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The Legacy of the 2011 Crusaders

The 2011 Bergen Catholic Crusaders will never be remembered as a team full of superstars consisting of Division I football talent, and jaw-dropping ability. This team is full of grinders, guys who have bought into a team mentality that allows the group to circle the wagons in big situations, and use their common bond of toughness to will them past their opponents. This BC team has a great collection of skilled players, but their legacy will forever be rooted in the close nature of this year's team, and the bond they share will each other and every Crusader who has ever donned a BC uniform. This 2011 Bergen Catholic team will look to immortalize themselves alongside 16 other BC teams that have captured state championships in program history, and have already forged their legacy as a blue-collar team that plays a brand of football that BC fans can celebrate.

This year's team took to heart all the lessons that they learned from the 2010 team, a squad that brought BC back to the upper echelon of the football rankings in New Jersey during Nunzio Campanile's first campaign in Oradell. The 2010 team was loaded with future collegiate players, who made things look easy on the field with their abundance of natural talent. They dismantled opponents, advanced to the state finals, and gave Bosco all it could handle, before falling late in the game to the Ironmen. The 2010 team helped close the gap, and created a confidence that still surrounds Crusader Country, and it is now up to the 2011 BC team to finish the job and to vanquish Bosco from its place atop New Jersey high school football.

With a daunting national schedule that took the Crusaders to 4 different states, this 2011 team battled elite opponents on the gridiron and combated lower expectations from those outside the program. 2011 was derided by some to be a rebuilding year in Oradell, and that the Crusaders would be lucky to even qualify for the playoffs with a .500 record thanks to their scheduled games against a slew of quality opponents. In their first game of the season against LaSalle, BC quieted those critics with a completely dominant performance against a team that still has only one loss on the year. BC then undertook a trip to Florida, matched up against a national powerhouse program in Plant, and were one play away from pulling out a last second win in the Sunshine State. The Crusaders held a 4th quarter lead at Granatell Stadium, and despite falling to Bosco, had proven to be worthy of its national ranking among the nation's elite. Nothing has been given to this 2011 team; they have had to earn everything along the way, and skeptics still wonder if BC is all smoke and mirrors.

Heading into their game against St. Joe's, the Crusaders were told that the Green Knights were the more experienced team, full of playmakers on an offense that was firing on all cylinders heading into that tilt in Oradell, and sporting a defense that forced turnovers at will against their opponents. BC's 4th quarter onslaught was all the evidence that was needed that day to prove those critics wrong. Against St. Peter's Prep, BC withstood the kitchen sink being thrown at them in the most hostile of environments at Caven Point, and came out on top. Despite that huge win, all this 2011 BC team could hear for the ensuing weeks was that they fell into a win, and that the better team was wearing maroon that night. The playoff rematch 3 weeks later at Crusader Stadium cemented who actually was the better of the two teams, and the 2011 Crusaders had proven their mental and physical toughness against one of the roadblocks in the way of a dream ending.

Now as the 2011 BC football team prepares to run out of the tunnel at MetLife Stadium on Friday night for the last time this season, the blue collar bunch has one final chance to silence the haters. If the game was only to be played on paper, then this Crusader team would have no shot against the crop of athletes that will wear Maroon and White on the opposing sideline, but the best part is that the game will be played between those sidelines, and with everything on the line. This 2011 BC team have prepared just as hard as their opponents, have run just as much in the sweltering summer heat and in the blistering cold, and have gotten the chance one last time to play for a state title.

So many members of the 2011 team experienced the pain of a state final loss in the locker room last December, and also sat quietly on the bus pulling out of the DBP lot this September, reflecting after another loss to the Ironmen. That fire to compete has fueled the team to put its head down and just play, just outwork every team in its path back to the Meadowlands. Now is the time to roll up a decade's worth of frustration and disappointments and to discard it as nothing more than the past. Tonight the 2011 Crusaders focus on the one game at hand, and the one game that matters the most. They don't have any control over the past, but this team can be the ones to dictate the future.

What happens tonight, could echo for a decade, and Crusaders fans should feel fortunate that this 2011 BC football team are the ones in position to make history, because they have rightfully earned this shot at greatness. They have bonded with all the BC teams before them in a common Crusader identity of gridiron greatness, and it's their moment to shine and to grasp a championship by the horns. The 2011 BC team will forever have a legacy as a blue collar team that worked extremely hard in every game and performed on a national stage, it's now up to them to see if they want state championship rings with that legacy.

ABOUT DAN LONG

Dan Long graduated from Bergen Catholic in 2003 where he was the Sports Director of BCTV and coined the immortal phrase "Crusader Crazies" for the raucous BC student section. He is currently the radio voice of Bergen Catholic football, the founder of DL Sports Media, and a weekly contributor to BergenCatholicFootball.com.