Orange football has strong potential with talented group

ORANGE, NJ — Randy Daniel enters his 26th season as the head football coach at Orange High School. The Tornadoes have produced outstanding players under his watch. Many of those players have continued their careers on scholarship at major colleges. A few have even made it to the NFL.

Though this year’s team is fairly inexperienced, Daniel feels it has a lot of potential.

“We got a lot of inexperienced kids this year,” said Daniel in an interview with the Record-Transcript. “A lot of them are playing first-year varsity, so we don’t know how they are going to jell. But they got potential. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

The Tornadoes graduated several key players, including Montez Boswell, who had a dominant career. Boswell was one of the top running backs in the state, running for 1,370 yards and 21 touchdowns to lead the Tornadoes to a 5-3 season in 2020.

Daniel, though, is confident that several players can fill the void left by Boswell.

Leading the way will be sophomore returning starting quarterback Maurice Williams. Last season, Williams showed much potential as a freshman, helping the Tornadoes to a four-game winning streak to end the season.

This year, Williams hopes to put up big numbers in directing the offense.

“My season last year was basically a learning experience,” said Williams in an interview with the Record-Transcript. “It was a stepping-stone into the high school career that I’m going to have. I hope to accomplish a lot of things. I view myself as a strong leader and to make an impact on my team.”

The Tornadoes expect to spread the wealth on offense.

“I like that it’s more diverse, compared to last year,” Williams said of the offense. “This year, it’s like a whole team, more of a brotherhood. I think we can score a lot of points.”

Daniel has always had great skill players, and this year’s team looks to continue that trend. The key skill players are senior slotback Nazmir Palmer, junior slotback/defensive back Jalen Phillips, junior wide receiver/cornerback Rodrigue Damus and junior wide receiver/cornerback Khyron Hill.

Palmer will lead the ground game as more of a speed runner, which will be different from Boswell’s power style of running. Palmer feels the team’s strength is speed.

“I feel we have more speed, better than strengthwise,” Palmer said. “I have hope in my team. I think we will have a great season. We have a lot of courage in ourselves.”

Damus wants to step up this year.

“My goal is to play better than I did last season,” he said. “We hope to play together as a team.”

Phillips said the team’s chemistry will help the Tornadoes meet the challenges of the season.

“I feel like we have a great schedule this year,” he said, “and to rise up to that, I think we need to build a better brotherhood and we need to come together more than being separate and work together as a team.”

The offensive/defensive line will be led by 6-foot-6, 240-pound senior offensive tackle/defensive end Ednal Mathurin. Though this is only his second year, Mathurin has a lot of talent, Daniel said.

Sirron Canty, a junior, will anchor the offensive line at the center position.

Jeffrey Fils-Aime, a 6-foot-5, 360-pound senior, is another key two-way lineman who will play offensive guard and defensive tackle.

The Tornadoes begin the season by participating in the Zone6ix Kickoff Classic at William Paterson University in Wayne on Sept. 4 against Chatham.

Orange is in the American Red Division of the Super Football Conference. The other teams in the division are Barringer, Belleville, Millburn, Nutley and West Essex.

NOTES: In the past 12 seasons, the Tornadoes posted winning records nine times. Daniel has guided the Tornadoes to two North 2, Group 2, state final appearances, in 2001 and 2009, with losses to West Essex and Summit, respectively.

Daniel’s former players who have gone on to sign with NFL teams include defensive lineman Jay Alford, running back Cory Boyd, defensive back Jamar Summers and defensive lineman Willington Previlon.

Alford, an All–Big Ten and All-American at Penn State, was drafted by the Giants in the third round in 2007. He was a rookie on the Giants team that beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in Super Bowl 42. Alford later signed with Seattle and Oakland before playing for Saskatchewan in the Canadian Football League.

Boyd was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the seventh round in 2008 after playing at the University of South Carolina. He later signed with Denver and played in the Canadian Football League with Toronto and Edmonton.

Alford and Boyd were teammates on the 2001 Orange team.

Summers, who played at UConn, signed with Pittsburgh in 2018 and later with Detroit and Miami as an undrafted free agent. He also played in Birmingham in the now-defunct American Alliance of Football and was supposed to play for the New York Guardians of the XFL but the league folded.

Previlon played at Rutgers and signed as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers in 2020 and was on their preseason roster this summer.

Kassan Messiah, a linebacker who played for Daniel, had a tryout with the Giants in 2016 after playing at the University of Massachusetts.

Boswell is continuing his career at Milford Academy, a post-graduate school in New Berlin, N.Y.

Schedule

Sept. 4: vs. Chatham, at William Paterson University, 1 p.m.

Sept. 10: at Newark West Side, 7 p.m.

Sept. 18: at Nutley, 1 p.m.

Sept. 24: vs. West Essex, 7 p.m.

Oct. 1: at Belleville, 7 p.m.

Oct. 8: vs. Barringer, 7 p.m.

Oct. 15: vs. Livingston, 7 p.m.

Oct. 22: at Millburn, 7 p.m.