Mighty Oaks put inaugural football program before the public, introduce Accorsi as head coach, confirm seven games so far, first game at home in August vs. Hudson Valley

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News


CARNEYS POINT — Jay Accorsi had a vision. All he needed was to find someone who shared it.

In 30 years with the Rowan football program, the last 22 as its head coach, Accorsi landed his share of players to fill his rosters. But for all the ones he got there were plenty others who didn’t quite fit or went elsewhere to play or simply had no options and gave up hope of ever playing the game again.

As Accorsi looked across the South Jersey football landscape and just beyond the horizon all those years he always thought there was (or should be) a place for those players who either slipped away or slipped through the cracks. At the same time he wondered and researched why there was no junior college football in a state loaded with underserved players and two-year college options. He found a sympathetic ear in Salem Community College president Mike Gorman in June and they spent the next seven months putting together the pieces of a program. On Wednesday, the Mighty Oaks pushed the project over the goal line, formally launching the first football program in school history to start play in the fall — with Accorsi at the helm.

“In my wildest dreams I never could have imagined creating a junior college football program right here in Southern New Jersey,” Accorsi said. “In just the last several weeks while recruiting high schools in the area, so many coaches have remarked, ‘Coach, it is about time for South Jersey.’ That’s pretty much the response I thought it would be, but it’s just been that way,”

The college had explored the feasibility of sponsoring football once before, but decided the timing wasn’t right to launch. When Gorman first met with Accorsi he thought the retired coach had come to make a sales pitch; he quickly learned they were on to something entirely different. 

When Gorman showed him a copy of the college’s initial study, Accorsi knew he had found his kindred spirit. When Gorman talked about “changing lives” of 80 to 100 new students, he was the one sold.

The timing this time was so right and was part of Accorsi’s 30-page analysis that Gorman called “very thorough, very deliberate and I dare say accurate because we checked it six ways from Sunday.” There was no junior college football in the area, two of the more established JUCO programs in the region were about to go NCAA Division II and there’s a move underway for JUCO years not to count towards a player’s NCAA eligibility clock.

“It was a perfect storm,” Accorsi said.

Then the president jumped in to call an audible. 

“We’re going to call this ‘stars aligning’ rather than ‘a perfect storm,’” Gorman said. Someone else, keeping with the theme of the team, suggested acorns instead of stars.

Games, vision, reaction

The board of trustees green-lighted the program in November, Accorsi was installed as the interim head coach to get recruiting started, they hired one assistant coach, brought in eight interns throughout the athletics department and secured a much-needed piece of property in Carneys Point to serve as a practice facility.

“You don’t do something this extraordinary without a lot of people on the same page doing the right type of things,” Accorsi said. “There are a lot of pieces that go into something like this. You just don’t start a football program. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

Kingsway head coach Mark Hendricks, one of several high school coaches who attended the launch, welcomed the idea of JUCO football in the region and the way Accorsi’s approach to it.

“I think it will put South Jersey football on the map,” he said.

Schalick coach Kevin Leamy also was in the house and “excited to see where this football team goes.”

“So great for Salem County and South Jersey,” he said..

During a 30-minute pre-launch press conference, team officials confirmed seven games are lined up so far for the inaugural season – Erie CC, Hudson Valley CC, Nassau CC, Sussex CC (2), Army Prep and Thaddeus Stevens. The inaugural game will be in late August at home against Hudson Valley. Erie, Nassau and one of the Sussex games also will be at home, to be played at one of the county’s high schools.

Finding players isn’t expected to be a problem. The majority are expected to come from South Jersey, Southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware — several of whom were in attendance at the launch — but Accorsi’s binders of “350 or 400” names also includes interested prospects from places like Akron, Ohio; Texas and Virginia.

If the goal of bringing football to campus is to increase enrollment, it’s working. Gorman reported the school has received more than 50 new applications for the second semester just from football alone – and that doesn’t count former football players already enrolled in school just as students.

“The word is starting to spread that we’re starting a program, so I’m not worried about getting the number,” Accorsi said. “I think if we get to 80, which I know we easily can, that I think would be good to start. We could easily fill 100 if we wanted to. I think 80 is that good number.”

Accorsi stood before the gathering in the school’s Davidow Theater to share his vision for the program and admitted he was “really nervous.”

“I told my wife I haven’t been this nervous since when we got married, and she’s like, ‘Well, that turned out OK, didn’t it?’” he said.

It was her way of telling him you’ve got this.

His vision for the team on the field is to be “pretty competitive early on” and the program as a whole to be well-regarded.

