FOOTBALL

New Dover football coach building culture, family

Jane Havsy
Morristown Daily Record
The new Dover coach Justin Hartman at the coaches conference on rules as players and coaches from over 100 northern New Jersey high school football teams came to the Super Conference Media Day at Wayne Valley on August 15, 2019.

WAYNE - Justin Hartman has "always known I wanted to be a head coach somewhere." He didn't know whether it would be baseball or football. He certainly didn't expect it to be in his hometown.

Hartman got his chance, and is trying to make the most of his chance to lead the Dover High School football program.

Hartman played football and baseball at Dover, graduating in 2009. He has been a heath and physical education teacher at Dover Middle School for the past five years, moving up to the high school this fall. 

That hometown background has already paid off in greatly increased turnout, just about double the 25 players who wrapped up last season.

"I did knock on a few doors," Hartman said at Super Football Conference Media Day.

"I made sure I purposely ran into them at their jobs or in the building, or around town. I emailed quite a few kids saying where the meetings were, kids I thought could help out our program, whether it was because of their character, their toughness, their strength."

For daily summer practices, Hartman broke the players down into squads, each with a senior leader reporting to an assistant coach. Each member of the squad had a role, like Mr. Reliable, The Organizer, Iron Man. The squads competed for points, whether in football drills or capture the flag, with deductions for poor attendance.

The Tigers' motto is W.I.N. an acronym for "what's important now." In June, it was paperwork. In July, the weight room. Now, it's all about the playbook — and always accountability.

Dover also added a middle-school football program, with an eye toward integrating players into a single system for potentially eight years. Recently, young Dover football players had migrated to other towns, most often the Junior Knights. 

Hartman recalled hearing high school players' names over the Hamilton Field loudspeakers when he was young, and wants the same for current Dover students.

"He's making our team really tight knit," senior guard Calvin Schreiner said, highlighting a switch to Google Classroom for team communication.

"We've known him since middle school, so we're already close with him. It's our last year. We want to show everyone what we've got. We're trying to build the program up. Our team's hungry for it."

The current seniors have won just once, defeating Newark Central, 28-18, on Oct. 7, 2016. They enter their final season at 1-28.

"Things are different," senior tackle Victor Reyes said. "We're all together. We're bringing each other up. We want to show teams they shouldn't sleep on Dover. We're not an easy win. We're not a team to be messed with now."

But Dover football didn't always have such a disappointing history. The Tigers were over .500 in 2013 and 2014, and at .500 in 2012. 

Dover athletic director Sean Bullock wants a return to that positive culture. In his three-year plan, this fall the Tigers will be more competitive in the SFC American White, for which he serves as commissioner. Dover will move to the SFC's Ivy Division in 2020, and hopefully win the weaker, playoff-ineligible league in 2021.

The Tigers plan to return to full SFC participation after the two-year Ivy commitment ends.

"He understands the long history: before his time, during his time, and where we're at now," Bullock said. "He was very eager to help restore the program. ... We want to bring back excitement and student involvement in the program, and play in competitive games."

Staff writer Jane Havsy: 973-428-6682; jhavsy@gannettnj.com; www.dailyrecord.com/writerjane/