By Darren Cooper – North Jersey Record
LYNDHURST – Piotr Partyla is a “Golden Bear” and a Lyndhurst Golden Bear.
Tangles of blond curls adorn his head, so that takes care of the ‘golden’ part. His nickname, Misiu (pronounced Me-Shoe), means ‘bear’ in Polish.
“It’s crazy because I got that name when I was born,” Partyla, 16, said. “Now I’m in high school and I play for the Golden Bears.”
“I call him Misiu too now,” Lyndhurst coach Rich Tuero joked Monday.
There are a lot of ways to describe Partyla (pronounced Par-till-la). He’s one of the best running backs in North Jersey, with 1,114 yards and seven touchdowns this season. Tuero thinks he’s even better at linebacker, where he ranks among the area leaders with 13 sacks. The defensive staff thinks he might be the best defensive player at Lyndhurst in decades.
Partyla has helped take the Golden Bears to a 7-1 record, tying their most wins in a season since 2011. Lyndhurst will host Hanover Park on Friday night in the first round of the North 2, Group 2 playoffs. It’s the first home playoff game for Lyndhurst in more than 30 years.
The Golden Bear will be wearing number two.
“He’s he man,” Tuero said, beaming. “He comes to work every day and whatever I tell him to do he does. You can’t teach what he does. He just has ‘it.’ People who talk about ‘it,’ this kid’s got It.”
The only child to a pair of Polish immigrants who came here in 1989, Partyla’s grandfather was a professional soccer player in Krakow. But that sport never really appealed to Partyla. He played a bunch of different sports growing up, but football was his favorite.
He was always a running back. Now 5-foot-9, 170 hard pounds, Partyla is strong and elusive. Every small school in North Jersey likes to have a player like Partyla, someone they can hand the ball to 25 times and let him cut and run. For all of the complexities of the modern game, there is still something poetic about handing the ball to your fastest player and letting him go.
And while Partyla admits he prefers to be the ball carrier rather than the person hitting the ball carrier, Tuero sees Partyla’s future on defense.
“He doesn’t realize how good he is on defense,” Tuero said. “I said I would put him up for All-County as a linebacker, because I think he can make it with these stats. Running back is a different animal, there are so many kids there. Defensively, he has stats no one can compare to.”
Partyla did not start out at Lyndhurst. There aren’t many kids left who can say they played on the last football team in Queen of Peace history, but Partyla played as a freshman for the now-closed school in 2016.
Tuero had tried to get him to come to Lyndhurst as a freshman. After Partyla suffered a hand injury while playing, and fearing that the school would close, he transferred just before the end of his freshman season.
“I kind of wanted to come here,” Partyla said. “All my friends were here and I felt like it was a better vibe here playing football. That was a big reason.”
Partyla had to sit out four games for Lyndhurst to become eligible his sophomore year. The Golden Bears went 5-4 and lost to rival Rutherford in the first round of the playoffs.
This season, Lyndhurst has just one loss, a double-overtime thriller to New Milford. Even though the loss cost the Golden Bears a division title, it may have also been a spark to a second-half surge. Lyndhurst has won four straight heading into its game against the Hornets.
“We lost that game and we learned what it was like to lose and feel that and we were able to get through that and here we are,” Tuero said.
The Golden Bears are more than just, well, their golden bear. Quarterback Brian Podolski has thrown for 12 touchdowns and senior wide receiver Benny Franchino doubles as his top target and one of North Jersey’s best kickers. Tuero talks about how all the parts compliment each other.
But there’s only one Golden Bear, in uniform or out.
