August 27, 2008
Former Raiders get ready for college football season
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
The NCAA football season gets going this week (someday we'll probably go right from the Final Four to the football
kickoff) and a few former Ocean City High School players are involved.
A.J. Harris begins this year as a redshirt freshman at Elon (NC) College. He saw action in one game last season, his
true freshman year, gaining 44 yards and scoring a touchdown. But he did not play too much to be red-shirted and the
school decided to take that route.
In pre-season this summer, Harris has broken a couple of long runs for touchdowns. Coach Pete Lembo says that Harris is
"expected to contribute on special teams this fall after a solid spring. He will also compete for playing time at
tailback". Harris maintains a 3.0 grade-point average and wears No. 33.
His younger brother, Chris, is a freshman at Elon and is wearing No. 83. It is likely that Chris will redshirt this
season. Elon opens on Sept. 6 in New York against Stony Brook.
The University of Maryland opens its season on Saturday in College Park MD against the University of Delaware. Redshirt
sophomore Dan Bonato, who wears No. 47, is a reserve tailback for the Terrapins. Bonato earned Iron Terp status in the
spring, posting a high strength index during workouts. Last year he was named scout team offensive player of the week
prior to the Villanova game.
Bonato, who walked on to make the Maryland team, has football in his genes. His father played at the University of
Richmond, one grandfather played at West Virginia and the other played for Penn and the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Delaware game will be telecast live on ESPNU. Among the players Bonato might recognize on the Delaware side of the
field are sophomore wide receiver Tommy Crosby, a Hammonton graduate, and redshirt freshman wide receiver Mark Schenauer
from Absegami.
Steele Nugent is a freshman fullback at the University of Albany, wearing No. 39. Nugent and the rest of the Great Danes
were visited at practice early this month by Tom Coughlin, coach of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. The Giants
train on the Albany campus.
Albany opens its season on Saturday at the University of Massachusetts. They will get used to travelling - the Great
Danes' first five games are on the road.
And freshman Vinnie Djukanovic is wearing No. 86 at Rowan University. To give you an idea how versatile an athlete
Djukanovic is, at OCHS he played about a half-dozen different positions, but never wide receiver. At Rowan, he is listed
as a wide receiver.
There are plenty of ex-CAL players who are Djukanovic's teammates with the Profs. They include junior defensive back
Mike Barone from Hammonton and his younger brother, freshman wide receiver Anthony Barone; senior back John Impagliazzo
from Mainland; senior wide receiver Davon Edwards, a team captain from Middle Township; junior defensive back Jay
Simmons from Egg Harbor Township; sophomore back Steve Hevalow from Absegami; sophomore linebacker Dom Marchiani from
St. Joseph; sophomore linebacker Steve Hague from Buena; freshman linebacker Keith Corcoran from St. Joseph; freshman
wide receiver Travis Warker from Oakcrest; and three other freshmen - lineman Brandon Campbell of Hammonton, lineman
Max Trotman of Mainland and lineman Matt Bartling of Absegami.
Rowan begins its season on Sept. 6 in Massachusetts against Bridgewater State.
There are others, playing football and other sports in college, and The Gazette will keep you up-to-date on all of them
when our OCHS Alumni Notebook returns next month.
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Here is an interesting item that may impact high school sports in New Jersey.
Union City NJ is the most densely populated city in America. They are building a new high school, which will combine two
current high schools - Union City and Emerson - when it opens next September. They wanted their sports stadium to be
close to the school but, because of the heavy population, land is a premium in the city.
So they built it on the roof of the school.
It is a 4,500-seat sports stadium, fully lit, that will host football, soccer and other sports. The school cost $175
million, most paid for as one of six "demonstration projects" the New Jersey Schools Development Authority financed.
This is just the type of original thinking and creativity that schools will need in the coming decades to maintain and
improve the educational experience.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns