Gridiron New Jersey, the gatekeeper of the formula that determines that New Jersey high school football playoff field, released its starting strength index rating for the 2025 season Thursday.
The index is just one of the tools that go into determining the power rankings used for tournament seedings.
Listed below are the starting strength index ratings for the teams in the West Jersey Football League Diamond and Patriot Divisions that contain the Salem County teams as well as the ratings for South Jersey Group I.
The top 16 teams in the South Jersey Group I United Power Ratings (UPR) will make up the Group I South and Central Jersey brackets.
The complete can be found at the gridironnewjersey.com website.
Macholsky confirms he’s not returning as Pennsville’s basketball coach, just didn’t feel a connection to the team last season
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – While many high school basketball teams are in the midst of summertime workouts, Pennsville’s program is in the midst of a coaching search.
Colorful Pennsville coach Joe Macholsky confirmed to Riverview Sports News Monday that he would not be returning to direct the Eagles’ program when school starts in September. He will remain a teacher at Penns Grove’s Carleton Elementary – he’s been a teacher for 29 years – and serve as an assistant for Pennsville’s boys soccer team “probably” one more year, but the hoops gig is over.
“I still haven’t snapped back from the devastation of the (last) season,” he said. “The juice was no longer worth the squeeze.”
Macholsky, 50, told Pennsville athletics director Jamy Thomas of his intentions back in April so the administration could start the process of finding a successor, but not many others knew.
He had been the Eagles’ head coach for eight difficult seasons, never winning more than 10 games in any year, but the strain of a 2-22 campaign last winter that came with myriad challenges was the breaking point. And the prospects don’t look good going forward, even with a softened schedule.
“I just like it too much to put myself through that misery again,” he said. “It was the first time in my career I didn’t feel a connection to the team.”
Additionally, he had a health scare in late May that hospitalized him for five days. Two blood clots, believed to have formed after he took a wild warmup pitch off his shin walking to the first base coach’s box during Penns Grove’s baseball season, broke off and traveled to his lungs.
This story will be updated.
Pennsville basketball coach Joe Macholsky (L) shares a light moment with Penns Grove coach and teaching colleague Damien Ware before continuing their on-court rivalry in a January 2004 game.
Salem Tech bringing field hockey, baseball, softball on line in upcoming academic year, runs lineup of sports to 14
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
From the moment Salem County Vo-Tech instituted an athletics program the vision was to provide the most inclusive list of offerings. It’s been a slow process, but the growth has been steady, calculated and in line with the interests of the students.
The Chargers are growing again, bringing on line three more sports for the upcoming school year – field hockey this fall and baseball and softball in the spring.
“We’re just really excited to get started and kind of see (how it goes),” athletics director Jim Helder said. “Knowing that the interest is there makes us excited. I always say if the kids are excited for it I’m all for it, because it tells me we’re offering meaningful programs for them.
“Whenever we decide to add a new sport it’s not something we just act on quickly. We have to make sure that interest is going to be there and we want to make sure it doesn’t pull away from our current offerings. So we did a lot of interest meetings, polling, things like that and we decided to move forward.”
The additional sports bring to 14 the number the school offers – boys and girls cross country, soccer, basketball, bowling and volleyball; boys/coed golf; and, now, field hockey, softball and baseball.
The new sports will classify as Group II for NJSIAA playoff purposes because of the way the governing body counts its populations and play in the Tri-County Conference Classic Division, a convenient and appropriate replacement for Wildwood returning to the Cape Atlantic League in 2026-27. They will compete as an independent this coming school year because the conference is in the second of a two-year schedule cycle, but will be eligible for the state playoffs.
The most recent NJSIAA documents for Fall 2025-26 sports, updated September 2024, place Vo-Tech’s enrollment at 614 (two above the field hockey Group II threshold). All the other high schools in Salem County compete in Group I.
With Tech’s expansion, five of the six Salem County high schools now will play field hockey and all six will play baseball and softball.
Vo-Tech administrators have had a desire to add baseball for a while and began making Tri-County Conference administrators and member schools aware of their intention to bring the three new sports aboard in 2025-26 in the fall.
Coaches have been hired and facilities secured.
Maureen Lewis is the field hockey head coach, Pat Fisher will coach softball and John Helsel will coach baseball. All three are either teachers or staff members in the Vo-Tech school system and all have coaching experience on the school or youth levels. Fisher is the Cougars’ former boys basketball coach.
The Chargers will play all their home games in the new sports on dedicated on-campus facilities. The field hockey team’s first regular-season home game is Sept. 10 against Paulsboro. The spring schedules are still a work in progress.
