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.

Accorsi hits the recruiting trail in first day as Salem CC’s interim head football coach, would like to be the permanent leader when inaugural game comes next fall

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Jay Accorsi really thought he was done with coaching. When he told the Rowan football team he coached for 30 years – the last 22 as the head coach — on the last day of spring practice 2024 he was retiring he thought that was it. When his time was done, he was done and never looking back.

But like a lot of people of that certain age it didn’t take him long to get tired of being retired. Oh, the break was fun for a while, he got to follow his son’s final year of college soccer, but then he got the itch to do something familiar.

There was this little project he’d been quietly dabbling in for a while, this burning question of why there was no junior college football in New Jersey in general and South Jersey in particular when there were so many high school players either going elsewhere to play on the next level or just giving up the game (and the possibility of going to college) because they had no options. 

He had been gathering information in his travels with the Profs, and his retirement days gave him a chance to do an even deeper dive on the subject. The more he worked it, the more he believed this could really work in the right environment.

He took his data to Salem Community College president Mike Gorman and, guess what, he’s back in the game.

On Thursday night, the junior college’s board of trustees approved adding a football program to the school’s lineup of sports and installed Accorsi, who had been the paid consultant in the exploration, as interim head coach (and the betting favorite to become the permanent guy when that move is made.)

Suddenly, the man with the Santa Claus look was given the gift he had always been giving. 

As the interim head coach, it’ll be Accorsi’s mission to recruit players and do whatever it takes to “help the athletic director with everything that’s needed to help the program” as it moves towards a Fall 2026 Opening Day. His first task: Hit the recruiting trail Friday, starting with all the football-playing schools in Salem County (and Pennsville on Monday).

“It’s funny, I never thought I was (going to get back in); I walked away and was happy,” Accorsi said. “Everybody said I would get bored. I was OK for a while and then I got bored.

“Then the football bug hit. The concept of this idea really helped me be creative and put some information together and think if this could actually work. For me, the great part is, that was kind of validated tonight by a board to go ahead and proceed with something that I’ve thought about forever and really started to work on last winter.”

Salem athletics director Bob Hughes couldn’t be happier with the direction things are moving. The Mighty Oaks were going to announce the interim head coaching move Friday in conjunction with their classifying the sport with the NJCAA, but Hughes went ahead and pulled the trigger after Thursday’s board meeting.

“I’m excited to continue to grow the relationship with Jay,” he said. “He’s been a fantastic addition to the college and the athletic department and I’m excited with him to help us get this program truly off the ground.”

Gorman remembers that first conversation with Accorsi about the possibility of bringing football to Salem. Although he was familiar with the former coach and it was that association that got him in the door, Gorman thought they were talking about something else until about five minutes into the conversation.

“I honestly thought he was selling something,” Gorman said. “I knew of him as a football coach, but I didn’t know he was bringing in a proposal of that nature. I thought maybe he was representing a company that was doing equipment or whatever, but until we got into that conversation I didn’t know what we were specifically talking about.’

Actually Accorsi was selling something. He was selling football to a school that had never had it before.

As a former high school and college football player himself and visionary for the college, Gorman could see the merits of bringing the sport to campus. The college had done an analysis five years earlier and thought it was feasible, but with the onset of the COVID pandemic and other factors decided it wasn’t the time to proceed.

Sure, there’s is a financial risk – it’ll run nearly a half-million dollars in startup costs – but the college is said to be fiscally aligned to handle it, but in its mission of “changing lives,” as Gorman puts it, there was really no other capacity that could bring on such increased enrollment in such a rapid period of time.

(The news of the decision is spreading so quickly the athletics department received a half-dozen inquiries from prospective student-athletes before 10 a.m. Friday.)

The timing was absolutely right. As Accorsi had discovered in his research there was a plethora of underserved high school football athletes in the region and only one junior college football program between Central New York and Louisburg, N.C.

It was in that opportunity Accorsi and the college converged.

A national search will get underway to find a permanent leader of the program. It’s a safe bet Accorsi will be the odds on favorite — and he does want the job — but he knows nothing is guaranteed. And frankly he prefers it that way.

“When I was the assistant coach at Rowan and KC (Keeler) left to go to Delaware, I met with the AD several times and it was decided to do the national search and at the time I was very happy about that because I said I just don’t want you to hand me the job,” he said. “I want to earn it against everybody in the country and I feel the same way about this. I want to put myself in a position to earn the title and be able to do it down the road.

“They (Rowan) went to a national search, I had to interview, I had to go through the process. I learned a lot. I was very happy that I became head coach, but I was happy they did it that way and they didn’t hand it to me. I believe you earn things in life; you’re just not given things.”

From there he became the longest-tenured head coach in the program’s history, posting 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.

He seems to fit at least one of the criteria the policymakers are looking for in the permanent head coach.

“I want somebody who belongs to this area,” Gorman said. “I want somebody who’s really invested in Salem County and the region as a whole and believes in what we’re saying. This isn’t about the X’s and O’s about the game. This is about changing lives for young people.”

But what if he doesn’t become the guy after putting in all the legwork to get the program off the ground? As he has said nothing’s guaranteed.

“I’d still feel like I accomplished something because my main goal was to provide an opportunity for students and especially those in New Jersey to play football in an opportunity where they hadn’t,” Accorsi said. “So if I helped create that which we’re doing today then I’ve reached my goal and I helped do that. 

“I firmly believe that’s why I decided to do this and be involved in this because I wanted to make sure an underserved population was getting what they needed and that’s what I’m really proud of.”

And if he doesn’t land the job he can go back into retirement mode again — until the next big thing comes along to pique his interest.