By Dick Engelhardt 

Fair Lawn graduate and star player, Amir Saadah, became the 11th Fair Lawn High School Football Coach in 2011. His fourth season, 2014, the 72nd in the history of Fair Lawn High, was a disappointing one but the lessons learned in sportsmanship, teamwork and overcoming adversity and the friendships formed will be with these CUTTERS as long as they live!

The season started out with a bang! The FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High were looking forward to the CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High inaugurating their new field turf in football just as they had Fair Lawn’s new field turf last year. However it became apparent the field and CLIFTON SCHOOL STADIUM renovations would not be ready and the game was switched to Fair Lawn’s SASSO FIELD. Our heroes shocked the FIGHTING MUSTANGS 22-0 and Fair Lawn fans were ecstatic about the prospects for a good season.

Alas, Fair Lawn suffered through 6 straight losses. That streak ended in dramatic style as our CUTTERS demolished the INDIANS of Passaic 39-7, keeping them winless. The 39 points equaled those in the 39-38 Fair Lawn playoff win in 2009. Stan Myles’ CUTTERS led 32-6 at halftime and the INDIANS roared back in the second half. The game replaced the 1980 playoff game at GIANTS STADIUM in which Fair Lawn trailed 7-0, 12-0, 12-7 and 18-7 and roared back to win 27-18, as the most thrilling in FLHS history. In that ’09 playoff game, on 4th down, with 5 seconds on the clock and Passaic out of timeouts, Fair Lawn QB Travis Kubasta took the snap and ran 21 yards backwards taking a knee as the clock expired. Whew!  

The season ended with a 34-7 loss to JFK of Paterson in Big North Conference (BNC) crossover action and a 38-0 loss to the INDIANS of Wayne Valley in the Consolation Game. Fair Lawn is 8-7 (.533) in Consolation games since they started in 1998. This was a historic season in that, for the first time ever, Fair Lawn fell below .500. The 1943-2014 record is 319-323-14 (.497). This is the result of hard times in the 1970s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s cumulatively. Fair Lawn started out in 1943 with a remarkable record of 4-1-1 (.800) under Coach Marty Fischbein and did not have a losing season until 1950. The 50s, 60s and 80s were highly successful decades. Old time Fair Lawn fans will never forget the 22 game non-losing streak   1964-66 that was broken by a shocking 40-34 Ridgewood upset on Thanksgiving Day 1966 before 13,000 fans at SASSO FIELD.

A word about the schedule. Once again the BNC scheduled Fair Lawn against a parochial behemoth; this   time the PALADINS of Paramus Catholic. The PALADINS found an out-of-state opponent but Fair Lawn was forced to find another game and wound up traveling over 60 miles to New Canaan, Connecticut to play the STORM of St. Luke’s. This should stop! And a modest BNC realignment would give Fair Lawn a chance to compete for a Division title. The BNC Liberty Division has Clifton, Eastside, Fair Lawn and Passaic Tech. The BNC Freedom Division, with which we cross play, has Hackensack, Kennedy, Passaic and Ridgewood. A much more competitive alignment would have the Liberty Division include Eastside, Fair Lawn, Kennedy and Passaic and the Freedom Division include Clifton, Hackensack, Passaic Tech and Ridgewood.   

The return of a number of players next season and the freshmen group moving up could see our CUTTERS improve. I enjoyed being “The Voice of the Cutters on the Gridiron” for the 18th season and working with my spotter, Shawn Kerestes. For many years before that my twin brother, Bill, and I were the “spotters” for long time popular Fair Lawn announcer Joe Hausmann, who now announces for the HIGHLANDERS of Northern Highlands and the IRONMEN of Don Bosco. I can hardly wait for next year! Until then, GO CUTTERS GO!!!