It’s been 82 years since the West Side High School football team successfully made it to a New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) State Football Championship game.  In those 82 years, the team has faced a slew of unfortunate events: the death of a fellow teammate and the drought of any type of berth in the NJSIAA state football championships were among those events. This season, however, things seemed to go from grim to auspicious when West Side stepped on the lush football field and astonished everyone by capturing their first state championship.

When the season began, New Jersey Star Ledger Essex County Coach of the Year Brian Logan did not know what to expect. After coming off a 70 game losing streak since 2001 in Logan’s second year as coach, all he could hope for was the best. And the best was certainly what his team provided him with.

In the opening game of the season, New Jersey Star Ledger Player of the Year, Westonian Athlete of the Season, and senior quarterback Anthony Baskerville propelled West Side by Montville with his sheer athletic prowess at Unterman Field on September 8, 2007.  Baskerville passed for 125 yards, scored a touchdown, and carried for 75 yards.  Baskerville also helped forge a 14-7 lead in the first half of the game and tossed senior Carlos Cox a 35-yard touchdown (TD) in the fourth quarter to end the game with 28-14 win.  Senior Jonathan Quallis also scored a TD on a 25-yard run in the third quarter, ending, alongside Cox, the game with seven tackles, proving his defensive abilities.

The second game of the season did not come with such a sweeping win against Passaic Valley.  Baskerville indeed led the NJ Star Ledger Team of the Year to a sliding 22-19 win against Passaic Valley by carrying 22 times for 89 yards and scoring a touchdown.  In addition, the West Side linemen Raphael Chavers, DeShaun Hooker, Anthony VanDiver, and Willie Morris pressured Passaic Valley’s quarterback while backs Derek Smith and Carlos Cox effectively covered the job of handling the ball.

“Anthony ran the offense like a point guard” remarked Coach Logan about Baskerville’s football showmanship on the field.  Baskerville also plays basketball for Science Park High School.

These two games were only the beginning in a long streak of wins to come.  West Side cut through Orange with Carlos Cox’s amazing defense in a 20-0 win, then blazed past Millburn with stubborn but persistence defense from Captain Tahir Whitehead and Anthony McCleod in a debacle 38-0 win, rolled past West Milford as Baskerville scored two touchdowns as well as Carlos Cox in a triumphant 46-6 win, ruined Passaic Tech with help from Jonathan Quallis, Devon Gibson, Derek Smith, who recovered an amazing fumble in the end zone, and Anthony VanDiver, ending the game victoriously in a 48-14 sweep, and defeated arch-nemesis West Orange at the homecoming game in a 18-6 victory even with an injured Baskerville.  Logan, who was surprised by his player’s strength, was aware of how tough West Orange had been and knew any mistake would’ve cost them.  West Side had recoiled from their 70 game losing-streak by supplanting it with an undefeated 7-0 record winning streak.

However, all good things must come to an end and this mantra certainly proved true when West Side faced one of their biggest opponents for the Northern Hills Conference Skyline Division Championships on November 25, 2007, giving the undefeated Wayne Valley its third straight conference title.  The absence of standout senior quarterback Anthony Baskerville, who injured his left shoulder in the West Orange game, certainly hurt the team.  Even with aid from West Side’s strong defensive linebackers Tahir Whitehead and Carlos Cox, West Side was unable to stop the seemingly indomitable offense of Wayne Valley without Baskerville, leaving the team with a bitter 0-28 loss, marking their first loss in the season.  Then against the undefeated number 11 ranked team in the state, Irvington, West Side fell again.  Again Baskerville was absent from the game as he still sat out with nursing his injured shoulder.  Fumbles after fumble contributed to the 30-8 loss for West Side and the second loss for the team this season.

Nonetheless, resiliency and persistence is one thing that holds any team together after suffering losses and this was a trait West always displayed.  West Side won its next 2 games, defeating Union Hill in a 26-6 victory in the first round of the NJSIAA/Gatorade North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 playoffs and claimed a 12-7 victory against Morristown, with a healthy Baskerville back on the field, in the storm.  With an almost flawless record and vanquishing the necessary teams, West Side was able to qualify for its first state football championship game in a long time.

The stage was set.  West Side would face South Plainfield, who bounced Irvington from the state championship finals, in the spacious Giants Stadium.  The morning was colder than ever with icy conditions and the snow was visible as students and teachers alike rallied in support for their team.

One player even vowed not to cut his hair until the team lost a game.

Did you know: West Side is the third Newark school to claim a football crown but only the second in many years; Barringer won in 1975 and Weequahic won in 2006. Furthermore, West Side, along with East Orange Campus, West Essex of North Caldwell, and Cedar Grove, is among the four Essex County schools to have won state titles this season. This was the first time Essex : Game of the year: Anthony Baskerville hit Tahir Whitehead with a 20-yard scoring pass with just over 10 minutes to play to cap a 75-yard drive and rally West Side past Morristown, 12-7, in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 semifinals. Carlos Cox had broken off a 69-yard TD run earlier in the game and finished with 174 rushing yards to lead the way for West Side.

All-Newark offense:

B: Anthony Baskerville, West Side; Rashon Vines, Weequahic; Carlos Cox, West Side; Jason Wallace, Barringer; Jonathan Quallis, West Side; Damien Moore, Central. OL: Musa Kamara, Central; Rahjon Jones, Barringer; Jamal McKinney, Central; Hassan Purdie, Shabazz. E: Quayim Bell, East Side; Prince Stewart, Weequahic.

All-Newark defense:

DL: Ashton Wilder, Shabazz; Rafael Chavers, West Side; Eric Harding, East Side. LB: Anthony McLeod, West Side; Moses Parnass, East Side; Clinton Lewis, Barringer; Hassan Coleman, Weequahic. B: Tahir Whitehead, West Side; Tim Brown, Barringer; William Jones, Barringer; William Evans, Shabazz; James Garvin, Central.

Newarkers of the year:

Offense: Anthony Baskerville, West Side, QB

The team has been heralded for their astonishing win through a in-school pep rally help specifically for them, a dinner where they were the featured guests, and the team even attended a Advisory Board  meeting where Superintendent Marion Bolden personally paid homage to the team’s astounding win.