Westfielders Hope to Help Lead Union Team to Victory in Snapple Bowl

Westfield finished as the No. 1 football team in Union County last year, fashioning an 8-3 record that included a win at a 7-0 Union squad and a home playoff victory.

The Blue Devils were also one win away from playing for a state championship.

Now four standout players from that 2009 team will help another squad attempt to win a game it hasn't captured in five years.

Just-graduated seniors Pat Gray (6-3, 200), Joe Ondi (5-9, 185), Hugo Nolasco (5-10, 180) and Brandon Dietz (6-2, 250) are representing the Blue Devils in Thursday's MyCentral Jersey.com Snapple Bowl XVII, set for a 7 p.m. kickoff at East Brunswick.

Gray and Ondi are listed as wide receivers on the offense, while Nolasco and Dietz will play on defense, with Nolasco at cornerback and Dietz at tackle. Dietz said that he may see time on the offensive line as well.

The Union County squad will be out to snap Middlesex County's four-game winning streak.

Middlesex leads the series 9-7. Before Middlesex won four in a row, Union won three straight games. Union is seeking to win its first Snapple Bowl since 2005.

Ondi, Nolasco and Dietz practiced with the Union County squad Sunday at Westfield's Gary Kehler Stadium. Gray could not be at practice because of a family matter.

"This a great honor to be part of a game like this and to be recognized by Union County," Ondi said. "Just to be part of it is pretty cool.

"Hopefully we can beat them, end their run, have a great day and have a fun time."

Ondi will continue playing football at FDU-Madison, a solid Division 3 program with a heavy New Jersey roster.

"Hopefully I will be playing defense," Ondi said. "I may be playing at linebacker. I could be at safety."

"Joe found a place that's a good fit," Westfield head coach Jim DeSarno said. "I'm excited for him. It's a place where he can play pretty quick."

Gray will continue at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., seeking to then move on to a Division 1-A or 1-AA school.

"I'm really excited to see how a year of prep school works out for him," DeSarno said. "He was injured after his junior year and did not run track, but came back and had a solid season for us."

Gray also overcame a minor injury that kept him out of the lineup early this past fall. Upon his return Westfield went from 1-2 to reeling off six straight wins before falling at Phillipsburg in the North 2, Group 4 semifinals.

"Pat has unbelievable ability and is a talent," DeSarno said.

Gray made a huge catch that also prevented Union's Elijah Lee from coming up with an interception in Westfield's 35-14 triumph at Union.

"I always thought he was a 1-A or 1-AA type player," DeSarno said. "He's got great things ahead of him."

Nolasco and Dietz helped spark one of the top defensive units of any team in North Jersey last fall, with Westfield yielding only 124 points in 11 games for an average of just 11.27 points against per contest.

"We came with the mindset that we wanted to play aggressive and be the ones making the hits instead of taking them," Nolasco said. "From there we had fun playing and got after it."

Westfield's six-game winning streak saw the Blue Devils allow only 33 points – which came out to just five touchdowns – and included two shutouts.

"I'm really excited to be playing in this game," Nolasco said. "We had a great season and this can top it all off."

Nolasco will also continue on the Division 3 level at Gettysburg.

 "Last week I was actually up there for a football camp and I might be playing a little free (safety) too," Nolasco said. "I'm just really excited."

 "Hugo has a chance to be a special player at Gettysburg," DeSarno said. "Going into last year I don't think I thought about him being a college player, but he had a tremendous senior year.

"He worked really hard and now he has a special chance to do some special things."

With Dietz at tackle and Willie Johnson moving over to end, Westfield proved very tough to run on last fall.

Dietz found out Sunday that he might see action on both lines Thursday night.

"This means a lot to a guy like me who will be playing his last football game," Dietz said.

Dietz considered playing football at Middlebury College in Vermont, but instead will attend St. Joseph's, Pa. with the help of scholarship money from academic achievement. He will play on the rugby team there, which is a club sport.

"It means a lot just to play again, it's great to represent Westfield and it's great to represent Union County," Dietz said.

Dietz also started as a junior when Westfield went 7-3 in a playoff year in 2008.

