Pete Pascarella has been an assistant football coach at West Orange High School for the past several years. He also was an assistant coach and head coach at Irvington.
IRVINGTON/WEST ORANGE — When he got the phone call telling him that he was one of the inductees, Pete Pascarella couldn’t help but feel humbled.
Pascarella reflected on how football saved his life. Now, after more than two decades of coaching, Pascarella’s journey has been rewarded. The West Orange High School assistant coach is one of four coaches who are part of this year’s induction class of the Essex County Football Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.
Pascarella is joined by Charlie Cocuzza, Ronly London and Gary Mobley.
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.
“Mike Carter called me,” said Pascarella, referring to the longtime Bloomfield head coach who notified him of the induction news. “I was really thankful to be recognized by all these prestigious coaches in Essex County. I am just grateful that, after going into my 25th year, I’m being recognized going into the Hall of Fame, and just truly appreciative of the committee nominating me.”
Pascarella was an assistant coach/assistant head coach, first under Jeff Wiener and then under Darnell Grant 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.
When he was in fifth grade, Pascarella’s father had a massive stroke. His mother had to begin working three jobs, leaving Pascarella with little supervision for the next few years.
“My life was thrown upside down,” Pascarella said. “I started getting into trouble and was going down the wrong road. Football saved my life. The coaches from my little town of Kenilworth looked after me as if I was their own. As I began college, I knew I wanted to coach and give back, to pay it forward.”
Pascarella’s enthusiasm for coaching has certainly been noticed, as he continues to mentor players.
Mobley, a 1986 Union High School graduate who played for the late legendary head coach Lou Retino, was a highly successful coach at Rahway for 11 seasons, leading the program to nine state playoff appearances, before becoming the head coach at Columbia for nine seasons from 2016-2024.
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.
About the Author
