Nutley HS football team begins new era with head coach Chris Helm, seeks fine season

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NUTLEY, NJ — Chris Helm dazzled Raider fans when he was a standout fullback-outside linebacker for the Nutley High School football team back in the day.

More than two decades after he graduated from NHS, Helm is now excited to be the new Raiders head football coach, looking to impart the lessons that he learned when he played for Nutley.

This year’s Raiders are deep and relatively young, which bodes well for the future.

“We’re basically looking at it like ‘the future is now,’ ” said Helm, a 2001 NHS graduate. “We only have 13 seniors, which is okay, because they are all good leaders. We have a small junior class as well, but we have 90 kids, so we have two really big sophomore and freshman classes that are filled with a lot of really good players. So I think with the good senior leadership that we have, if they see the kind of change that we want to create, (such as) how we work out, how we practice, the attention to detail, I think these are kind of the bricks that we are laying down and get us to the next level. We want to be a playoff team perennially.”

The Raiders have shown a selfless commitment, much to Helm’s delight.

“They lean on each other and work together, and that’s going to set them up for success in football and in life,” Helm said. “You’re always going to need help from somebody, wherever you are in an aspect in life, and that’s what we want. We want them to leave this place with a great experience and ready to be a great member of society.”

The key returning players for the Raiders are senior wide receiver Joe Volpe, junior quarterback Clark Mohrbutter, senior running back-linebacker Sean McAloon and senior tight end-kicker Erik Thompson.

McAloon said, “We’re a young team, but we have a lot of guys stepping up. I think we’ll put it all together.”

Added Volpe: “I’m really looking forward to the season. I’m super excited. A lot of hard work in the summer.”

Helm expects a good year from Volpe, an excellent route runner who will be a fine target for Mohrbutter.

Last season Mohrbutter gained valuable experience and is poised to have a solid year.

Thompson is another fine athlete. This past spring for the NHS baseball team, Thompson was an honorable mention selection on the all-Super Essex Conference-American Division.

Senior Nathan Arroyo will lead the secondary at a corner spot, and is excited about playing with his teammates. “I’m looking forward to working with these guys,”Arroyo said. “We’ve spent a lot of time over the summer. I’m just excited.”

The offensive and defensive lines are young. But the good thing is the linemen will receive good tutelage from the line coaches. Brian Kutzleb, the offensive line coach, is another NHS graduate who coached with Helm at Wayne Valley High School when they won the 2019 state sectional and regional championships. Helm at the time was the offensive coordinator at Wayne Valley where he was a teacher.

The Raiders are looking to build off last season’s 6-3 campaign, which was under interim head coach and NHS athletic director Joe Piro. One of the wins was a forfeit over Montclair, which beat Nutley, 38-6, but was ruled to have used an ineligible player.

Helm feels the Raiders can have another successful season.

“I think if they stay the course of being focused on playing for each other and trusting in one another, trusting the coaches and the system and the schemes, they will wind up with a good year,” he said.

The Raiders lost to West Milford, 37-0, in the season opener on Friday, Aug. 25, in the Jim Grasso Classic at Westwood. It was one of five games held on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25-26. The games originally were scheduled to take place at Vince Lombardi Memorial Field at Overpeck Park in Palisades Park. But two days before the games were to take place, officials moved them to Westwood. Nutley defeated West Milford, 21-14, in a state crossover game to end last season.

Notes – Helm also was a standout wrestler for the Raiders. After graduating from NHS, Helm went to William Paterson University. He joined the NHS coaching staff in 2005 under the late Steve DiGregorio, another NHS graduate, Class of 1979. When DiGregorio stepped down following the 2011 season after eight seasons, Helm joined the Wayne Valley coaching staff and coached there from 2012-2020. DiGregorio returned to NHS for his second stint from 2017 to 2020, leading the Raiders to a perfect 6-0 campaign in the 2020 pandemic season. There were no state playoffs that season because of the pandemic.

DiGregorio retired at the end of the 2020 season and died of cancer in October 2021. Helm came back to NHS where he was an assistant coach in 2021 and last season.

Kutzleb, a 2006 NHS graduate, played for the Raiders with Helm as an assistant coach.

The Raiders this season are in the Super Football Conference–Patriot White Division. The other teams in the division are Belleville, Millburn, Passaic Valley, Wayne Valley and West Essex.