A new season and same expectations for Wayne Hills football, as Coach Demikoff begins his 9th season at the helm and 23rd year with the Patriots; Pat Cosgrove starts his 35th season on coaching staff

Since 2002, the Wayne Hills High School football program has won 10 state sectional championships, as well as 19 conference titles, dating back to 1990.

So, as a new season begins, the anticipation for another big year is already in high gear.

Part of the program’s overall success is the stability in the head coaching position. In 35 years, there have been two head coaches.

Chris Olsen served for 26 seasons (1987-2012) and since then, Wayne Demikoff, who will begin his ninth year at the helm and 23rd season with the Patriots, having joined Olsen’s staff in 1999. Demikoff has put together a record of 60-25, including state titles in 2016 and 2018, four conference crowns (2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019) and a Bowl Game title, in 2018. Last year’s team finished 5-2, in a shortened season.

Since 2015, the Patriots are 50-15 under Demikoff’s leadership.

Former Wayne Hills star Greg Olsen, here with his children, touches the vaunted Wayne Hills football rock before the 2019 season opener, in South Carolina.

Demikoff announced his coaching staff for 2021, and that stability factor remains, with a number of familiar names returning.

Bill Weigel, Mike Peischl, Claudio Canonaco, Mike Kelly, Pat Cosgrove, Matt Bogert and Justin Avedessian are back, along with volunteer assistants Mike Zaccone, Brian Pengitore and Eugene Foster.

Peischl, Kelly and Avedessian also played for the Patriots. Cosgrove is the longest-tenured coach on the staff, having come aboard with Olsen. He’ll begin his 35th year with the team and 45th as a coach, having also worked with Olsen at St. Cecilia, Bergenfield and Paterson Eastside.

Unlike last year, the Patriots expect a full summer workout and prepartion, including the annual trip to East Stroudsburg University, for camp, and the 7-on-7 competitions throughout July.

Stability in the coaching ranks has long been a tradition at Wayne Hills.

In August, the team will start wearing the pads and fully prepare for the regular season opener, which this year will be played on Aug. 27, at Harrisonville High School, in Missouri. This will be the sixth time in the last seven years that Hills will open with an out-of-state game.

Pat Cosgrove

Read more about the upcoming schedule here: https://mikelamberti.wordpress.com/2021/05/07/on-the-road-again-wayne-hills-football-resumes-its-annual-season-opening-out-of-state-contest-when-it-plays-in-missouri-on-aug-27/