By Marc Narducci & Chuck Langerman
One of the most highly recruited players in South Jersey is Eastside junior safety Willy Love.(Eastside is the new name for Woodrow Wilson). The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Love said that by the end of July he had received 18 scholarship offers. Included among those offers were defending national champion Georgia along with Oregon, Texas A&M and Penn State to name a few.
“Right now recruiting is going crazy, and it’s been fun” Love said.
At this point, Love said he hasn’t narrowed down his choices.
He said many schools have been talking to him about playing a rover, a hybrid-safety linebacker position.
“They like me as a safety that can come down and play in the box and make tackles,” said Love, who was a key member of Wilson’s 9-4 team that won the Central Jersey Group 3 championship.
Sometimes the recruiting process can become overwhelming for a player of Love’s magnitude, but that hasn’t been the case in his situation.
“I am just enjoying it and taking everything I can get from it and having fun,” he said.
Love said that his main thought is attempting to have Wilson repeat as sectional champion. This is also the first year that public school teams will compete for a state championship.
“I am really looking forward to the season,” he said. “We’ve got a lot to prove and I just want a championship.”
Undefeated after one season
Last year in his first season, then Woodrow Wilson head coach Brandon Bather won the Central Jersey Group 3 title by defeating Rumson-Fair Haven, 28-6 in the sectional final. It was his only season coaching Wilson since Bather resigned in June.
The last South Jersey coach to win a sectional title in his first season and then step down, was Haddonfield’s Gorham Getchell in 1949. That season, Haddonfield recorded its first perfect season, going 9-0 and winning the South Jersey Group 3 title which was selected by the NJSIAA (The NJSIAA playoffs didn’t begin until 1974).
In that season Haddonfield outscored its opponents, 234-75 and Getchell is the only coach in South Jersey history that never lost a game.
Joining the Audubon 2000 club
Last season Scott Lynch.became the fourth Audubon High quarterback to throw for over 2,000 yards in a season. The four are:
Brian Furlong—2,157 yards in 2015
Steve Rizzo—2,052 yards in 2007
Joe Flacco—2,016 yards in 2002
Scott Lynch—2002 yards in 2021
