WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange High School football team’s goal remains the same every season.
The Mountaineers want to win a state sectional championship for the first time.
“The goals are the same every year: We want to be state champions,” said head football coach Darnell Grant, following a tri-scrimmage with Columbia and Willingboro at WOHS’ Joe Suriano Stadium on Wednesday morning, Aug. 17. “We want to be in the final game with the big boys. I think we have enough to do it. We just have to keep getting better, and guys have to believe in the system and trust the process.”
Though they haven’t reached a state sectional final since the current state playoff format was instituted in 1974, the Mountaineers have been close. They reached the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state playoff semifinals in Grant’s first year at the helm in 2019 and also last season, when they fell to eventual champion East Orange Campus. The 2020 playoffs were canceled due to the pandemic.
The Mountaineers return a good core from last year’s 7-4 team.
Leading the way is senior wide receiver and cornerback Saboor Karriem, one of the top players in the state. Karriem, who holds more than 20 scholarship offers, made first team defense in the all–Super Football Conference Freedom Red Division last season, as voted by the division coaches.
Karriem said the team is motivated this season.
“The guys are a lot hungry,” Karriem said. “Falling short last year, the guys are hungrier for a state championship. My expectation is a state championship. We have a lot of guys who can do a lot of things on offense. On defense, we fly around and get to the football. We play a very aggressive style of defense.”
Seniors Amir Stewart and Quran Ali will share quarterback duties. Both are athletic and talented.
Other offensive playmakers are senior wide receiver Jarvis Jones, senior running back Jehki Williams and junior running back Rayel Hunter.
Williams made first team offense and Jones made second team offense in the all–SFC Red Division a year ago.
“This year’s team, we are fast and physical,” Williams said. “We are smart on and off the field. We work real hard since we lost that last game last year. We have a chip on our backs after the game, so I feel like we are ready for the season. I want to get a ring in my last season. We have to work hard and listen to coach Grant.”
Jones said the team has stepped up its energy. “I like the energy,” Jones said. “Everybody has high energy, and the camaraderie is great. Everybody has the same focus and the same goal in mind — a state championship.” Consistency will be a key, Jones said. “We just need to come out in that first game and keep that going throughout the whole season.”
Jones said the team didn’t play to its highest potential last season, but “If everybody does their job, we can go far.”
Senior Mason Malloy, 6-foot-1 and 255 pounds, will anchor the offensive line.
Defensively, senior Gensley Auguste, 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, is a highly touted nose guard. Auguste also is an offensive tackle.
“We have a lot of returning players on offense and defense,” Auguste said. “The offense is going to be explosive, and the offensive line is going to be really good this year. Our whole team is trying to win a state championship. That’s the goal. Everybody has to mesh together. We’re doing that. Our goal is to win a state championship, nothing less.”
Senior offensive guard and nose guard Jay Straker also will be a force on both lines.
“We have experience on the offensive and defensive lines,” said Grant, whose team will face Montclair High School in the season opener on Friday, Sept. 2, at Montclair State University. “We have some really explosive kids. Saboor Karriem is an awesome player, Jarvis Jones is an awesome player, Jehki Williams is in his fourth year as a running back. We like what we have.”
Grant is considered one of the top head coaches in the area. His first head coaching job was at Irvington, his alma mater, where he turned around the program. In his second year, in 2003, the Blue Knights qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1975. In eight seasons, from 2002 to 2009, Grant guided Irvington to a 64-21 record, including its first state sectional final appearance in 2006 in the North 2, Group 3 final. Grant then became the head coach at Shabazz, where he led the program to a 68-32 record in nine seasons, from 2010 to 2018, including two North 2, Group 1 state sectional titles, in 2014 and 2017. Shabazz went 12-0 in 2017.
This season, the NJSIAA is adding an extra round and will play down to group state finals for public schools for the first time. The playoffs previously ended at the sectional finals for the public schools from 1974 to 2017. Since 2018, the NJSIAA expanded the playoffs to regional finals, in which the North 1 and North 2 champions met in north regional finals and the South Jersey and Central Jersey champions met in the south regional finals for each group.
West Orange is in the Super Football Conference Freedom Red Division. The other teams in the division are Barringer, Bloomfield, Dickinson and East Orange Campus.
The West Orange assistant head coaches are Cyrus Harbin and Pete Pascarella. The assistant coaches are Richard Forfa, William Keegan, Andrew Mazurek, Carmen Scuderi and Anthoy Shaw. The volunteer coaches are Kevin Cousins, Brian Green, Mark Haley, Abdul Hanks, Donald Massey and Emmanuel Weaver.
2022 West Orange football schedule
- Sept. 2: at Montclair (at Montclair State University), 8 p.m.
- Sept. 9: at Bloomfield, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 16: vs. Passaic Tech, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 23: at Mount Olive, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 30: vs. Bayonne, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 7: vs. East Orange Campus, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 14: at North Bergen, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 21: vs. Irvington, 7 p.m.
Photos by Steve Ellmore.
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