The first-year schedules will be built around teams that did not qualify for the playoffs in their respective groups last season.
Because the programs are so new, Helder said it would “unfair” to place any expectations on their first-year success.
“I know as an AD I have three individuals (as coaches) who are going to run really good programs, that’ll be clean programs, the kids are going to learn a lot,” Helder said. “The coaches are going to give the kids everything they’ve got, which is really all I can ask for at that point.
“If they win, that’s kind of icing on the cake at that point. But our kids are going to learn these sports these sports the way, in my opinion, they should be learned, which is exciting.”
The additions have the potential to impact the rosters of the other county teams since the Salem Tech students who played their sport at their home district schools because Tech didn’t offer it previously now, by NJSIAA rule, have to play for the Chargers.
“I can’t give the actual number (of those athletes),” Helder said, “but I’ve sat in on the interest meetings and when the field hockey coaches asked how many are currently playing for their home district I would say on average maybe five or six hands went up. There may be some, but it didn’t seem to me like an overwhelming number.”
Jaxson Raymond, a rising sophomore at Vo-Tech who played baseball for Penns Grove this past spring and started summer basketball workouts for the Chargers Monday, is pleased his school will have a baseball team.
“I’m kind of happy, now that I don’t have to go back and forth,” he said. “I can just keep my bag there.”
East Vineland walks off Penns Grove in District 3 semifinals to end Salem County team’s historic run in tournament
DISTRICT 3 FINALS Thursday’s Game At North Vineland East Vineland 13, Penns Grove 3 Saturday’s Championship Game At South Vineland South Vineland vs. East Vineland, 7 p.m. Sunday’s Game At South Vineland If necessary, 7 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
VINELAND – Tanner Raymond was slowly walking back towards home plate after it was over still upset about the way things went in the game and the part he played in it. His manager could see all the way from the outfield grass the player was hurting and made it a point to catch up to him.
The two met about a quarter way up the first base line and shared a long, emotional embrace. It was the kind of hug that was more in line with father and son than manager and player.
The Penns Grove Little League All-Stars were just a few minutes removed from Thursday night’s 13-3 walk-off loss to East Vineland that ended their historic run in the District 3 Tournament. It was not the way any of them wanted it to end, certain not starting pitcher Tanner Raymond, but when manager Steve Raymond finally caught up to his son the message was a lot bigger than any game.
“Just trying to reinforce to him that no matter what happens here, he’s loved,” Steve Raymond said as he sat in a dark corner of a dugout that had been long cleared of its players. “Win or lose, whether he’s the last out or hits a home run, he’s still loved the same way either way.”
The plan going into the game was to get two good innings out of Tanner and Josh Amplas and go to Jimmy LaPalomento only “if we needed him” – and hopefully not at all – to save him for the championship round with ace Achillius Vong unavailable due to mandatory pitch-count rest.
Well, they needed him as Tanner and Amplas combined didn’t get through the second inning.
Tanner walked four of the first six batters he faced and was out after 25 pitches, down 1-0 and responsible for all three runners on base. Amplas walked the first two batters he faced behind him making it 3-0 and then was touched for six runs in the second before being lifted for LaPalomento.
“It was pretty hard because (the plate umpire’s) zone wasn’t very wide; it was small,” Tanner said. “But it wasn’t him, we weren’t doing the right thing and we weren’t on time with it. It’s not the coaches’ fault, we came out here flat and we weren’t ready to play.
“It was getting a little frustrating because he wasn’t calling any strikes … I just wanted to try to go up there and throw strikes and retire batters so they couldn’t go up there and hit.”
Penns Grove’s three pitchers walked a total of 11 batters in the game and the walk-off run scored in the fourth when LaPalomento hit Bryce Magee with two outs after walking the bases loaded.
“The walks killed us, that’s all it was,” Steve Raymond said. “Millville told me the same thing when they played these guys. The walks got them.”
East Vineland drew 10 walks when it beat Millville in the opening round of bracket play.
Penns Grove, who faced elimination ever since they lost to South Vineland in their first bracket game, rallied from a three-run first-inning deficit to win Wednesday’s elimination game, but there was no such comeback this time.
Even though they trailed, manager Raymond said, “we weren’t really down on ourselves,” and even after the second inning “we still thought we had a chance.”
“The same thing that happened at Millville,” Raymond said. “We were down three and came back. I thought we were going to.”
