Gary Mobley talks to his players when he was the Columbia head coach.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE — Gary Mobley can’t help but feel blessed.
The former Columbia High School head football coach was surprised when he received the great news on a phone call from longtime Bloomfield HS head coach Mike Carter informing him of his induction into the Essex County Coaches Hall of Fame.
“I was very surprised,” said Mobley in a phone interview with the News-Record of Maplewood and South Orange. “I am very honored and overwhelmed by the gracious thoughts of the selection committee that were able to consider me for something as prestigious as the Essex County Coaches Hall of Fame. It was definitely a surprise. I guess it’s a tribute to trying to do the best that you can every day and trying to work hard and be honest. I’m totally honored. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and I feel totally blessed.”
Mobely joins Charlie Cocuzza, Pete Pascarella and Ronly London in this year’s induction class. The inductees will be honored at the 32nd Paul Robeson High School All-Star Football Classic at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange on Tuesday, June 9.
Mobley, a 1986 Union HS graduate who played for the late legendary head coach Lou Rettino, got his first start as a high school head coach at Rahway after playing collegiately at Temple University. He enjoyed a highly successful tenure at Rahway for 11 seasons, guiding the team to the state sectional semifinals numerous times, including one state sectional final, where the team lost to Phillipsburg.
Mobley then became the head coach at Columbia for nine seasons from 2016-2024. Mobley cherished his time at CHS.
“It was a great time,” said Mobley, who is currently an assistant coach at his alma mater, Union, under Irvington graduate Barris Grant. “Coming from Union County and having my introduction to Essex County at Columbia High School, it was a good thing. I had some good players over the years, kids that were really dedicated and bought into what we were trying to do. We had our ups and downs, but we had more good times than bad times. I feel like we left the program in a much better spot from where we picked it up in. I just feel gratitude for all those kids that poured into the program, poured into my career with the sacrifice of their time and efforts. It’s just a blessing to be entrusted with the youth and being able to mentor them, teach them, guide them. It’s a lifelong dream and passion and I feel totally blessed.”
Mobley has come full circle now that he is at Union, where he learned from Rettino and later learned from Bruce Arians, the then-Temple head coach who later won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady.
“My whole career has been one blessing after another, playing at Union High School, playing for Lou Rettino, playing at Temple University, playing for Bruce Arians, and then having the opportunity to coach at Rahway with little to no experience. I was very grateful for that opportunity, and the rest is history.”
Note: Pascarella was first an assistant coach/assistant head coach, first for Jeff Wiener and then for Darnell Grant, Barris’ brother, at Irvington, which is Grant’s alma mater. When Grant left to become the head coach at Shabazz, Pascarella was promoted to head coach at Irvington and served in that role for six seasons from 2010-15, leading the team to the state sectional semifinals in 2012. Pascarella then went to Shabazz and served as the assistant head coach under Grant, helping the program win a sectional title in 2017. Pascarella has been the first assistant coach and special teams coordinator under Grant at West Orange since 2019, when Grant took over as head coach. West Orange won its first sectional title in 2022 and was sectional runner-up in each of the past two seasons, going 9-3 in both years.
Cocuzza was a head coach at Kean University and a longtime offensive coordinator at Montclair State University. He also was head coach at Memorial (West New York) and Cresskill.
London, a 2001 graduate at defunct Clifford Scott High School in East Orange, is the head coach at Newark West Side.
The Robeson Classic, which began in 1993, features graduating seniors from Essex, Hudson and Union counties (East team), and Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties (West team). The game has been played at Robeson Stadium, except for in 2023 and 2024, where it was held at Belleville High School’s Municipal Stadium. The game did not take place in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Photos Courtesy of Joe Ragozzino
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