BELLEVILLE, NJ — The Belleville High School football team has a new coach this season.
But the Buccaneers are in good hands. Brian Antab, who has served as an assistant coach for the Bucs for the past few seasons, was promoted to head coach after Jermain Johnson left to become the head coach at Montclair.
The Bucs have a lot of promising youth on the roster, looking to build off last year’s 6-4 record.
“We’re a young team,” said Antab, who was a lineman in high school at Bishop Ahr — now St. Thomas Aquinas — in Woodbridge, Class of 2009, and later played at Montclair State University. “We have a lot of young talent. I’m really excited to see how they come together and put the talent that they have on the field.”
In Johnson’s fourth year at the helm last season, the Bucs bounced back from a 1-2 start. They won three straight games in the middle of the season to improve to 6-3 before losing to Wayne Hills in a state consolation game to end the season.
This year’s senior captains are offensive left tackle and defensive end Tayshaun Holland, offensive right guard and defensive tackle Melrich Amante, and wide receiver and cornerback Samuel Perez.
The linemen, led by Amante, bring much experience. Amante has high hopes for the season.
“I think we’re going to have a great season,” said Amante, “despite having the fact that a lot of our key players have graduated from last year. I think the season is going to be great.”
Much of the team’s youth lies in key skill positions. Antab is looking for those players to develop as the season progresses.
“We have some senior leadership on the line,” Antab said. “We have a really strong sophomore class, especially at the skill positions — wide receiver, running back, quarterback. We have a lot of youth in a lot of important positions, and we’ll see how they can develop there.”
Sophomore Anthony Torres is a first-year starting quarterback. The running game will be powered by sophomore Jeremiah Cook, who started last year.
Amante is looking forward to blocking for Cook again this year. “I think he is going to be a great running back for us this year and get some yards for us,” Amante said. “Nobody can tackle this kid. Once he gets into the open field, no one is going to be able to catch him.”
Amante also sang the praises of Antab and the rest of the coaching staff. “It wasn’t a hard transition,” said Amante. “He’s a great head coach.”
Antab mentioned other key players. They are junior middle linebacker and fullback Adrian Rodriguez, junior wide receiver and outside linebacker Nicolas Franco, junior wide receiver and defensive back Khalil Bey, sophomore wide receiver and defensive back Elijah Pickering, sophomore tight end and middle linebacker Demetri Moya, and sophomore wide receiver and defensive back Anthony Giunta.
Improvement will be the key goal for the season.
“Our goals are to develop the talent that we have, get them game ready, and see them get varsity action and get them up to speed. We want to be competitive in every game,” Antab said.
In order to achieve another successful season, the team must jell.
“We really just need to come together, be a collective group and play together,” Antab said. “We have a lot of talent, but it’s about that talent coming together and being a team, so we need to form a collective group. As that develops, we should have some success.”
Amante said, “The goal is to win as many games as we can and make it to the playoffs this year, especially with the young offensive line that we have. Being a leader, we have been coaching them up. I think it’s going to go great.”
The Bucs were scheduled to host Passaic in the season opener on Friday, Aug. 26.
The assistant coaches are Dan Giangrande, Chris Balz, Nick Carfagno, Nick Guardabasco, James Johnson and Richard Muldrow III.
2022 Belleville football schedule:
- Aug. 26: vs. Passaic, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 2: vs. Bayonne, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 9: vs. Wayne Valley, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 16: at Hackensack, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 23: at Millburn, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 30: at Passaic Valley, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 7: vs. Nutley, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 14: vs. West Essex, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 21: at Bloomfield, 7 p.m.
Photos by Joe Ragozzino.
Belleville HS football team seeks fine season with new head coach Brian Antab added by Joe Ragozzino on
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