They scored two in the third inning on Vong’s one-out single to right that made it 9-3, but East Vineland scored three in the bottom of the inning on four consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly to put it on the cusp again. Penns Grove threatened in the fourth, but East Vineland kept them off the board and finally pushed across the the run it needed to put it away in the bottom of the inning.
“We were trying to just chip away,” Tanner said. “We weren’t trying to take a huge lead, we weren’t just trying to chip away every inning, so we could get closer to the game.”
They won’t soon forget this Penns Grove all-star team. Before this year, the program hadn’t won a game in the district tournament since 2011 and hadn’t won a game in the final since well before that. But this team won four games, threw a no-hitter, took the top seed in its pool and won a game in the bracket finals. They were one of the last three teams standing.
“We told them we’re so proud of them,” Steve Raymond said. “We wouldn’t change a single play that’s on the team. Each one of them did something whether it was coming in relief pitching, making an awesome play, hitting the ball hard, being smart on the bases, they all did great things.”
Salem County squad puts together late-game rally to knock off Millville American, earn a spot in Thursday’s District 3 Little League Tournament semifinals
DISTRICT 3 FINALS Wednesday’s Games At Millville South Vineland 4, East Vineland 1 Penns Grove 6, Millville American 3 Thursday’s Game At North Vineland East Vineland vs. Penns Grove, 7 p.m. Saturday’s Championship Game At South Vineland South Vineland vs. Thursday’s winner, 7 p.m. Sunday’s Game At South Vineland If necessary, 7 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
MILLVILLE – For four innings Wednesday night it looked like Penns Grove’s historic run in the District 3 Little League Tournament was going to end on a foreign field an hour from home. But then they came alive to stay alive.
After being handcuffed for four innings by Millville American starter Elijah Roman, Penns Grove used a combination of timely hitting and aggressive base running to erupt for five runs in the fifth inning against reliever Jackson Haley to pull off a 6-3 win to play another day.
Penns Grove, the No. 1 seed from the American pool, will play East Vineland, the No. 1 seed from the National pool, in another elimination game Thursday 7 p.m. at the North Vineland LL complex. That winner will play South Vineland for the district title Saturday (and Sunday, if necessary).
“We were 100 percent coming into this game to win,” Penns Grove manager Steve Raymond said. “They came with energy today, ready to win. The boys were ready to win 100 percent.”
But just like in their division-clinching pool-play win over the Americans here last Friday, it took them a while to get going.
The Salem County survivors couldn’t get anything going against Roman. They managed just one hit, four baserunners and struck out eight times before he was lifted after 68 pitches with the aim of having him available if the Americans made it to a Sunday championship showdown.
The strategy backfired. Roman hit Achillius Vong with his final pitch to start the fifth. The harder-throwing Haley walked S.J. Poindexter and then Tanner Raymond singled home Vong. Poindexter scored on a passed ball and Nolan O’Brien doubled home Raymond to tie the game.
“I’ve just been working on hitting the ball,” O’Brien said. “I know I was 0-for-3 Monday against South Vineland, but I got that out of my head, reset my mind at the plate and just went up there knowing I would hit the ball.”
O’Brien then stole third and Anthony Handte walked to put runners at the corner. Handte moved into scoring position with a stolen base and then things really got interesting.
O’Brien started doing his “Achillius Shuffle” down the third-base line, mimicking his teammate’s long, dancing leads on the basepaths just daring the Americans to make a throw. Millville catcher Nate Shelton obliged and when his throw went over Roman and down the left field line both O’Brien and Handte scored to give their team the lead.
They added another run in the sixth on Vong’s sharp RBI double down the left-field line.
“I knew they were going to throw the ball down to third base at some time and they were going to make a mistake some time, just like coach (Jeff) Robertson says,” O’Brien said. “Whatever team makes the most mistakes is the team that will go home, but today we didn’t make too many mistakes.
“We really try to be aggressive on the basepaths. Coach Robertson at third tells us to be aggressive every time we get on the bases and that’s what we were focusing on today.”
Supporting that mindset of coming in to win, Penns Grove allowed Vong to pitch a complete game, knowing it would burn him for the rest of the district finals. After a first inning in which nothing much went right, Vong settled in and gave up only one more hit, three base runners and struck out 12 over the final five innings.
Millville’s first three batters reached base safely against the Penns Grove ace and all three scored.
Haley drew a leadoff walk, Noah Rodriguez singled past third and Shelton reached on an error to load the bases. Haley scored when Penns Grove unsuccessful went to first on C.J. Tipton’s grounder to the right side of the infield and Rodriguez raced in right behind him from second. Shelton scored on Lucas Campachano’s infield single to make it 3-0.
