NIELSEN CONTINUES TO PLUG AWAY AT SOFTBALL, FOOTBALL By Edward Kensik HILLSDALE — Pascack Valley head coach Craig Nielsen says that his stint as the Hillsdale head coach for girls softball and football will be his last foray into coaching, but then in the same sentence he backs down on that. “This will be my last head coaching job, but you never say never,” said Nielsen who does not want to pin himself down on whether he would ever coach again although he is very happy to be at the Hillsdale school. For Nielsen this was the eighth season as both the Indians head football coach and head girls softball coach. He has won more than 50 games heading the Pascack Valley football squad and more than 100 games as the softball head coach. Nielsen has turned both the school’s football team and the softball team into powerhouse teams in not only the now extinct North Bergen Interscholastic League, but also in Bergen County. In his football years at PV, he has made two state sectional championships, only to just fall short against Westwood (9-8, Group 2 North 1 in 2006) and River Dell (12-7 in 2007). In his softball years, the veteran coach has garnered three sectional championships and made the Bergen County Championship this season only to see their dreams of a county title go up in smoke when IHA’s Christina Miquel hit a three-run walk-off home run. It was a bitter loss for Nielsen and his team, especially the seniors like pitcher Brittany DeMaio. “It was disappointing, but we had a great season,” said DeMaio who along with the Indians were 25-7. “We are proud of what we accomplished.” While he might appear to be a hard-nosed coach on the outside, his players know the real Nielsen. “He works us hard in practice,” said DeMaio, who has been coached by Nielsen the last three years, and will be attending Towson State this fall. “He is a great coach. He looks tough, but everybody that has played for him knows that he is the nicest guy.” But Pascack Valley was not his first go around with head coaching. The long-time coach has been a head coach for 23 years in football and 17 years in girls softball. He ticks off the years as head coach in football, five at Park Ridge, one at Elmwood Park, nine at Tenafly and now eight at Pascack Valley. For girls softball as head coach it was three at Fair Lawn, six at Tenafly and eight at Pascack Valley. After coaching at Tenafly, he took the head football coaching job at Pascack Valley. During his first season as head man for the Indians, the girls softball job opened up and he pounced on that. For the summer Nielsen is going to just enjoy watching his son, Alex, a freshman at Mahwah High School, play basketball and his daughter, sixth grader Anna Marie, play softball. “This summer I am just going to sit back and watch my kids play,” said Nielsen. And now Nielsen gives some of his obligations especially with football, for example the weight room work, to his assistant coach. “Fortunately, I have some very talented young coaches who want to be head coaches take over my duties,” said Nielsen. He even got a chance to watch his son, Alex, during the winter play for the Mahwah basketball team. “I root for them every time except for two games (those against Pascack Valley,” said Nielsen. In terms of the differences between coaching boys and girls, he finds only a very slight difference. “In my eyes there is nothing. They are athletes and the approach is the same,” said Nielsen who jokes. “The language one (expletive) slips out, but there is no bad language with the girls.” And in terms of the different sports. “I enjoy both sports. Many think that coaching softball is just picking up a check, but I treat both sports the same,” said Nielsen. “When I am coaching football, I don’t think of softball. When I’m coaching softball, I don’t think of football.” “This year we did not have a dominant pitcher who scored 11 or 12 strikeouts a game. This year we had one that pitched three or four strikeouts…I would rather have the best defensive team.” In terms of football, Pascack Valley has had two shots at winning a sectional championship, but lost both times, once to Westwood and the other to River Dell. The one year where they definitely could have won a sectional title, unfortunately, the Indians moved up last fall to Group 3. “It doesn’t bother me. I like the challenge.” Instead of playing the likes of West Essex and Jefferson, the Indians traveled to Wayne and faced powerhouse Wayne Hills who had not lost in the last 50 games. Despite being a heavy underdog, Pascack Valley gave the Patriots all they could handle and were winning 10-7 in the fourth quarter, but Wayne Hills defeated them in the end, 16-10. This coming with two of the better Pascack Valley players being injured during the game, but Nielsen will not make excuses. “We still should have beaten them,” said Pascack Valley pigskin head coach. Despite the loss, Nielsen has been instrumental in moving the Indians from an also ran in football to a year-to-year powerhouse. In the last few years the Indians have averaged nine victories a season. In terms of his biggest wins while he has been at Pascack Valley in football had to be the win over Ramapo in 2005. The first four years that he was at Pascack Valley the Indians could not beat Ramapo, at that time, powerhouse Green Raiders, but since then Pascack Valley has been the dominant team against them. Along with his PV win over Ramapo, Nielsen looks at his biggest games at his other stops as head coach have all been league games against rivals. At Park Ridge, it was a come from behind 15-14 win against Hasbrouck Heights in 1987. At Tenafly, it was a long-coming win over Ridgefield Park in 1998. In the state championship games at Westwood and River Dell, Nielsen thought his team could have beaten both teams. He points to his squad’s six turnovers against the Cards. From when he started out 23 years ago as a head coach compared to today, he finds a couple differences in the kids. “One is that there are more distractions out of the sports and 1A, there is more of a push to specialize,” said Nielsen. But despite some to push especially parents with thoughts of scholarships in his mind, the Pascack Valley head coach wants his kids to try other sports. “How many chances do you get to be a kid?” Nielsen made the rhetoric questions. “There are not many scholarships out there, but the colleges are looking for the best athletes.” He added that playing different sports helps work different parts of the body which helps overall performance. “Sometimes you just got to do something else,” said Nielsen. For Nielsen, he and Pascack Valley move into a new era next season as the NBIL along with other leagues have been disbanded since the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) reorganized the state’s leagues. The Indians will face most of the old NBIL teams except for Wayne Hills and Fair Lawn. In girls softball Pascack Valley will have the additions of Paramus Catholic and Holy Angels in the girls softball schedule. In football the Indians have the old NBIL Division 2 teams (Mahwah, Ramsey, Indian Hills etc.) along with Demarest and Paramus Catholic. Along with the state reorganization has come the talk of separating public and non-public schools which Nielsen is in favor since non-public schools can bring in students from outside of Bergen County. He pointed to the 2008 All Bergen County first team where 33 percent of the honorees were from outside of Bergen County. But despite the unbalance for public and non-public schools, Nielsen has helped keep the students from River Vale and Hillsdale in the district and helped build one of the best football and girls softball programs in the county.
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