WEST LONG BRANCH – When Shore Regional won the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group I football championship with a 42-12 rout of South Hunterdon last December, it also closed out a fine high school football career for linebacker-guard James Bedell.
Bedell, who will be playing football at the University of Connecticut as a long-snapper, was a main force in Shore’s best season in years, but he will be red-shirted this season.
“They already have a senior playing long-snapper,” said Bedell, “but I think I’ll be playing it next year. I visited UConn already and I loved the place. It has a beautiful campus and the coaches are all great.”
Shore’s success in football last year, in which it went 11- 1, didn’t come as surprise to Bedell.
“Going into the season, we were definitely optimistic,” said Bedell, who was also a standout in lacrosse. “However, we didn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Shore also had outstanding seasons in 2013 and 2012, but lost in the sectional finals each time to Florence and Point Pleasant Beach respectively. Bedell was determined not to have that happen again.
“Those were two heartbreaking losses,” said Bedell. “We knew that we had to work harder this past season and take nothing for granted.”
Shore, however, got a bad break before the season even began when Doug Goldsmith, one of its top two-way players, missed the first four games with a knee injury. He was on the sidelines when Shore lost its only game of the season, a 16-7 decision to Dunellen.
“Fortunately, that wasn’t a division game and we still had Mater Dei Prep next and the states coming up,” said Bedell.
Goldsmith was back the following week for Shore’s key B Division Central game with Mater Dei Prep, and his team responded with a 14-8 victory.
“That game was the turning point of the season for us,” said Bedell. “Mater Dei had an excellent quarterback in Christian Palmer and scored first on an 80-yard drive for an 8-0 lead.
“After that score, however, we put our feet down and said that wasn’t going to happen again,” he said. “Our defense played outstanding and we came back in the second half to win the game.”
The big play in the game came with two minutes left when Shore had a fourth down and a foot to go at its own 26.
“We didn’t want to punt the ball because Palmer is such a good quarterback and could really hurt us with his passing and running,” said Bedell. “We decided to call a running play and we picked up eight yards to clinch it.”
Shore then went on to win its remaining six games including a big 13-0 win over rival Rumson-Fair Haven Regional on Thanksgiving Eve.
The game was played under terrible weather conditions with rain and wind making a mess of the field.
“We thought that the game would be postponed,” said Bedell, but coach Coz (head coach Mark Costantino) told us at around 3 p.m. that it would be played.
“We played great defense in that game,” Bedell said. “The weather helped us, but it cut down the attendance. We could have had 2,000 people at that game, but only a couple of hundred showed up.”
Shore then defeated Point Beach and Middlesex in the first two games of the states to set up the title game with South Hunterdon.
“They were like Mater Dei Prep in that they ran a good veer offense and had a great quarterback,” said Bedell who had 17 tackles in the game. “The game was close for a half and we led only 14- 6, but we outscored them 28- 6 in the second half to break it open.”
Bedell moved into the starting lineup in his junior season after playing on the special teams as a sophomore.
“We were 9-3 in my sophomore year,” said Bedell, “but were 10-2 in my junior season.”
Shore lost to Rumson, 13-6, early in Bedell’s junior year, but then won nine in a row, including a 31-0 rout of Point Beach.
The two teams met again in the CJ Group I finals, but Point Beach was a different team and stunned the Blue Devils, 12-7, for the title.
“Everything went right for us and wrong for Point Beach in the first game,” Bedell recalled. “They switched their defense in the second game and put nine players in the box. We weren’t prepared for that and they shut us down.”
“Bedell was a very intelligent player,” said Costantino. “He was like a coach out there.”
Bedell played three years of lacrosse, but Shore wasn’t that successful and had only one winning season.
We were 13-5 in my sophomore year, but lost the next two years,” he said.
“We were a Group I school playing lacrosse but most of the other teams in our division like Mater Dei, Keyport, Keansburg and Point Beach, didn’t have lacrosse and we had to play bigger schools,” Bedell pointed out.
Bedell excelled in the classroom with a 3.7 GPA and was a member of the Mock Trial Club.
“Math was my favorite subject in high school,” said Bedell, “but I’ll be going into the Pre-Teaching Program at UConn and get my Masters. I hope to be a math teacher when I get out of college and do some coaching. “I loved Shore Regional and I’m glad I went there,” said Bedell. “Between playing football and lacrosse, and going to the other games like basketball, and hanging out with my friends was a great experience.”
By Jim Hintelmann
