able to build a brotherhood and get on the same page with Coach Accorsi it’s going to be fun. It’s a blessing and hopefully we can take off this year and be better next year.”
Of course, it all starts with practice. What is serving as the team’s first spring practice for the six or eight players who show up every session is more or less an hour or so of stretching and drill work with Accorsi and his assistants Joe Dougherty, Chris Crowley and Damon Troy. There aren’t enough players available to scrimmage, so the work is mostly individual, but those out there every day are committed to the vision and are building a core for when the larger group arrives in the summer.
The group already has established a tradition uniquely their own, developing a M-I-G-H-T-Y-O-A-K-S jumping jacks routine to start and finish every practice, which Accorsi called “really cool.” After Saturday morning’s Open House in Davidow Hall for prospective players, the Base Eight plans to head out to the bowling alley in Woodstown for some more group bonding.
“They represent the foundation of the program because they’re the ones who are going to help us teach all the new players how to stretch, how to practice, how to do things.,” Accorsi said. “When we start in August with 80, 85, 90, whatever it is, this is going to be that core group that’s going to help us train the new players who come because they are not new players.
“They are the first to ever practice as a Salem Community College football player, the first of the Mighty Oaks football players.”
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