“This vision for our program is very simple,” he said. “I want us to create an environment where high school coaches want to send their players to us and on the back end I want college coaches to come and recruit our players.

“Our No. 1 goal is to help young men achieve not just athletically, but academically and socially. I want to be a program where everyone is proud of what we do, who we are and how we act in everything we do. I want a program that everybody here, in the county, South Jersey, New Jersey, the East Coast and nationally can say wow this a really great program.”

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?”

Salem CC board approves Accorsi as head football coach, first assistant coach, authorizes purchase of property for practice facility

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT — The football program at Salem Community College took a huge step forward tonight when the school’s board of trustees approved two major personnel appointments and authorized the purchase of a piece of property that will become the team’s practice facility.

On the personnel side, the board approved Jay Accorsi as the head football coach and veteran college coach Joe Dougherty as an assistant. On the facilities side, the board authorized the purchase of a piece of property known as the Twins’ field adjacent to the Carneys Point Rec Complex, just beyond the right fence where the baseball team plays its home games.

“Now we can really start making some rapid progress with these folks in place,” Salem CC president Mike Gorman said after the board meeting. “It sets us up to take more big steps.”

The college plans to formally launch the program Jan. 28.

Salem had been exploring the possibility of bringing football to the campus since Accorsi brought the idea to Gorman in the spring. He was formally hired as a consultant in August, presented his findings through a presentation by athletics director Bob Hughes in October and the board green-lighted the program in November. Thursday night, the board installed him as the program’s first head football coach.

Hughes received more than 80 applications from what he described as some highly qualified candidates from across the college football spectrum and after reviewing his thoughts on process, Gorman said, “at the end it was very obvious Jay had the name recognition and just what he had done in serving as our consultant really demonstrated to us that this is the man we need to get the program started.”

He added, “bringing a guy like Jay on board who has the respect of the South Jersey football community gives us a leg up on everybody else. Just having somebody of his caliber to start the program, that’s putting us out on the right track.”

Accorsi announced his retirement from Rowan University on the final day of spring practice 2024 after 30 years in the program, the last 22 as head coach, the longest tenured head coach in the program’s history. He posted a record of 143-78 with seven conference titles and seven trips to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Two of his teams reached the national semifinals.

But the thought of junior college football in the state of New Jersey had long intrigued him. His months in retirement gave him a chance to look at it further. The urge to get back in the game returned, but this time with a different approach to the calling.

“First I want to say I am grateful for the opportunity provided to me by the Salem Community College board of trustees, president Michael Gorman and athletic director Bob Hughes,” Accorsi said. “When I walked away at Rowan obviously I was happy and had a great career and was ready to go onto the next chapter of my life and didn’t think it would be football, to be honest with you. This idea kind of popped around. I think it’s more this time for me more about helping other people and helping young men, but I really didn’t think I’d be doing something like this.

“I only imagined it would be possible and only thought it would be a stretch, but it’s kind of becoming a reality now. It’s something I just never thought this would happen. I didn’t think I’d really coach again. I didn’t think I’d be involved with football again. I thought I would be done and headed in a different path or a different career, just be done forever. In my wildest dreams I never really thought this would occur.”

The hiring of his first assistant is full circle moment. Dougherty most recently the defensive backs and special teams coach at Widener, but he’s been the defensive coordinator and national recruiting coordinator at Juniata, offensive coordinator at Catholic University, DC at Hamilton College and coached at Lafayette and Fordham. He was a graduate assistant for KC Keeler and later Accorsi at Rowan in 2001 and 2002..

His position responsible in Salem’s program is currently undetermined.

“We haven’t really gone down that path yet,” Accorsi said. “He obviously has had variety of experiences coaching … Those are things we’re going to piece together and figure out what to do.

“I’m happy the board was able to get me some help right away because it’s, as I thought it would be, been a little overwhelming even for somebody with my experience, so I think it’s a good start in a good direction to have somebody help me a little bit as we start to move this thing forward.”

One of the biggest hurdles to getting the program off the ground was finding a suitable everyday practice facility. The board authorized the purchase of the property adjacent to the Rec not to exceed $125,000. Settlement is expected to be next month.

In addition to the property, the board also approved entry into an agreement for the design and construction oversight of an athletic facility at the field at a fee of $69,500.

“It’s a perfect kind of environment for us to do this,” Gorman said. “Our baseball team is already at an adjacent field to this and we’ll be looking in the future to hopefully bring our softball team back into that complex.”

Top photo: New Salem CC head football coach Jay Accorsi (C) stands between president Mike Gorman (L) and athletics director Bob Hughes during a recent board of trustees meeting.