Dave Oizerowitz and Jeremy Schulte are the 2024 Sea Breeze Ford Co-Football Coaches of the Year

It was a historic Shore Conference football season as two teams, Toms River North and Rumson-Fair Haven, went undefeated and won NJSIAA state championships. In the new era of New Jersey high school football with teams playing down to overall group champions, those are legendary accomplishments.

No matter the expectations, actually taking the field and winning for 13 or 14 straight weeks requires excellent coaching, both on and off the field. A pair of coaches were no-doubt picks for Shore Conference Coach of the Year. The question for us was who to pick between the two.

We couldn’t.

Toms River North’s Dave Oizerowitz and Rumson-Fair Haven’s Jeremy Schulte are the 2024 Shore Sports Insider Football Co-Coaches of the Year.

Going undefeated and winning an overall group state championships is worthy of universal praise. What Oizerowitz and Schulte did in leading their respective teams to state titles as two of the seven state champions is historic, and we felt it was fitting they both be recognized with a postseason award.

 

Dave Oizerowitz, Toms River North

Coming off back-to-back Group 5 state championships with an all-time senior class having graduated, it was fair to wonder how good Toms River North would be in 2024. It didn’t take long for head coach Dave Oizerowitz to see that his new group of senior leaders had the intangibles to match their talent and potential.

“We saw in the summer time that this team was really hungry and not resting on their laurels,” Oizerowitz said. “We graduated so many great all-time seniors and these kids who were behind them were really good football players waiting their turn. These guys were playing for us but weren’t spoken about as the primetime players, but they were grinding.”

Months later, the Mariners were celebrating another undefeated state championship, this time on the turf at MetLife Stadium after an emphatic 41-14 victory over Union City in the NJSIAA Group 5 state final. It completed Toms River North’s second 14-0 season in three years and officially made the Mariners a dynasty. Since the start of the 2022 season, Toms River North is 40-2 with three Group 5 state championships. The Mariners have the state’s longest active winning streak at 19 games and have won 39 straight games versus fellow public schools.

“This team proved a lot of doubters wrong all year and put themselves up with our other two (state championship teams) as three of the greatest teams in Shore Conference history,” Oizerowitz said.

Toms River North has been one of the Shore Conference’s premier programs since the 1990s. The Mariners won their first sectional title in 1979 under Bob Fiacco but really took off between 1989 and 2004 when Bob Nani led them to three sectional titles. The Mariners then had their first undefeated season in 2007 when Chip LaBarca Jr. led the Mariners to the South Jersey Group 4 sectional championship. Since taking over as Toms River North’s head coach in 2013, Oizerowitz has raised the program to a new level with four sectional titles and the first three Group 5 championships in state history. The Mariners have also won six division titles and produced five seasons with 11 or more wins during Oizerowitz’s 12-year tenure. Their nine sectional titles are tied for third in Shore Conference history.

The culture he has established is a major reason for Toms River North’s sustained success. Oizerowitz is a demanding coach, but his players respond to his style and play with equal parts aggressiveness and poise. This group was especially fond of perfecting the finer details, just like their head coach.

“They were unfazed by any scenario,” Oizerowitz said. “They never blinked, never felt any fear and never got down on themselves. The thing I really enjoyed was that they loved to practice. I am old school that way. I won’t leave the field until it’s right. Line up and do it again, that’s what we do. This team thrived on practice and got better at practicing, and that made it really enjoyable as a coach. You win with what you do during the week.”

Toms River North is an incredibly talented team with great depth at the freshman and junior varsity levels. That is also a testament to Oizerowitz and his staff. Players change schools so often it has led coaches to call to refer to it as “the transfer portal”. Despite it being very tough to crack their lineup over the last four seasons, the Mariners retained their core even when many of them had to sit behind other talented players before getting their chance. Senior quarterback T.J. Valerio is the prime example. He was behind two-time New Jersey Player of the Year Micah Ford and could have started for nearly every other school in the conference had he decided to transfer. He stayed, and in his first and only year as the Mariners’ starting quarterback and he made it count by setting Toms River North’s single-season record for passing yards (2,427) and passing touchdowns (30).

“These kids always played together growing up. It’s a big debate among the classes at North, but I think they were the best freshman team we’ve ever had. I knew if they would stay together they would win, which you never really know in this day and age. But our North kids tend to stay together and are loyal to North and want to play for the name on the front of the jersey.”

“Going back to June they didn’t lose one 7-on-7 game. We won every tournament, won our scrimmage versus (Group 4 finalist) Phillipsburg, and obviously went 14-0 through a difficult schedule. In my opinion, South Jersey Group 5 is the best public school sectional bracket in the state of the New Jersey, so to come out of South 5, then beat the Central Jersey champ, and then go beat the best public school team in North Jersey; for us to play that way in the state final against an 11-1 team, I think we demonstrated how good our football team is on the big stage.”

