Glen Ridge HS quarterback Dylan O’Neil grasps new offense, posts record-breaking year

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Glen Ridge High School football fans certainly are still relishing last season’s great finish. 

The Ridgers, under first-year head coach Manj Singh, capped the 2022 campaign by winning the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Group 1 regional tournament championship.

The team, which won its final three games of the season, was led by several talented, dedicated players, among them was junior starting quarterback Dylan O’Neil.

During the 5-5 season, O’Neil set the school’s single-season passing record with 1,598 yards. The previous record of 1,545 yards was held by Tyler Liddy in 2017. O’Neil threw for 15 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.

Singh remembered the summer workouts when he and offensive coordinator Chris Ferrara were introducing the new offensive scheme. Singh said the offense was going to be different from years past “because we know the type of athletes we had on our team, as well as how strong of an arm (Dylan) has, and he just needed an opportunity to showcase it.”

The Ridgers, however, only played one 7-on-7 game in Wayne Valley last summer, “so we really didn’t get much of a good opportunity to see how well he can read the different defenses, as well as getting the perfect timing down with all of our athletes,” Singh said, noting the Ridgers only had 18 players suit up for their first game of the regular season. 

But O’Neil did a great job learning the new offense, and the statistics proved it.

“We never really had opportunities to go over our passing game with a full defense in front of us,” Singh said. “There were plenty of hurdles to climb for Dylan, who for the past two previous years, played in a different style of offense than what we came with, and so he adapted to the change and the new culture style from Ferrara.”

Singh said the one thing that stands out the most was that the team only had seven regular-season games, but was able to play three more games in the regional tournament to give them 10 games. With two more games in the regular season, Singh said O’Neil would have been able to surpass 2,000 passing yards.

“If we would’ve had a Week 2 game as well as a Week Zero game, I believe he would’ve thrown for 2,000 yards this season,” Singh said.

Indeed, the Ridgers are looking to continue that momentum into next season, with O’Neil leading the way.

Photo Courtesy of Brianne Aumack