Joe Adelizzi vividly recalls his first game as the Pinelands Regional football team’s defensive coordinator. It wasn’t pretty.
“My first year, we won a game, but the goal was to just have games without a running clock. That’s where the program was at that point,” said Adelizzi, who joined the coaching staff for the 2013 season, when the Wildcats finished 1-9. “My first game with this program, we were down 49-0 to Lacey, and that was in the first half. I was here during some really dark years.”
Amidst a stretch of 18 seasons in which the Wildcats didn’t have a winning campaign, Adelizzi arrived right after the team had gone a combined 0-19 the previous two seasons. Following the opening loss to Lacey in 2013, Adelizzi’s defense held Point Pleasant Borough to 13 points, and the Wildcats won by three.
Pinelands lost the next eight games and gave up an average of nearly 37 points per contest.
“I’m not trying to insult anybody, but Pinelands was a doormat program for a long period of time,” said Adelizzi, who grew up accompanying his father, Joe, a longtime Asbury Park Press sportswriter, to Shore Conference football games twice a week for years. “I knew what the history of Pinelands football was when I got here. To see where our program is now is surreal.”
Where it is now is in the NJSIAA playoffs for the first time in 22 years; division champions for the first time in 39 years; and, following a 20-12 win over Adelizzi’s alma mater, Toms River South, undefeated through the regular season for the first time ever, a feat no other varsity football program in Southern Ocean County has accomplished.
So, how did the Wildcats get here – from dismal doormat to potential sectional title contender? The answer can be summed up in one name and one point: John Tierney and accountability.
“When John got here, the accountability he demanded from each and every player, in every aspect, changed instantly,” Adelizzi said. “It wasn’t just about showing up to practice. It was about every single thing – showing up to school on time, making sure your grades are good, practicing a certain way – and if you’re not doing those things, you’re held accountable.
CULTURE SHOCK: Head coach John Tierney’s program hasn’t experienced a losing campaign since his first season in 2022.
“Now, we have difficult conversations with kids. If something’s not going right, we call the kid into the office and say, ‘Hey, you need to do A, B and C better. You’re not doing this, and you’re capable of that. We need to see this improve, and if it doesn’t, you’re not going to play.’ John made sure every kid knew that if they didn’t want to be a part of the program to that level, then they just weren’t going to be here.”
The culture Tierney changed after his arrival in January 2022 may have shocked some players, but the results of it showed the following fall, when the Wildcats went 7-4, delivered their first winning season since their last appearance in the state playoffs in 2004 and tied the mark for most wins in a season.
“We’ve been building this since Jan. 24, 2022,” Tierney said of the day he was hired. “For our first off-season, 7-on-7 practice, we had seven kids, and they didn’t know what 7-on-7 was. Now we have 60 kids there. I’m a big believer that if you want to be great at something, you’re going to put your head down and work to be great at it.”
And the Wildcats worked, and worked, and worked, year after year, even during the off-season and early summer. Tierney hasn’t coached a losing season yet, and senior Dom Colosi said the program has been operating on all cylinders since he entered the program as a freshman.
“The culture here has been completely flipped,” Colosi said. “Every off-season, we’re putting in the work. It’s non-stop, constant work with nobody missing practice, 60 people in the weight room every day. Every season, we’ve progressed. We pushed and got better. We worked really hard for this.”
Senior quarterback Jamie Jenkins said the days are gone in which any player is giving only a half-effort.
RIDING THE WAVE: The seniors in the program, including Jimmy McCutcheon (10), have worked extremely hard to help build the program to what it’s become, and a new standard has been set in motion.
“The culture here has changed tremendously the past four years,” he said. “We went from a team with people who were half in; kind of half-assing it; not sure they wanted to be football players – to what we are now. We had 60 people at 7-on-7 practice. We even had linemen going to the field five days a week for open practice during the summer. Everybody bought into what we were doing here, and it’s all because of Coach. He made us believe we could change the program, and we truly did it. We didn’t want to be average.”
Nothing’s been average about this season so far. It’s hinged mostly on an historic shut-down defense. The Wildcats shut out five straight opponents and didn’t give up more than one touchdown in any game until Toms River South scored a second with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter of last week’s clash. What’s more, Pinelands’ defense has allowed a measly 31 points through nine games, the lowest in the conference and an average of just 3.44 per game.
Midway through the season, Adelizzi posted to Facebook a simple message after one of the Wildcats’ shutouts: “A story as old as time. They don’t score, they can’t win!”
“I told them before tonight’s game, ‘Every coach has a vision of what their group should look like, and what you look like on the field is more than I could have envisioned.’ To give up 31 points in a nine-game season is phenomenal,” Adelizzi said. “We set the goal at the end of last year that we wanted to be in the top five for points-against in the conference, because that’s the only thing that matters for a defense. But to be where we are is incredible. We just have to tip our cap to the players because they’re the ones who go out there and execute.”
Heading into the playoffs, Pinelands has a realistic shot at the South Jersey Group 3 crown. The Wildcats’ UPR rating was lower than top-seeded Seneca’s (6-3) and second-seeded Oakcrest’s (6-3), but their power points were higher, and they’re the only undefeated team in SJ3.
Still, whatever happens during the next few weeks, Pinelands fans have had their fill of thrill.
“The fans deserved this,” Jenkins said. “A lot of our fans have watched this program lose a lot over the years. Coach wanted us to be winners; and wanted the community to have a winner.
“And we’re going to do our best to keep this going.”