“That first inning did take the wind out of our sails a little bit, but they just kept hacking and hacking and hacking,” Raymond said. “When we were down I told them we can’t give up. And when we were (in the outfield huddle) talking to them I told them that’s why you can’t give up until strike three is called on the last out or a ball’s out in the field. You just can’t.”
After that, Vong did his thing on the mound and in the late innings the Penns Grove hitters followed suit.
“I know why they scored three runs; they were teeing off on my fastball,” Vong said. “I realized that and in the second inning I started mixing in my curveball and slider. It started working out for me and shut (them) down for the last five innings.”
NOTES: Penns Grove entered the district tournament having not won a game since 2011 and hadn’t won a game in the finals since well before that. It is now 4-2 this year and three wins away from its first district title since 1965 (when it was in District 15) … The team sang “Happy Birthday” to O’Brien after the game and will likely do the same for Aiden Robertson Thursday. O’Brien’s birthday actually was Tuesday, but the game was postponed because of inclement weather … Penns Grove is expected to use multiple pitchers Thursday in hopes of holding Jimmy LaPalomento “unless we need him” to have him available for Saturday … East Vineland lost to South Vineland 4-1 in the continuation of their suspended winner’s bracket game. South broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the fifth and held on.
Penns Grove’s Nolan O’Brien is poised at third ready to run if Millville makes a play for him during their District 3 Little League Tournament game. Millville did make a play, threw wildly and it resulted in Penns Grove scoring its two go-ahead runs in a five-run inning.
Tuesday night’s second round of the District 3 Little League finals in Millville was postponed due to rain. Both scheduled games will be played Wednesday at the Millville LL complex.
Action will resume at 5:45 p.m. with the continuation of the East Vineland-South Vineland winner’s bracket game that was suspended with two outs in the top of the first and South Vineland leading 1-0. Elijauh Perez gave South Vineland the lead with a two-out homer on an 0-2 pitch.
The elimination game between Penns Grove and Millville will follow.
The rescheduling moves the loser’s bracket final to 7 p.m. Thursday at North Vineland and a potential “if” game for the championship to 7 p.m. Sunday at South Vineland.
Penns Grove comes alive late, but it’s not enough to overtake South Vineland in District 3 Final Four opener
DISTRICT 3 FINALS (Double-loss elimination) Monday at Elmer South Vineland 7, Penns Grove 3 East Vineland 9, Millville American 4 Tuesday at Millville G3: South Vineland vs. East Vineland, 5:45 p.m. G4: Penns Grove vs. Millville American, 8 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
ELMER – The Penns Grove All-Stars were one of the highest scoring teams in District 3 pool play, but it took them a little while to get going in their bracket opener Monday night.
The Salem County survivors scored three runs in the fifth inning, but it wasn’t enough to climb out of an early hole and they fell to South Vineland 7-3 in the first round of the District Final Four at Elmer LL.
“It just took us a little bit to get the bats going and it just wasn’t enough,” Penns Grove manager Steve Raymond said. “They got down on themselves early. A lot of them have never been in a position to where they’re playing for a championship. I think there was a lot of undue pressure on them.”
They’ll look to stay alive in the double-loss format against Millville American Tuesday at 8 p.m. on their opponent’s home field. Penns Grove won the pool play game between the teams there (7-3) and are expected to send Achillius Vong to the mound against them again.
If they had been a little sharper early they might have made it to the winner’s bracket. Now they’ll have to win four games and beat one of Tuesday night’s winners twice to claim the district title.
Penns Grove hit .329 and scored 32 runs in four American Division pool games, but South Vineland starter Justin Chin held them to just one hit and struck out seven over the first three innings. But they came to life against reliever Mylus Moore in the fifth, scoring three runs, to keep their hopes alive, but by then South Vineland had opened a 7-0 lead.
Bryce Myers and Lucas Vong had RBI singles for Penns Grove in the winning and Lucas Ware scored on error as they started swinging the bats and being aggressive of the bases.
“They started waking up,” Raymond said. “As soon as we started putting pressure on them they started breaking. We needed that chain reaction earlier. That’s what we needed. One person steps up big and we usually build off that and keep going.”
It just wasn’t enough. South Vineland scored a run in the first and two in the second off Penns Grove starter Jimmy LaPalomento, then broke it open with four in the fourth.
