Eastern Football Job Open After the...
Eastern Football Job Open After the Resignation of Dan Boguszewski After three seasons, Dan Boguszewski resigned recently as a head football coach at Eastern. Boguszewski took over the program at a difficult time when the program was a in a full rebuilding mode.
He took over after Dan Spittal resigned following the 2013 season. In Spittal's last season Eastern went 10-2 and advanced to the South Jersey Group Five championship.
While that title game wasn't memorable by Eastern's standards, a 38-2 loss to Cherokee in a rainy night at Rowan University, the rest of the season was one of the best in school history.
Led by quarterback Tom Flacco, Eastern's only other loss was a 28-21 defeat to that same Cherokee team in late October.
Eastern had such a high powered offense that the Vikings averaged 39.3 points in its 10 wins. In fact that was the most wins by an Eastern team since the 1999 Group went 11-1, losing the final game to Atlantic City in the South Jersey Group 4 championship.
That was part of a truly dominant time at Eastern and also the year before Spittal, who had been an assistant to head coach Larry Ginsberg, took over.
Spittal did an excellent job during his tenure at Eastern, compiling an 86-61 record.
No matter who took over for Spittal faced a major rebuilding season the next year and as it turns out, the one after as well.
Eastern went 1-9 in each of Boguszewski's first two years. The Vikings competed in the West Jersey Football League American Division in those two years. That is generally considered the deepest division in South Jersey.
Before this past season, the Vikings were moved down to the WJFL National Division, which still isn't easy, but doesn't carry the depth of quality teams the American does.
That said, the National had some tough teams, led by South Jersey Group 4 champion Timber Creek and South Jersey Group 3 finalist Delsea.
Third place Clearview was a South Jersey Group 4 playoff qualifer.
However the bottom three teams in the division - Eastern Paul VI and Cherry Hill East, were a combined 3-12 in the division.
So even though the National wasn't as strong as Eastern's old American Division, the Vikings showed improvement, finishing 4-6.
The highlight was consecutive close wins late in the season, 14-7 over Triton and 13-7 over Paul VI.
Boguszewski's final game was a 28-7 loss to Kingsway.
Still, he can take satisfaction that the Vikings were a much better team in his third season than his first.
And there is no doubt that athletic director Jason Hill, a former football player at Eastern, will receive plenty of applications for the job.
Despite the struggles of the last three years Eastern is considered a good football job, one with a strong tradition, one with 20 winning seasons in the last 25 years.
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Author: Marc Narducci
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