Roselle Park head coach Terry Hanratty played on one of best football teams in playoff era

UNION COUNTY FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Roselle Park head coach Terry Hanratty played on one of the best Union County teams ever during the playoff era.

He was a senior and a key player on defense in the secondary on the 1989 Elizabeth team that became the first in program in history to finish 11-0. The Minuemen also repeated as North 2, Group 4 champions – winning their third state title in the playoff era – and finished as the No. 1 ranked team in the state by The Star-Ledger at season’s end.

Elizabeth, which was chock full of Division 1 players that season, was led by the likes of senior running back Malik Jackson – who went on to play at Rutgers – Tommy Orr, Semaj Blow and quarterback Bobby Drake.

Elizabeth was the only team to defeat 8-1 Union that year – beating the Farmers 14-0 at Union in the regular season – and then downed Bloomfield and Morris Knolls at home in the playoffs.

Elizabeth had its hands full with Bloomfield in the N2, G4 semifinals, eventually coming away with a very hard-fought 19-9 triumph at Williams Field.

Two weeks later on the same venue, Elizabeth handled Morris Knolls a bit easier, winning 25-0. Twelve months earlier in the 1988 N2, G4 final, Elizabeth won at Morris Knolls 13-12 to win the section for the first time in seven years and for the first time under head coach Jerry Moore.

Hanratty, who is wrapping up his third pre-season at Roselle Park which included a scrimmage at home last week against Glen Ridge, not only played for Moore in the late 1980s, but also coached under him.

Hanratty, whose Panthers will open at Pingry Sept. 13, was an assistant coach at his alma mater Elizabeth, Linden and Governor Livingston before becoming the head coach at GL in 2004.

“This is my 19th year as a coach in Union County  and it’s been fun, but I think the talent is not what it was and the number of players has dropped in most programs,” Hanratty said.

Hanratty helped resurrect a Roselle Park program that had not had a winning season in some time. In the past two years not only did Roselle Park post winning seasons, but the Panthers also defeated arch rivals Brearley and New Providence for the first time in over a decade, made the playoffs, won playoff games, reached a state championship game and defeated Thanksgiving Day rival Roselle again.

The only drawback Roselle Park experienced was having to face Hoboken in the 2012 North 2, Group 1 final and Shabazz in the 2013 North 2, Group 1 semifinals, falling to both. Although the Panthers gave both teams all they could handle, it wasn’t the same as if they had gone up against a Brearley, a New Providence, a Cedar Grove or a Verona in that instance.

For most of their program lives Hoboken and Shabazz were firmly entrenched as Group 3 schools. Enrollment numbers dipped and both eventually dropped down to Group 1 status to the surprise of many.

“It becomes a safety issue,” Hanratty said. “You want to feel that your kids will be safe whoever they are playing.”

Present Linden head coach Deon Candia, now in his seventh season at the helm, thinks this could be his team’s year.

Candia has guided Linden to sectional semifinal games the past two seasons, contests Linden had to play on the road and fell just short.

“I still think we’re under the radar, but I also think that his is the most talent I’ve had on one team – offensively and defensively – since I’ve been here,” said Candia, who took over as the head coach in 2008.

Linden went 7-4 last year, falling at eventual North 2, Group 5 champion Ridge 28-14 in that section’s semis. The Tigers are situated in N2, G5 for the second straight season.

Linden last reached a state championship game in 1985 when it captured North 2, Group 3 for the only time during the playoff era.