EAST VINELAND 9, MILLVILLE AMERICAN 4: The top seed out of the National pool parlayed six walks and three hits into a six-run fifth inning that broke a 3-3 tie. Four of the walks came with bases loaded and Ricky Bones hit a two-run double for the big hit of the inning.
It was a come-from-behind win as Millville scored three runs in the top of the first. The Americans scored the final run of the game as well on Noah Rodriguez’ solo homer in the sixth.
SOUTH VINELAND 7, PENNS GROVE 3
Penns Grove
000 030-
3
6
1
South Vineland
120 40x-
7
9
2
WP: Justin Chin. LP: Jimmy LaPalomento. 2B: Achillius Vong (PG), Derek Cuba (SV), Mylus Moore (SV). RBI: Bryce Myers (PG), Lucas Vong (PG), Mylus Moore (SV), Derek Cuba (SV) 2, Matthew Ramos (SV), Luca Lopez (SV), Matthew Saunders (SV) 2.
Here are the pool play batting and pitching statistics for the four teams in the N.J. District 3 Little League Tournament finals bracket
DISTRICT 3 TOURNAMENT Monday at Elmer LL N2 South Vineland (2-1) vs. A1 Penns Grove (3-1), 5:45 p.m. A2 Millville American (3-1) vs. N1 East Vineland (2-1), 8 p.m. Tuesday at Millville American LL Monday’s winners, 5:45 p.m. Monday’s losers, 8 p.m.
With quarterbacks on the mend or away, Pennsville gives its defense a long look at Ginsburg Classic 7v7
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PITMAN – Most think when a team plays in a 7-on-7 passing tournament it’s all about the offense. That’s where most of the points in the games are going to come from, of course, but it’s just as much about the cornerbacks and safeties as it is the quarterbacks and receivers.
Because they were limited in the quarterback department, Pennsville went into Saturday’s ATF Ginsburg 7v7 Classic at Total Turf with more of an eye on the defensive side of the ball.
They went 1-2 in their pool, beating Gloucester Catholic between losses to Kingsway and Woodbury, but the results weren’t nearly as important as the process.
“Even without the quarterback what we wanted to see on both sides was the basics,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “Are we lined up properly where we’re supposed to be, do we know the plays, the coverages and how they’re supposed to run. That was the big thing on both sides. It was a good learning experience.”
QB Ahmad Jones (center) was named MVP after leading Camden (top photo) to Ginsburg 7v7 Classic title Saturday.
It’s tough to play a 7×7 passing camp without a quarterback. Senior starter Robbie McDade is still rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery on a schedule that’ll have him ready for the season opener. Junior Jake Layfield just went on family vacation. And junior Grady Sanders is recovering from a shoulder injury, but was far enough along in his therapy to give it a shot in the second and third games and in Healy’s mind “did a good job moving us down the field.”
First-team WJFL Patriot Division left tackle Jacob Hand ran the offense in the first game. He threw it to the receivers he was directed to and even threw a touchdown, but the quarterback spot remains in the hands of the three regulars.
“We knew offensively we were going to have some struggles today and we accepted that,” Healy said. “The thing I like about 7-on-7 is while you want to win games what it really allows us to do is this we know what to do, this we’re OK and this we need to work on a lot and teach.
“We were able to run our offense and defensively after the first game we kind of calmed and figured some stuff out. We knew our defense was a little more complete today.”
On the defensive side, safety Hardy had an interception and several deflections. Corner Hayden Sherman, who started as a sophomore but didn’t play last season, broke up a few passes. Kane Green and Danny Knight also did well.
“For the most part they did a pretty good job,” Healy said. “We gave up some big plays, but a lot of it was just on technique stuff that we haven’t gone over yet because we haven’t had the time yet this season.
“I saw a lot of kids make a lot of plays. A lot of kids made mistakes also, but that was expected today. Overall I thought it was a good stepping stone for us going forward.”
The Eagles will get some more 7v7 action at a team camp next month at Kingsway. All three quarterbacks are expected to be back for that.
Camden won the Ginsburg Classic, blanking Paulsboro in the championship game 22-0. Panthers quarterback Ahmad Jones was the MVP.
2025 PENNSVILLE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Aug. 28 – Gloucester City, 6 p.m. Sept. 5 – at West Deptford, 7 p.m. Sept. 12 – Overbrook, 7 p.m. Sept. 20 – at Audubon, 11 a.m. Sept. 26 – Camden Catholic, 7 p.m. Oct. 3 – at Penns Grove, 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9 – Paulsboro, 6 p.m. Oct. 17 – Lawrence, 6 p.m. Oct. 24 – at Collingswood, 6 p.m.
