John Jay football ready for a new chapter in Class B

Clockwise from left, Nick Rinaldi is back as a starter in the backfield ready to carry the load.  Senior Patrick Ryan is a key weapon on offense for the Wolves. Senior Peter Hill will anchor the line for John Jay. Joe Candarelli is back for his fifth year as the head coach at John Jay. (Jim MacLean Photos)

By JIM MACLEAN

Every year brings new challenges, and new opportunities.

John Jay football approaches the new year as a new opportunity, a whole new list of opponents to face as the Wolves move down to Class B based on enrollment after competing in Class A the last few years.

No more competing against state champion Somers and other programs like Yorktown and Mahopac. Now John Jay will now face opponents similar in size, like Pearl River, Ardsley, Westlake, and Pleasantville. 

“Their sideline will look a lot more like ours this year, we’re not used to lining up against a team that didn’t have more kids on the sideline than us, we’re more evenly matched, but there are a lot of really good football programs in Class B,” said John Jay coach Joe Candarelli, who is back for his fifth year as the head coach. “Coming down from Class A we were automatically the number one seed in the power rankings, so we play the hardest schedule. It will be interesting to see how it goes, we’re excited to see how we stack up.”

It helps to have a lot of familiar faces returning on the sideline. John Jay struggled to a 2-7 overall record last year, but it was a young team with a lot of juniors and sophomores on the field and most of them are back with a year of varsity experience anxious to rewrite the ending.

Ryan was one of the leading receivers last year and he will be used at multiple positions on offense to get the ball into his hands. Rinaldi carried the load last year as a sophomore and he will once again be the focus in the backfield for the Wolves.

“We’re very excited, we bring back Patrick Ryan and Nick Rinaldi, those are two pretty special skill position players that did a great job last year with the ball,” said Candarelli. “Up front we bring back Peter Hill, Joe Ferrera and Kyle Halsey, bringing those three back as veteran leaders, and we’re looking like we have some big linemen who might be the hammer instead of the nail.”

John Jay also has a pair of new coaches helping out on the offensive line, including alumni Matt Ferrera who went on to play at Cortland and is back to coach his younger brother Joe, and Gilbert Pena, who played Division 1 football in college at Ole’ Miss.

On defense, Halsey will lead the way at linebacker for the Wolves. Hill is another key returning starter on the line.

“Kyle Halsey may be one of the smartest linebackers I’ve ever coached, he’ll be a staple for us in the middle of the defense, and Peter Hill will be a handful up front.”

Unfortunately, John Jay did lose some players to graduation and some transfers to prep schools, and the Wolves also suffered a big loss when senior Drew Boniface suffered a ski accident last winter. He would have been a two-way starter at corner back on defense and receiver on offense.

“A life altering experience for Drew, but he got back a month ago and he’s been out here every day; he hasn’t missed a day of practice,” Candarelli said of Boniface. “From a leadership perspective, it certainly has been a different feeling out here since he got back, the energy level for all the kids inspired by him being out here. He was down in Atlanta for rehab and he zoomed in to all our meetings. He’s a leader of this team whether or not he puts the pads on.”

Despite the losses, Candarelli has plenty of reason for optimism watching the numbers grow for the program overall and seeing the familiar faces all around the practice field.

“We had a ton of young guys last year who are back and our junior varsity had a really good year last year, so we’ll have a lot of 10th graders who will be suiting up for us on Friday nights, and that’s an exciting thing. This is a group with a lot of young kids who have grown up playing together. We had a few years in a row without a youth program, but these kids have been together since the third grade.”

John Jay kicks off the season Friday, Sept. 12, when the Wolves will host Pearl River.