East Orange Youth Football Programs combine in the image of EOCHS

EAST ORANGE, NJ – For the past several years, there have been some murmurs of all the East Orange Youth Football Programs coming as one. The idea was to create one program in the image of East Orange Campus High School while continuing the platform under the national Pop Warner Little Scholars and North Jersey Pop Warner.

The East Orange Rams were in the thick of the conversation as they once tried it with their neighborhood rival, the East Orange Hurricanes  – formally East Orange Wildcats. But it wasn’t a good match as the Rams were back in their home, Oval Park, continuing to make a difference with young student-athletes.

The Hurricanes have since maintained their independence and will not join the conversation. However, there is a semblance of an already-made team from the East Coast Spring Youth Football League in the East Orange All Stars comprising the East Orange Rams, East Orange Junior Jaguars, and East Orange Panthers.

This team has already won several league championships, including the most recent 2019 15U Championship. All the coaches agreed that it was about time to put aside their differences and bring it back to one team. Not since the mid 1960s has there been a single youth team in the city of East Orange.

The Panthers were started in Oval Park and later moved to Elmwood Park as the East Orange Tigers. The Oval would launch two more teams, leaving a long legacy in the East Orange Colts and Rams.

“What makes this so unique (is) we have an opportunity to combine our forces and really make a serious run at multiple titles from our conference, regional, and national levels,” East Orange Junior Jaguars President Fritz Dupiche said. With the merger of the Rams and Junior Jaguars, more teams around the North Jersey PWFL have taken notice that this is not just a new team coming in. It is the second and third oldest programs with stellar reputations and a combined four former players who are  or played on an active NFL roster. The Rams had Will Hill (formerly of the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens), Rasul Douglas (currently with the Philadelphia Eagles), and Jabrill Peppers (Cleveland Browns, now traded to the New York Giants). The Junior Jags had Elijah Shumate (formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

The Junior Jaguars has since been to the mountain top with their cheer program bringing home the Pop Warner Cheerleading three-peats at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. The Unlimited Weight Junior Jaguars are ranked in the top 5 regionally and nationally along with rival Brick City Lions.

“We felt that our programs will compete going forward with some of the top programs from other states and regions,” Dupiche said. He went on to state that the Rams have folded under the Jaguars due to enrollment, with the Junior Jags having more than 170 student-athletes prior to the merger, and now have more than 230 players and cheerleaders joining the program.

It wasn’t just East Orange Recreation Program Developer Stanley Edwards and Dupiche who thought it was a good idea; it was also felt by other former players and coaches of both programs, including Rasul Douglas. “When you have two teams who are competing for the same kids, it ultimately makes sense to combine forces,”  said Douglas, who is a product of the East Orange Rams before enjoying a stellar career at East Orange Campus High School prior to making his mark at Nassau Community College and later at West Virginia University, which led to being drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and winning Super Bowl LII as a rookie. He was in town July 20 at Robeson Stadium for his football camp and clinic which brought out kids from all over the region.

As for the coaches, many of them felt that it was about time, including East Orange Mayor Ted R. Green. He was on hand as a volunteer coach at Douglas’ camp where he spent time working with some of the current youth and high school players on drills and techniques. “It was something that was talked about, but there was culture of division within the city when it came to football,” Green said. “We needed this and it would be a good thing as we create a system going forward.”

Green, who still teaches martial arts at his dojo on Rhode Island Avenue, went on to explain that the programs would compete only on certain levels and would eventually have to send their players to other programs in the area, which didn’t bode well with parents who wanted to stay loyal to their local teams.

The Rams, for example, only had three levels for the past three seasons, while the Junior Jaguars fielded seven levels in which some of those levels had two squads in order to keep in compliance with Pop Warner rules that require everyone must play a minimum of number of plays.

With the season fast approaching, the new-look Junior Jaguars will be holding training sessions Monday through Friday at Soverel Park in East Orange, from 5 to 7 p.m. and will officially open the 2019 campaign on Saturday morning, August 3, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. “We urge everyone to come out and participate as we begin a new era in our city’s traditions,”  Edwards said.

Edwards has since transitioned to a full-time board member of North Jersey Pop Warner and will no longer be involved with the day-to-day operation of the new East Orange Junior Jaguars.

For more information about  how to register your child for the upcoming season or to become a volunteer coach/parent, you can contact Fritz Dupiche at 908-616-6415; as well as follow them via www.facebook.com/eojrjaguars; www.Instagram.com/eojrjaguars; and www.Twitter.com/eojrjaguars or come to a parent meeting which is normally held after practice at  Soverel Park. Both coaches are ready for a new era of youth football and agree that the time is now.