What do you get when you bring in a highly-decorated football coach to run your program … and he joins forces with another who is already at the same school?

If you’re Morris Catholic, you hope it can bring the program into prominence.

The Crusaders hired respected coach Dave Albano, who brings his winning resume in from Randolph, where he recently resigned after one season. 

Before he coached the Rams, Albano won two sectional championships at Parsippany Hills but his sustained excellence with the Vikings was equally impressive. The program had floundered for many years but he guided them to seven sectional finals and the school won six IHC-Hills divisional championships.

Albano has already brought onto his new staff Cosmo Lorusso, who won a pair of sectional crowns at both Pequannock and Roxbury. Lorusso is a guidance counselor at Morris Catholic and had coached as an assistant at the school before last year.

Those two are, quite frankly, two of the best coaches in Morris County history.

“Two coaches with that kind of background,” Morris Catholic president Brian Vohden said, “how do you not bring that in if you have the chance?”

For Albano, coaching at Randolph was rewarding for the one season he was there (4-5 with a first-round playoff loss to Ramapo) but extremely difficult. The reason: He taught at Parsippany Hills and wasn’t in the Randolph building nearly enough. He will retire from Par Hills and will now teach full time at Morris Catholic.

“For me this is a great opportunity and a chance to get in the building and be around the kids every day and every period and to create what the school wants to create,” Albano said. 

“For me, it is an exciting time. I’ll be in the building with the kids. I’m excited about building a program from the ground up.”

Albano will also bring in offensive coordinator Brian Francis, who worked with Albano at Par Hills and Randolph.

Bringing in Lorusso was quite a coup. The two have been friends for many years and always wondered what it would be like to work alongside one another. They’ll get their chance soon enough.

“I got Cosmo out of retirement,” Albano said with a laugh. “I’m just as excited to be working with Cos as I am working at Morris Catholic.”

Albano coached Par Hills to sectional titles in 2014 and 2019 – with both teams employing completely different styles of offense.

The 2014 squad beat favored Cranford to win North 2, Group III with running back Angelo Gallego rushing 40 times for 192 yards (and the Vikings rushing for 252 total) to win at MetLife, 20-13.

In 2019, host Par Hills beat West Essex to win North 2, Group III, 38-21, as QB J.D. Breslauer tossed five TD passes.

“When I met with the kids at Morris Catholic, they asked, ‘What offense will we run?’ and that is a good question,” Albano said. “Well, we did it with a kid rushing for 200 yards and we did it with a kid throwing 5 TDs against West Essex. What I think I’m good at is evaluating talent and evaluating positions. So we’ll see where everyone belongs. 

“We will play to our strength. Brian and I do that well. The philosophy is always the same. We can go three back-two tight, or no-tight … whatever works best.

“In 2014 we used a three-back diamond formation. In 2019, I don’t think we used three backs one time.”

But over the years, Albano and Par Hills was particularly adept with a wide-open passing game.

No wonder Lorusso said, “If I were a receiver or quarterback, I’d want to be in Dave’s system.”

The feeling is mutual on Albano’s end. He watched Lorusso construct defenses that countered some of North Jersey’s best offenses over the years. 

In 2012, Lorusso constructed a defense that shut down Pascack Valley’s high-powered passing attack. The Bergen school was ranked in the Top 20 because of its ability to throw – but could do nothing against the Gaels in a 14-6 Roxbury win at Kean in North 1, Group IV.

Now Albano gets a chance to see how Lorusso pieces together a defense.

Lorusso also has a big-time championship pedigree, having coached as an assistant on five other sectional championship teams (one at Summit under Jim Benedict, four at Lenape Valley under Don Smolyn).

“I’m excited for that and to see what Cos can come up with defensively,” Albano said. “We have already been meeting. We have always been talking about working together and now we have the opportunity to do this.”

When the opening at Morris Catholic came about, Lorusso immediately thought about Albano, who interviewed and was offered the job.

“When they were looking for a new coach they asked if I had any suggestions,” Lorusso said. “I threw Dave’s name out there and they contacted him. Then they hired him.

“He’s bringing in the experience of seven state finals and two state championships. He knows how to win and bring a winning formula. At Randolph, they made the playoffs. When you look at his track record of players placed into college, a couple into the NFL (Michael Dogbee and R.J. Cobbs), that is one of the selling points.”

“Dave is well organized,” Morris Catholic AD James Smith added. “He is someone who has a vision and a plan and wants to improve our situation. One of the main things for us was getting someone in the building full time. It’s hard to build a cohesive program if the coach is not in the building. We want to build a program that is viable and can be successful right now.

We want to bring in the kind of kids that fit in with the culture and we felt Dave could do that.”

Albano left Randolph on good terms.

“I have no ill feelings with Randolph whatsoever,” Albano said. “I left on good terms. I taught at Par Hills and I’d shoot up to Randolph every day. I’m a people person and I want to be with the kids all day long like I did at Par Hills and that part didn’t work out at Randolph.

“They need a coach in the building and that part didn’t work out.”

Added Lorusso, “The thing that frustrated him at Randolph was not being in the building and not getting to know the kids and that is such a part of coaching; it is about building relationships.”

The sky is the limit for Morris Catholic’s program. The school has had architects and planners in to build a state-of-the-art weight room. The school is also hoping to construct permanent lights by the 2026 season. Right now, the school uses artificial lights.

“The kids can come here now and be the starting point,” Lorusso said. “We are Morris Catholic, so we want to be Morris County-centric. We certainly would reach other counties. We want to be that alternative for kids who want a Catholic school education. Ninety-five percent of our kids go to college and we are a college prep school. 

“As great as our girls basketball team was (the team finished No. 1 in the state), they had a GPA of 3.8. Those girls know what the expectations are. That is part of the fabric of the school. The objective is to become competitive first, and then hopefully build the program up.”

There are about 20 athletes returning from last year’s team, which finished 2-7 under Rae Oliver’s only season. 

“I met with them,” Albano said. “They are a good-looking group. They were very respectful. For some of them, it’ll be their third head coach in three years (John Hack preceded Oliver). I want to put their minds at ease, let them know what we are doing. It was great to talk to them. “They asked good questions, what offense we were running, what defense. Every game will be a challenge. I know that. We are trying to build day-by-day at this point. I’m excited to keep Cos and have Brian with me. We’ll spend half the summer evaluating and putting them in positions to be competitive.

At this stage, I’ll evaluate the kids throughout the summer. I told them it is a big puzzle. We need to figure out where to put the pieces. They might have to move from where they are used to in order to make the team better.”

The schedule will largely be similar to what it was last year. But instead of opening with Teaneck (last year’s opener), it will host Hope of Chicago on Aug. 30.

The Crusaders will follow with Gloucester, Holy Trinity (NY) and Mahwah before a bye week. Then it’s SFC-American White foes Parsippany, Pequannock, Mountain Lakes and Madison before finishing with Hudson Catholic.

Vohden taught at Pope John at the end of the highly respected Vic Paternostro regime and knows the importance a successful football team can have for the morale of a school to start the year. He also coached boys volleyball and boys soccer.

“When Dave expressed some interest, I had to jump on that,” he said. “He is a seasoned coach and educator and I felt comfortable getting him to Morris Catholic.”