By: Darren Cooper / Record Sports Department
Lodi is proud of its football tradition, but it would like to update some of the signs and banners.
You say the name Lodi and a North Jersey native knows what to think.
It means a tough, proud, adaptable, resilient community, and for years the Rams football team epitomized that ethos. Lodi was one of the most successful Bergen County public school programs in the 1990s winning sectional titles in 1992 and 1998.
Third-year coach Mark Maggio is a Lodi product. He played on that 1998 team. The Rams have gone 4-5 and 3-7 under him, which has put them in the middle of the pack of the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference.
Maggio looks around and sees a team that has to replace 16 graduated seniors, but admits there were times last year when the younger players were performing better than the more experienced ones.
He notes that the school never has trouble getting players out. For the first time in a few years, it will have a full freshman team.
But will this translate into success on the field?
Like every coach in preseason, Maggio is optimistic. He likes the talent of his junior class and how the program is becoming his. Lodi was four points away from starting the season 5-0 last year.
Rutherford has dominated the division the last two years, but is expected to be entering a rebuilding phase. There is an opening there, one Maggio feels his team can step into.
Tradition is fun and all, but Lodi wants to win now.
The tradition
First of all, the orange and blue Ram helmets are classic, and should never go away.Lodi has made the playoffs 11 times and won three sectional titles, the last coming in 2005. Its last division title came in 2013. Away from the field, the Lodi community and the football program have always retained a strong relationship.
The challenge
For Lodi in recent years, it’s been a problem to reverse course once things start going downhill.
In Maggio’s first year, the Rams started 0-3 struggling on offense. Last year, they were 3-2 before taking on Rutherford with a shot at pulling into league contention, but the Bulldogs prevailed 41-13 and Lodi didn’t win another game.
It’s normal for young players to get down when they don’t have success. Maggio is working hard to ensure that the kids remain focused on the next challenge. It also has to be said that Lodi still loses players every year to the North Jersey non-public schools.
Expectations
One of the beauties and challenges of the NJIC schedule is that with a true six-game regular season (the last two weeks games are crossovers based on previous results), every game counts.
Lose one and it’ll be hard to make the NJIC playoffs. Lose two, and you’re pretty much done.
Lodi-Garfield is one of North Jersey’s best rivalries and the Rams and Boilermakers open up against one another in 2019. Even though its just Week 0, the game is huge for both sides.