"I thought it was great and a lot of fun," Dietz said. "In the beginning (of last year) when we were losing I thought maybe we wouldn't be as good as the year before, but once we started winning the defense was locked down all year.

"It started to be a great season, it was a lot of fun and I had a great time with all the guys."

When Dietz began to play rugby, which was in 8th grade, Westfield football was going through some rough times. The Blue Devils, behind DeSarno, have turned things around the past four years, with four consecutive winning seasons and three straight playoff campaigns.

"I think that a lot of other towns don't really recognize Westfield as a good football school anymore and I think that's pretty disrespectful to us," Dietz said. "When we come onto the field we know we can play.

"The other thing too was coach DeSarno bringing in a new mindset with the players. Everyone works hard, works very hard over the summer and every year it gets harder and harder and we're just working our tails off to get better."

"I'm a little sad that Brandon will not be playing football," DeSarno said. "He had some opportunities, but he's excited about playing rugby."

There's a rugby team in Union County that has done quite well the past several years. The season is in the spring, with the Union County squad going on to compete for championships.

"It's a club team, we have guys from a bunch of towns, but it's mainly Westfield and Cranford that represent the most guys," Dietz said. "We've been to the nationals the last three years, this year in Utah and the previous two in Pittsburgh."

It was Dietz's line coach Paul Harbaugh, who coaches Westfield's 8th grade team, who introduced the sport of rugby to him four years ago.

"It actually started with football and coach Harbaugh, who was also big with Union rugby," Dietz said. "He got three of us linemen to start playing back in 8th grade. He asked what we were doing in the spring and asked us to come play rugby.

"Ever since then we fell in love with it and we've been recruiting guys."

So for one season Dietz was involved in a contact sport with pads and protection and during another season he participated in a contact sport that does not provide any.

"If I can describe rugby in two words I would say it's organized chaos," Dietz said.

"When you're watching it, people have no idea what's going on, but everybody has a place and a responsibility and just like football everyone has their job.

"You just have to know what to do. It's tough to learn. You really have to play."

To play football in the fall and rugby in the spring can take a physical toll on a high school athlete.

"I think coach DeSarno was probably a little concerned, but we didn't have any injuries from rugby," Dietz said. "I think it helped. A majority of the guys that I saw starting to play rugby would start in football.

"It helps with your tackling a lot. You have to tackle very solidly in open field to play rugby, so it helps. It's not as rough as people think.

"Football is designed for contact and you're supposed to make contact. In rugby there's contact, but it's not as much. You don't hit every play like a linemen does. I get worse injuries from football to be honest."

Dietz said that St. Joe's has a pretty good Division 2 rugby team, with the main season in the fall. "It you do well you get into the playoffs in the spring," Dietz said.

"My parents don't really care for rugby as much as I do, so they were basically saying either go with football or follow the money, so I followed the money."
Dietz said Middlebury promised him money, but didn't deliver.

"I told other football schools that I was going to Middlebury, but that dropped so I was basically done with football," Dietz said.

Proceeds for the annual Snapple Bowl game go to the Children's Specialized Hospital in Mountainside and the Lakeview School for Cerebral Palsy in Edison.
Nearly $300,000 has been raised for both charities since the Snapple Bowl debuted in 1994.

On Monday, the Union County team will visit the Children's Specialized Hospital and the Middlesex County squad will visit the Lakeview School for Cerebral Palsy.
This is an annual pre-game event where players get to interact with children who are less fortunate. The kids look forward to meeting the players, coaches and cheerleaders.

"To me, I think it's pretty cool to go help out the community and go in and help the kids in need like that," Ondi said. "To visit the hospital will be an experience I will never forget."

"This is a way of giving back," Nolasco said. "The Snapple Bowl in general I think is just a good idea to give back and raise money."

"It's always good to do some charity work," Dietz said. "Especially with the kids, with that situation, they love it. They don't have a lot to look forward to, so I'm sure this is something that brings a smile to them and a smile to all of us."

Both teams will continue practicing Monday and Tuesday and then they will attend the annual night-before banquet at The Pines Manor in Edison, scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m.