Who should be the next Ramapo High School football coach? Let's speculate | Cooper

Ramapo High School needs a new football coach.

Who will get the job? Who should get the job? All eyes are on Ramapo athletic director Glenn Stokes to find the man.

Stokes has the credentials and connections. He may be new as an AD at Ramapo, but he’s in Ramapo’s Hall of Fame. He was AD at Midland Park. He is the right guy to lead this search.

There’s no way to talk about something like this without speculating, and that’s just what I am going to do here. I think I know who should get the job, but I expect there to be plenty of chatter.

It is - without a doubt - one of the best football coaching jobs in North Jersey. The best job is Passaic Tech, hands down, but Ramapo is right up there. The Raiders have the facilities, the tradition, and a little bit of an edge over other Group 4 schools that makes it a perennial contender. You can win, and win big at Ramapo.

Before we start the coaching carousel, I have to take a moment and credit outgoing coach Mike DeFazio. Do you know what a difficult situation DeFazio walked into? He was an outsider, in a way, taking over for Drew Gibbs, who died suddenly at the end of the 2021 season.

DeFazio couldn’t help but be compared to Gibbs everywhere he went, but he never complained. I’m not sure where he’s going (maybe Delbarton?), but he leaves Ramapo with a 20-4 record and a state finals appearance. He did nothing but keep Ramapo going during a tough situation.

If I was doing the interviews, this is how I would break it down.

My short list

Brian Gibbs

I’m going to start right away and say if it were up to me, just me, Gibbs would be the choice. Yes, of course, there’s the connection to Dad. It’s now Drew Gibbs Field for crying out loud. But Brian doesn’t have to be exactly like his dad, nor could he be, but no one would love this program and lead it any more like Drew than Brian.

Maybe there are some hard feelings somewhere, I don’t know, but Gibbs knows Ramapo intimately. His wife, Maddie, coaches soccer there. Brian left two years ago and did good things at St. Joseph as an offensive coordinator. Maybe he’s young, maybe so what? That’s an advantage in my book. I know I am probably rooting for the story, but it just makes so much sense to me. He’s candidate 1A to me - if he wants it.

Roger Kotlarz

Every time a good job comes up, I think of Kotlarz at Wayne Valley. I think he was in the running for the St. Joe’s job that went back to Augie Hoffmann.

I’ve said it a bunch of times, but Kotlarz has a great rapport with high school kids and runs a great program. But now, we said at the top, Ramapo is a great job, but is it that much better than Wayne Valley? Probably not. Kotlarz may see this as too much of a lateral move.

Joe Clause

I’ve called him best assistant coach in North Jersey and I stand by it. Clause is a big part of the success at Old Tappan. He has a simple approach on defense, he gets kids to buy in, and he wins. Maybe Clause is waiting for the Old Tappan job to open up, but this would be a great shot to lead his own program.

I’d make a call

Anthony Muir

Now we’re getting into those assistant coaches who you may not know, but I know people respect in the North Jersey football world. Muir has done a great job at Passaic Tech. He’s a young, innovative offensive coach. He’s destined to get a big job somewhere, why not Ramapo?

Tom Curry IV

Curry has done fantastic things at Park Ridge, winning with different styles of offense. He’s a Bergen County lifer. Yes, he has it good at Park Ridge, but the Owls are graduating a bunch of talent and it’s hard to win consistently at the Group 1 level. If Curry Jr. were going to make a move, now could be the time.

Joe Cutrona

Another Group 1 coach who has turned that program around, Wood-Ridge's lead man comes with some real benefits. He has a good outside-of-school job that’s flexible. He has the chops to work at a bigger school and succeed. Wood-Ridge is lucky to have him, but I wonder if he would be interested in moving to somewhere with a bigger profile.

Greg Gruzdis

This name goes on the list because Gruzdis was head coach at Waldwick/Midland Park for 14 years and had a lot of success. And who was AD at Midland Park? Glenn Stokes. Gruzdis was publicly ticked off about leaving his position, but he’s a good coach and has proven he could win.

Some outside-the-box thoughts

Nick Guttuso

Guttuso just finished his second season at the helm of Demarest. He’s a Ramapo alum who coached there for 13 years as an assistant under Drew Gibbs. Demarest is dropping into the SFC Ivy Division in 2024 trying to rebuild their program. I know coaches say they don’t mind the Ivy Division, but it’s hard (and Demarest is a great place to be a coach) but Guttuso would probably love a shot to lead his alma mater.

Matt Simms

Here’s a fun thought, bring in Matt Simms to be the Raiders coach. He has plenty of experience working with quarterbacks, and definitely knows the area. He could cover up for some of his coaching inexperience with a big assistant coaching staff (you know people would want to work with him). Ramapo is a quarterback hot spot, and it would be exciting to see what Simms could do with a full program.

Chuck Johnson

Who better than one of Drew Gibbs' all-time rivals and best friends than the former Ridgewood football coach? Johnson has had some time off to heal, but he’s still in better shape than just about everyone else on this list. If he called and expressed interest, I would listen, especially if you knew it was maybe a 3-5 year thing and he groomed an assistant to eventually take over.

You can call, but please stop

Dan Sabella

Immediately when the news broke about DeFazio leaving, my phone beeped with someone saying that Sabella was leaving Don Bosco. Please stop. I’ve had many public and private conversations with Sabella about this. He doesn’t want to leave Don Bosco. He loves it there. He’s been to three state finals in five years. He’s the only New Jersey coach to beat Bergen Catholic in a few years. He wants to win a state title at Don Bosco. He’s all in.

Now, listen, could there be some people at Don Bosco who want to, ahem, dismiss him? I guess so. But on what basis? If the only metric you want to look at when analyzing a coach is state championships, well, you’re going to be really disappointed. Sabella has one of the best - and toughest - jobs in America. It’s where he wants to be.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ramapo NJ football: Who should be the next head coach?