Izsa revived Chatham football
The Chatham High School varsity football team was made up of 38 players, but its motto for 2015 was, “Play as one.”
The Cougars put together their first winning season since 2011, finishing with a 9-3 record. Chatham reached a NJSIAA sectional title game for the first time in a decade.
The maestro behind Chatham’s success was third-year head coach Jason Izsa, who is the 2015 All Daily Record Coach of the Season.
“The two of us working, communicating and getting a staff together that can work with these kids was the beautiful part of it,” Cougars offensive coordinator Steve Trivino said. “Everybody that we put together on staff are great teachers, and Jason let us all be the great teachers and coaches we needed to be.”
Izsa's interest in football began when he played at Cedar Grove in the early 1990s. He “earned 60 credits” from Montclair State as a health and physical education major, then went back to Cedar Grove as a subvarsity coach. Izsa was an assistant at Madison for 10 years and still teaches physical education at Central Avenue School. At Chatham, he began as an assistant to head coach Don Morgenroth. When Morgenroth left for Montville, he recommended Izsa for the head coaching position at Chatham.
Prior to Izsa’s tenure at Chatham, the program wasn’t playing its best football. In 2011, the Cougars went 7-4 and were a North 2 Group II semifinalist, but they fell to eventual champion Madison.
After a conference realignment prior to the 2012 season, Chatham failed to win a single game, which included matchups against Morris County powerhouses Roxbury, Delbarton and Randolph. Izsa’s first season with the team, 2013, was a second consecutive 0-10 campaign.
The Cougars fell in their first two games of 2014 but snapped their 23-game losing streak in the third game of the season by defeating High Point, 33-0. The team finished 2014 at 3-7.
The 2015 season, however, was different.
Quarterback Alex Sands returned to Chatham as a third-year varsity starter. It would also be his second season under Trivino, who has over 30 years of coaching experience at Newark Academy, Dayton and Caldwell. With Izsa at the helm, Trivino installed an offensive scheme adaptable to his players, which helped with Chatham’s success.
“When I first came to Chatham, I was a third-stringer on the freshman team,” Sands said. “Going into my sophomore year, he (Isza) took a lot of time with me. Then in my junior year, he had enough belief in me and all of the other specialty positions to bring in an offensive coordinator to install the spread, which obviously worked out pretty well for us. He’s been a big impact in my game and development as a player.”
Sprinkle in playmakers Timmy Adams, Justin Hayes and Matt Nestler to go along with a tough offensive line, and the Cougars had piled up over 3,000 yards of total offense.
“Our offense doesn’t work if you don’t have Alex at quarterback,” Izsa said. “He possessed the skills of a great athlete, but he’s also a great leader. His intelligence was definitely a huge key in making the offense happen.”
The Cougars’ 9-3 2015 season included regular-season wins against Randolph, Montville, Parsippany Hills and Morristown. In North 2 Group III, Chatham rolled past Barringer, 31-6, and crushed West Essex, 45-6, in the semifinal.
Chatham’s season came to an end in the North 2 Group III final when it fell to Union County powerhouse Cranford, 50-23.
“This year was just tremendous,” Izsa said, “led by the senior group and everything they brought to the table. This was a great group of football players. I’ve coached some great teams, I’ve been on some great staffs, but this group playing together is something I’m extremely proud of and something I’m never going to forget.”
Staff Writer Dan Canova: (862) 240-2878; dcanova@gannettnj.com
The Daily Record staff selected Chatham football coach Jason Izsa as its Coach of the Season, but Daily Record readers had a different choice. In an online poll held at DailyRecord.com, almost 46 percent of Daily Record readers selected Jefferson boys soccer coach Travis Gage as the Readers' Choice Coach of the Season. Congratulations to all coaches on successful seasons.
Here are the results of the readers' poll:
Paul Buccino, Morristown boys cross country: 37.4%
Mark Dovico, Whippany Park girls soccer: 4.9%
Stephanie Finke, Kinnelon volleyball: 2.9%
Travis Gage, Jefferson boys soccer: 45.8%
Jason Isza, Chatham football: 3.0%
Rob Kertesz, Mendham girls cross country: 0.7%
Ginny O'Donnell, Mountain Lakes tennis: 0.7%
Lori Welles, Mendham field hockey: 4.5%