Prep's Hansen to step down as grid coach at season's end; will remain as AD

Before the 2020 high school football season officially begins Monday with full-fledged practices, veteran St. Peter’s Prep head coach Rich Hansen addressed his team Friday and officially told them all this would be his 33rd and final season as the head coach of the Marauders.

The 60-year-old Hansen, whose team won the NJSIAA Non-Public Group 4 state championship last December and were expected to be the favorites to repeat as state champions in a non-pandemic world this season, said that there were a number of factors involved with him retiring as head coach.

“I get asked by a lot of people every year,” said Hansen, whose 278 career coaching victories ranks first among Hudson County coaches for wins at one school and ranks second all-time behind North Bergen’s Vince Ascolese on Hudson County’s all-time coaching win list. “I just wanted to be fair to my team and fair to the current crop of eighth graders to announce it now.”

While Hansen will step down as the head football coach, he will continue on as the school’s athletic director.

“The AD’s job has become more demanding,” said Hansen, who is also the president of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, the largest league in the state that encompasses almost 150 football teams, as well as serving on a handful of different committees with the NJSIAA. “I’ve been putting in 14-hour days between coaching and administration and that’s just not healthy. I don’t want that to show in my performance in either position. Rather than doing it this way, I’ll make the announcement now when everyone is aware of what’s going on. It will give us time to plan and move on.”

Hansen said that the “condensed” season, as he called it, was the perfect time to step away and give someone else the opportunity to take over the program in 2021 with a full season.

Hansen said that there were some emotional losses that he had to endure over the last year, including the death of his mother, Gail, and the recent passing of close childhood friend, college teammate and former Hoboken High School head coach Lou Taglieri, that played a role in his decision to step down after the current season.

“I’ve lost a lot of people in the past year,” Hansen said. “The losses brought a sense of mortality into the situation. I’d rather leave one year too early as opposed to too late. I’ve spent 38 years overall at Prep and 33 years as head coach. I have to admit I’m a little bit tired and spent. I’ll be honest that it was taking a toll on me. Now I can concentrate on having just one job and not have to worry about doing all the things I’ve been doing.”
Hansen said that he has taken a lot of pride in taking the Prep football program to historic heights, winning five NJSIAA state championships in easily the toughest section to win a state title in.

Hansen took over the program from his mentor Gerry Bellotti in 1986 and won state crowns in 1989, 1995, 2005, 2016 and last season. He has sent more than 100 players on to college football via scholarship and saw three of his players, Will Hill, Jonathan Hilliman and Minkah Fitzpatrick, move on to eventually play in to the National Football League.

“It’s hard to fathom where we are now compared to where we were when we started,” said Hansen, who was a standout player at St. Joseph of the Palisades and then played at both Jersey City State and St. Peter’s College during his playing days. “We’re now nationally ranked and have national prominence. It’s a tribute to the school and the players we’ve had. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Veteran St. Peter's Prep head football coach Rich Hansen announced Friday that the 2020 season will be his 33rd and final season as the head coach of the Marauders.


The Marauders were 11-1 last season and defeated Don Bosco Prep, 21-14, last December at MetLife Stadium, to win the fifth state title in school’s history.

Hansen said that he likes the makeup of this year’s Marauder squad, which features returning starting All-State quarterback Tahjamell Bullock, who has already declared his intentions to attend Virginia Tech next fall.

Making the decision official now takes away all the mystery and intrigue about Hansen’s future.

“If this wasn’t a pandemic year, I still would have stepped down,” Hansen said. “I’ve been tossing it (the decision) around for a while now. I’m doing it now because I didn’t want to have all the questions to answer every week. It takes all the guess work away. I think the decision would have been the same. I just think the timing would have been a little different.”

The Marauders begin the 2020 season on Friday night, Oct. 2, playing at West Orange. The Marauders play their first home game on Saturday, Oct. 10, against Don Bosco Prep at Caven Point Cochrane Stadium at 1 p.m.

The Marauders’ final game of the season will be played on Thanksgiving morning at Seton Hall Prep with kickoff for the final game of Hansen’s coaching career slated for a 10:30 a.m. kickoff. It will mark the first time St. Peter’s will play on Thanksgiving Day since their Marauders’ traditional rivalry contest against Dickinson was ended in 1983.

“I said to the kids today that they will have the chance to be crowned state champs and that would be it,” Hansen said. “So they will have a lot to play for this year. Every day we play this year is a blessing and this will be a blessing. I think it’s going to be special to go out with this group of seniors.”

And as for making the decision official today?

“I feel like I’ve just had the elephant on my back removed,” Hansen said. “I have the memories I’ve made that are strong and the relationships I’ve made even stronger.”

There has been no word of a possible replacement for Hansen, but his son, Rich Hansen, Jr., an assistant coach with his father for the last 15 years, has to be considered a candidate. It will obviously be a highly coveted position.