Football: Edison's Matt Fulham is the Big Central Conference Coach of the Year

If someone needs a guest speaker on how to turnaround a program, Edison’s Matt Fulham will be a stellar choice.

When Fulham took over as the Eagles head football coach in 2005, the team was in the midst of a 31-game losing streak. An optimistic Fulham thought it was a great opportunity for a young coach and, slowly, Edison got better and better and more competitive.

This fall, Edison reached its highest point of the 21st century on the gridiron. The Eagles captured the NJSIAA Central Group 5 title for the program’s first sectional crown in 31 years and third overall (1991 and 1976).

By far, it was not an easy trek with early injuries and losses. Fulham helped keep Edison steady and the sixth-seeded Eagles (9-4) pulled three road upsets for the hardware, along celebrations and memories that will be etched in the program's lore forever.

Fulham has been selected as the MyCentralJersey.com/USA Today Network Big Central Conference Football Coach of the Year for his efforts.

“You can’t understate his impact,” Edison senior quarterback Matt Yascko Jr. said. “He’s been here for a while now and he really built the program from the ground up. … He has really taken it from the floor to the sky. Coach Fulham knows everything you can possibly want to know. You can’t understate his importance and the type of leader that he has been these last four years.”

FOOTBALL INDEX: Big Central Conference and area postseason honors links

The players and coaches sensed a special season was possible with several veterans, including four-year starters in Yascko, Selbin Sabio, Malcolm Stansbury and Adekunle Shittu, with other two and three-year starters manning key spots.

However, Edison lost Yascko for two games with a broken nose and started 2-2. There was no time for panic. Edison won four out of its last five games to clinch a playoff berth. That included beating South Brunswick 42-21 after a 14-14 tie at halftime and topping St. Joseph 42-23 after trailing 17-14 at intermission.

Edison had an even bigger comeback in the Central Group 5 semifinals with a 33-31 win over second-seeded North Brunswick, which edged Edison 13-10 in the regular season without Yascko.

North Brunswick took a 31-17 lead with 3:52 remaining. Edison pulled out the win with two touchdowns and a field goal with 4 seconds left fueled by an unheard of two straight successful onside kicks by Selbin Sabio.

The next week, Edison beat No. 1-seeded Lenape 28-14 in South Jersey for the sectional championship.

To Fulham, there was no mystery for their wins. Simply, they had talented players and impactful newcomers, while the staff designed the right game plan.

Fulham pointed to the four-year starters and other veterans including Michael Strachan, Israel Rodriguez and Matt Bueno, among others, as well as breakout stars like sophomore Eato and senior newcomer Anthony Payano at left tackle.

He also credited his coaching staff that includes former head coaches in Bob Molarz, Matt Yascko Sr. and Mike Ryan, as well as Edison alumni in Dan Boslet, Brian Calantoni, Jim Cooper and Dan Long, and freshmen coach Michael Yascko. Another coach Bob Herre was a coordinator at J.F. Kennedy.

“Our coaching staff has a ton of experience,” Fulham said. “They’re role models for our kids. They know how to motivate our kids. They came up with great game plans every week which we implemented during practice and that set the foundation for everything that we did this season.”

Fulham continued, “I’m a firm believer in conditioning and practicing as many situations as you can that you’re going to see during a game. And I think those are important aspects of practicing, of winning. We preach everything that we need to preach to these kids and they believe in it.

“They believe in themselves. They believe in the coaches. They believe in our system and it was their job to go out and execute and they were able to do that in some key games this year.”

Fulham, who is a special education teacher at Edison, noted he thought he’d get into coaching one day because of his love for football.

He played several positions at Sayreville (1988 graduate) and then tight end at Juniata College. Fulham’s path to Edison included being the Cardinal McCarrick head coach for two seasons and an assistant at Sayreville for three years under Sal Mistretta and two more under George Najjar and an assistant at Edison for five seasons under Tom Gargiulo. He said he considered those three head coaches to be his coaching mentors.

So, just how does one go about turning around the mindset of a long losing streak?

“It was so many things,” Fulham said. “If it was just one issue it would be easy to fix. It was a lot of different things. It was having good discipline. It was having an offseason workout plan that was effective. It was getting good coaches that were not only knowledgeable but dedicated and great role models. I’ve been fortunate enough through the years to have all those things in place and help make us competitive.

“A big thing is the support from the administration. I’ve always had great principals and great athletic directors that have always been supportive of not just football, but athletics in general because of how it affects the school community. When you have good sports teams, your school community is a lot better off. When things are going well on the athletic fields, your kids have more discipline. There’s more school spirit. There’s more camaraderie, all those things. Everything kind of goes hand in hand.”

And now, what does it mean to finally capture a sectional title?

“It definitely feels good,” Fulham said. “Like all the hours and all the hard work was definitely worth it.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ football Big Central: Matt Fulham of Edison is Coach of the Year