45 years later, Hawthorne football team draws parallels to last sectional-title squad

Tom DeMaio Jr. feels as though he has seen this movie before.

The 1979 Hawthorne graduate was the quarterback of the Bears’ football squad that upset Lenape Valley for the North 1, Group 2 sectional title in December 1978. His father, Tom Sr., was the coach.

Though he recently retired as interim principal at his alma mater, DeMaio Jr. still keeps in touch with current coach John Passero – whose son, Dominic, is one of the seniors that helped lead Hawthorne to Friday’s North 1, Group 2 final against Mountain Lakes.

“There’s a lot of irony going on. It’s pretty cool,” DeMaio said Wednesday in a phone conversation from his home in Pennsylvania. “It’s fun to watch John be able to have this great run with his son. Because it was definitely something that I cherished – and my friends all still cherish today – having my dad as the head coach.”

The team that DeMaio quarterbacked 45 years ago remains the Bears’ last to win a sectional championship. They faced two Sussex County foes in that year’s four-team playoff bracket, stopping Sparta at home in the semifinals, 24-7, before upsetting No. 1 seed Lenape Valley, 19-14, on the road.

After the latter victory – which ended the Patriots’ 22-game win streak – Tom Sr. told The Ridgewood News, “I have dreamed of being involved with a championship Hawthorne team for 18 years, since I played fullback for a 1-8 Bears team.”

The elder DeMaio took over as coach in 1976, the year after Hawthorne earned its second consecutive sectional title under Dennis Penna. Many of the players on his first team were sophomores starters who reached the mountaintop in 1978.

Again, history is repeating: Dominic Passero is one of several current starters who have been with the Bears’ varsity since sophomore year. Another is running back Cormac Smith, who is Penna's grandson.

Another is QB Tyler Menne… whose family now lives in the same house where Tom DeMaio Jr. grew up.

“Tyler, his bedroom was actually my old bedroom,” DeMaio said. “Forty-five years later, he’s playing quarterback, hopefully for a state sectional title.”

The ’78 signal-caller hopes to be able to make the trip back to Hawthorne for the showdown with Mountain Lakes, which is 3-0 all-time against the Bears, all in the playoffs.

Memories of a championship victory can last for a long time, though, to which DeMaio can attest. He spent 20 years as the Pascack Valley principal and was in attendance when that school lost a 34-33 heartbreaker at Lenape Valley in the 2004 playoffs.

That took place on the same Stanhope field where Hawthorne won its 1978 title, and Lenape Valley still had the same coach 26 years later, Don Smolyn.

“I wanted to say hello to coach Smolyn, because through my dad, I got an opportunity to know him, and throughout the years kind of kept in touch with him,” DeMaio said.

“He comes walking over and sees me, and he goes, ‘Holy [smokes]! Right over here, that was where…’ and he starts talking about like 12 plays. And he’s pointing on the field where those 12 plays were.”

Whether he makes it to his hometown on Friday or follows the game from afar, DeMaio is sensing the buzz in the community.

“It’s been pretty cool to see the town get excited about this run that they’re having,” he said. “I keep in touch with a lot of alumni and former football players from back in the heyday – ’60s, ’70s and ’80s when Hawthorne was a powerhouse in football… you get a lot of pride from being back after having a lot of success back in those days.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Hawthorne NJ football: Parallels to 1978 sectional title team