The High School North football team had no illusions of grandeur this season. The Northern Knights lost star quarterback Kevin Murphy and a bunch of talented lineman to graduation last year and had very little depth.
But they did have C.J. Markisz for the third straight year, and the running back/linebacker wasn’t about to let his senior season go up in flames.
Markisz, with the help of senior quarterback Malik Thompson and junior receiver John Owens, sparked an offense that allowed the Northern Knights to go 5-5 and reach the NJSIAA North Jersey 2 Group IV playoffs before losing to top-seeded Middletown South, 55-0, on November 14.
High School North opened its season with a 21-0 home loss to Steinert, and it looked like it was going to be a long season. The Knights lost three of their first four, but won their final three to finish the regular season 5-4. If Hamilton is able to defeat Steinert on Thanksgiving, WWPN will gain a three-way tie with those two teams for the West Jersey Football League’s Valley Division title.
“It was definitely a pleasant surprise,” Markisz said. “Last year we had a huge senior class and this year we had a huge rebuilding year and we needed tons of kids to step up. We had some sophomore linemen who really stepped up.”
Markisz felt that the opener with Steinert was just a case of everyone learning to come together. It basically took one week, as the offense exploded in an 81-56 loss to Allentown in game two.
“We were getting our bearings with our new offense and the zone reads against Steinert,” he said. “To come back and put up that many points against Allentown was huge.”
It was a love-hate situation for Markisz in that one, as he was hating what was happening on defense but loving the offense.
“That game was kind of bizarre, the defense was non-existent for both teams,” he said. “Allentown has a great crew on the offensive line. We needed to make up for it on offense. It was fun taking away from the bad energy on defense by getting some positivity on offense.”
North put up 44 in a win over Hightstown on October 9, but was defeated 41-0 by Notre Dame a week later to drop to 2-4.
“After that game a lot of kids were saying ‘You know, we’re just not that good, that’s it, that’s who we are, let’s bag it and move on with the season,’” coach Jeff Reilly said. “But we still had three games to go and I told them ‘You know what, with the schedule we have left, you can still get on a roll.’ They learned how to win football games.”
The Knights topped Hamilton, Princeton, and Ewing to get over .500 at 5-4, and won four road games during the season. Markisz provided leadership throughout.
The senior played for the West Windsor Pop Warner League until it couldn’t form a Midget team. He moved over to Hightstown, where he played with some of this year’s top Mercer County performers in Princeton’s Rory Helstrom and Hightstown’s Ryan Conlon.
The son of John Markisz, a manager at a computer hardware company, and Adrienne Markisz, who works at a pharmaceutical company and who is VP of the North football booster club, C.J. played for North’s freshman team in ninth grade, and an injury forced him to start at fullback for varsity in the final game of the season.
“That was a huge shell shock,” Markisz said. “The game was so much different. But it actually helped my sophomore year. Once I got into the groove of things, I had a much better grasp of what the game was like.”
Markisz was a full-time varsity player as a sophomore, and the Knights made the playoffs despite finishing 3-7. Last year they didn’t reach the playoffs but finished 5-5, with Markisz rushing for 949 yards and 11 touchdowns and catching 18 passes for 264 yards and two TDs in Reilly’s first season.
With so much turnover due to graduation, the coach decided to switch from a Power I to a spread offense this season.
“CJ had to take on a different style,” Reilly said. “As opposed to running downhill, he had to be more of a slasher and learn a new zone scheme, a whole different style. But he’s a bright young man, and he picks up stuff very quickly.”
Markisz had another big season, rushing for 981 yards and 12 TDs and actually enjoying the new offense. “At first you have a different mentality with the snap tempo, and the holes open up differently,” he said. “Last year we had a bigger offensive line, we had a ground and pound mentality. This year we’ve spread out the defense and used our skill guys to take advantage of that.
“It was actually a lot easier this year, especially when I could cut it back. With the I formation, we’d have great days and get huge holes, but when we faced teams that could match our six guys up front it made it tougher. I enjoyed it this year.”
He also provided leadership along with fellow captains Thompson, Roland Anderson, and Jahvon Jackson. Though the team finished with 28 players, the ones who remained hung together.
“We really made a huge effort to include the younger guys in everything and create a culture of hard work and perseverance,” Markisz said. “We had so few players we wanted to make sure each link was our strongest link.”
Of Markisz, Reilly said, “He’s the hardest worker we have,” he said. “He’s in the weight room all the time and does everything I ask him to do. He’s always the one to speak up in the lockerroom before the coaches come in to speak, and he always has something to say. He’s the kind of kid, you’d be shocked if he didn’t get his homework done.”
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Markisz plans on furthering his football career at a high-powered academic Division III program, which he is not allowed to reveal at the moment.
“We’ll find out on December 10,” Markisz said. “We’ve been very lucky to go through whole recruiting process with a lot of institutions, and hopefully we’ll have a home before Christmas.”