Oizerowitz was also quick to praise his coaching staff.

“We have an outstanding staff that has been together a very long time. We’re like brothers and have a lot of trust in one another. Everyone has a real defined role and we respect those boundaries. They love coaching at North and they’re in it for the right reasons. I’m not an easy guy to coach for. I apply pressure to the position coaches and they respond and get the most out of their guys. I’m a little biased, but I think our offensive coaching staff is far and away the best from top to bottom in the state of New Jersey. Defensively, I think it’s just as good. It’s been underrated how good our defense has been during this championship run.”

Once again the Mariners will say goodbye to another all-time senior class that includes Valerio, Rutgers-bound offensive lineman Jaelyne Matthews, Defensive Player of the Year Blaise Boland, wide receivers/defensive backs Cam Thomas, Nasir Jackson and Mekai Morse, running back Mordecai Ford, two-way lineman Hathem Hooranyi, edge rusher Eddie Slosky, fullback Hayden Moscinski, kicker Yianni Papanikolas and offensive lineman Colin Keating. Naturally, they have great cast of returners led by All-Shore linebackers Jack Baker and Brady Cicala, All-Shore athlete Cole Garrison, offensive lineman Declan Roonan and defensive back Jael Hester. And there will surely be underclassmen not yet on anyone’s radar ready to make their mark. The Mariners’ freshman team was undefeated and the JV team had only one loss.

No one should be surprised if the Mariners are contending for more championships in 2025. Under Oizerowitz, it has become part of their DNA.

 

Jeremy Schulte, Rumson-Fair Haven

The magnitude of what Rumson-Fair Haven accomplished this year was still just registering with head coach Jeremy Schulte even a week after the season ended.

“We were just talking about it yesterday,” Schulte said. “It still hasn’t fully set it in. You look back at the season as a whole, and it was just incredible.”

The Bulldogs went 13-0 and won their first NJSIAA Group 2 title after reaching the finals the past two seasons and losing a pair of heartbreakers. They had the Shore Conference’s No. 1 scoring offense, leading passer and leading receiver. You couldn’t script it any better.

Schulte was there to guide Rumson-Fair Haven through it in his third season at the helm, which has earned him Shore Sports Insider Co-Coach of the Year honors with Toms River North’s Dave Oizerowitz, who also led an undefeated team to a Group title.

The Bulldogs went undefeated for the first time since 1959, which was 15 years before the NJSIAA created the playoff system.

Senior quarterback Owen O’Toole, who was named the SSI Offensive Player of the Year, not only became the school’s all-time leading passer, he finished his career No. 2 in passing yards in the history of the Shore Conference with 7,099 yards. He also set the single-season school record with 2,893 yards passing to go with 25 touchdown passes and nine rushing touchdowns.

Senior wide receiver Jordan Angstreich finished with what is believed to be the single-season Shore Conference record for receiving yards with 1,186 to go with 13 touchdowns. Junior running back Kellen Murray set the school single-season record with 32 touchdowns.

“Going 13-0, seeing Owen break the school record, Jordan having the season he had,  Kellen breaking the record – you just look at everything that happened through the season and it’s unbelievable,” Schulte said.

Rumson won the Class A North title before finishing the job in the playoffs with five straight wins to take the Group 2 crown. The Bulldogs became one of just two public schools from the Shore Conference to ever win a Group title – joining three-time Group 5 champion Toms River North – since the advent of the Group finals in 2022.

They also exorcised some demons after losing 18-15 to Caldwell in the 2022 Group 2 final and 21-20 in overtime against Westwood last season in the championship game. Caldwell and Westwood both finished undefeated those years.

The Bulldogs also beat rival Red Bank Catholic for the first time in five years and just the second time in the last 23 years on their way to winning the division title.

“It was a little bit different this season because we were the underdog in later parts of the playoffs the last two years,” Schulte said. “To really be the favorite in every game this year was new territory for us. The kids embraced it.

“The senior class is truly special. All the little things that you look at as a coach, things you normally worry about, I stopped worrying about very early in the season early this year. Even comparing them to other teams we’ve had that have been tremendous, these guys did even more than those guys, which I didn’t think was possible.”

Schulte also guided Rumson in the first season since losing his father, Hall of Fame Rumson and Wall coach Jerry Schulte, who died at 72 in March. The elder Schulte was an integral part of Rumson’s rise to being a perennial state title contender in the last 15 years.

Jeremy Schulte is now 29-10 in three seasons since taking over as head coach from his father. The Bulldogs have won three straight sectional titles and have reached a Shore Conference-record 11 straight sectional finals.

They have won nine sectional titles since 2010, which ranks third overall in the history of the Shore Conference. Their three Group 2 final appearances are also the most of any team in the state.

 

Bob Badders contributed to this story.