PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Salem Community College in South Jersey is getting ready for its first college football game in school history.
The Mighty Oaks will host Hudson Valley Community College Saturday afternoon at Pennsville High School.
Jay Accorsi, who spent more than two decades as the head football coach at Rowan University in Glassboro, is the architect of the new program at Salem Community College. He was hired as the head coach back in January, tasked with building the team in the months since.
“How often does a football coach or any coach get a chance to start a program from scratch?” he asked. “It’s been awesome.”
But it has been a lot of work — organizing a roster of around 90 players, getting uniforms, putting a staff together, finding a practice field, making the schedule, and a myriad of other tasks.
“To pull something like this off, you need a lot of people aligned, thinking the same way and doing a lot of work behind the scenes,” he said. “It’ll be rewarding when the season’s over, but right now, there’s just so much work to do. But it has been fun. It has really been fun.”
Accorsi has already seen some strengths on his roster.
“I think we’re pretty dynamic on defense,” he said. “We’re really skilled in the back end and the secondary. I think we’ve got some good linebackers.”
The Mighty Oaks will play eight games in this first season. Saturday’s matchup with Hudson Valley will kick off at 1 p.m.
