Roselle Park High School football coach Greg Dunkerton speaks before his players at last year’s BCC Media Day.
UNION, NJ — The third annual Big Central Conference high school football Media Day is just one week away, scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 7.
For the second year in a row, the event is one day and will be at Kean University’s Harwood Arena in Union.
The first year there was a media day was in 2023, and it was for two days in Hillsborough.
Big Central Conference President Scott Miller, sometime this week, will announce the time the media day commences on Thursday, Aug. 7, and other details.
There are 59 football-playing schools in the BCC, with most of them attending last year’s one-night media day at Kean.
Last year, head coaches showed up with four players each to greet the local media and answer questions about the upcoming season.
Official practice for the 2025 campaign kicks off on Monday, Aug. 11.
Of the 17 football-playing schools in Union County, six of them have new head coaches. The list includes Donald Jones at Plainfield High School, Mark Ciccotelli at Linden High School, Barris Grant at Union High School, Isa Abdul-Quddus at Hillside High School, Gus Kalikas at Arthur L. Johnson High School and Elliot Platt at David Brearley High School.
Jones, who played at Plainfield and then collegiately at Lackawanna College and Youngstown State University before playing in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots, spent the last three years as an assistant coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison. St. Thomas Aquinas has not lost a BCC game since November of 2020, a 31-game streak. Jones was named in December.
Ciccotelli was previously the head coach at Rahway High School for one year in 2002 and the head coach at Scotch Plains–Fanwood High School in 2017 and 2018. Ciccotelli also served as an assistant coach at Cranford High School.
Grant is a head coach for the second time after serving in that position at Hillside for nine seasons from 2016 to 2024. Grant won three sectional state championships in a row at Hillside, capturing Central Jersey, Group 2 in 2017 and 2018 and South Jersey, Group 2 in 2019. Hillside is the only Union County school to win those sections. Hillside won only one sectional state title in the playoff era previously, which was the North 2, Group 2 title in 1985.
Grant’s best team was the 2019 squad that went 12-0 after winning a regional championship. His 2018 state championship team also went undefeated in regular season and sectional state tournament play before finishing 11-1.
Grant had Hillside better than .500 every year but his first year, 4-6 in 2016 and, last year, 5-5 in 2024. Grant guided Hillside to playoff berths in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Grant’s 2022 team went 9-2 after falling at Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, 28-14, in the North 1, Group 3 final.
Abdul-Quddus was a standout linebacker at Union in 2005 and 2006 and then played collegiately at Fordham University. Abdul-Quddus also played in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. This is his first head coaching stint.
Kalikas was last the head coach at Arthur L. Johnson in 2008, when the Crusaders reached the Central Jersey, Group 2 championship game, falling to Manasquan High School, 19-14, at Rutgers University to finish 8-4. Kalikas was the head coach for five seasons, from 2004 to 2008. He has been the athletic director at Arthur L. Johnson in Clark ever since.
Platt played in high school at Montclair Kimberley Academy and then in college at Franklin & Marshall. He is a native of Cedar Grove.
David Brearley is coming off a rare winless season, while Union’s last three seasons have all been less than .500.
Plainfield, in contrast, has had winning seasons the last two years at 6-4 last year and 6-5 in 2023. Those were the program’s first winning seasons since 2005, when the Cardinals closed at 6-4 and 2003 at 7-3. Plainfield finished 5-5 the year in between in 2004.
Arthur L. Johnson has finished better than .500 and made the state playoffs the last three seasons, finishing 7-2 last year and 6-3 in 2023 and 2022.
Photos by JR Parachini
