Aja Jaworski didn’t mince words.
“It was the best part of my year,” he said.
Teammate Matteo Pandolfini was right there with him.
“It was so cool,” he said, “because our fans were going crazy.”
The two quarterbacks were discussing their Hamilton 8U Revolution’s Central Jersey and New Jersey State Pop Warner championships.
For Matteo, it was a great way to break in. For Aja, it put some frustrations to rest.
“This means a lot as a first-year player,” said Pandolfini, who also played defensive end and running back. “It makes me excited to keep going.”
As for Jaworski, “having no wins in my first two seasons makes it super exciting.”
It was exciting all right. In winning Hamilton Pop Warner’s first state championship since 2013, the Revolution went 5-2 during the regular season before avenging both losses with playoff victories over Franklin and Somerville to win the Central Jersey championship. That advanced them to the state final, where they took a 26-0 win over Newark.
The final record was 8-3 after a 26-12 loss to the Parkside Saints of Pennsylvania in the first round of the East regional, but it could not detract from one heck of a ride.
“Oh my God it was unbelievable,” said head coach/Hamilton Pop Warner President Jeff Jaworski. “The boys played their butts off. We got on a roll and we beat some really, really good teams. The loss (to Parkside) is going to sting for a while but we’ll be OK. We’ll start 2022 right now.”
Hamilton trailed the Saints 26-6 at halftime before clamping down defensively in an attempted comeback that fell short.
“We fought our butts off,” Jeff Jaworski said. “They were a very good football team, they were much bigger than we were. We adjusted at halftime. It was just too little too late. We forced a couple turnovers but we just couldn’t quite get enough going on offense.”
The Revolution reached the regionals by exacting revenge on the only two teams to beat them in the regular season. Hamilton opened the year with a 6-0 loss to Somerville, won three straight, then suffered a 33-12 loss to Franklin.
“They kicked our butts, no question about it,” Jaworski said of Franklin.
That was followed by two more regular-season wins and a 32-19 win over Franklin in the Central Jersey playoff semifinals.
“We just did some different things with the boys pre-game in the playoffs. We kept them more loose, kept them dancing a little bit,” the coach said. “We tried to have some fun with them. Part of it was ‘We have nothing to lose, let’s go out and try to play good disciplined football.’ And we did. They responded really well to it. They were looser, we just kept adding wrinkles to our offense and solidified our defense.”
Jaworski felt the boys all came together in the regular-season finale.
“The biggest piece was after we beat Piscataway,” he said. “It was that game the boys started playing more as a team. They started playing for each other. They were throwing blocks for each other, they were tackling with each other harder. It got to the point they didn’t want to let the other guy down.”
Despite the lopsided loss to Franklin, the players had confidence entering the rematch. Both felt they learned from the defeat.
“We weren’t playing right in the first one, I didn’t play well,” Jaworski said. “We knew what they were going to do and we blocked. My touchdown never would have happened if Matteo and the guys didn’t block for me.”
Pandolfini also felt protection was the key.
“We knew what they were doing,” he said. “And we were blocking for each other and that led to scores and big plays.”
The result was a 32-19 victory and a championship game date with Somerville. Hamilton reversed its six-point loss with a six-point win, 26-20.
“It was a dogfight, they were a good team,” Jeff Jaworski said. “They went into the game with a ton of confidence. My offensive coordinators (Brad Bishop and Joe Gargione) did such a good job setting them up, throwing wrinkles and just adding plays that just kind of confused everybody.”
That was followed by complete domination of Newark in a statement win that said Hamilton Pop Warner is back.
“It’s huge for the program, it’s huge for Hamilton to, for lack of a better term, put a feather in our cap to be able to put that up there after a long time,” Jaworski said. “It’s amazing, it’s phenomenal. It’s just all the hard work these kids started doing, geeze, some of them back in February. They were at camps and workouts.”
Along with Jaworski and Pandolfini, the Revolution featured center Shane Bresnen, Kaiden Perry (DB/RB), Jackson Bishop (DB/RB), Camari Covington (RB/MLB), Jake Little (OL/DT), Thomas Horgan (OL) Mike Gargione (WR/RB/CB), Jordan Tucker (DT/OL), Jake Shaw (DT/OL), twin brothers Luke and Danny LoBuono (OLB/OL), Ray Kevett (DL), Brayden Hutchins (LB/TE), Enzo DiMartino (TE/DB), Braeden Ruyman (TE/DE) and Michael Biase (TE/DT).
Dave DiMartino and Michael Biase Sr. were the other assistants, while Al-Majid “Hutch” Hutchins was team dad and Wendy Jaworski was team mom.
Jaworski noted that Hamilton was mostly a run team that used a lot of misdirection. His son was quarterback for the base offense while Pandolfini took snaps in the spread offense. The team had a ton of speed, and the young players showed great intelligence in picking up some complicated plays.
“Unbelievable,” Jaworski said. “We would throw wrinkles in in the huddle. We would throw wrinkles in on defense. Mid-play, just before the play would snap we would be switching kids and confusing teams. It was astonishing at their level they were able to pick it up to a point where it was unbelievably effective.”
Effective enough to go from zero wins as a 6U team to state champions, which should provide a recruiting tool for the future. Jaworski also noted that the merger with Hamilton PAL helped attract more attention to the program, which brought in more players.
“We’re poised for success,” the coach said. “We’ve got the young kids coming through. Winning attracts attention. People want to be part of that culture and that’s what we’re trying to create — a winning culture. A successful culture where people want to come back.”
The two quarterbacks are definitely ready to return.
“I’m very excited,” Pandolfini said. “I get to meet new friends and players, and keep winning.”
Jaworski felt likewise, saying “I’m super excited. We want to be two-time champs.”
One thing is certain, there’s no denying their confidence.
The Hamilton 8U Revolution celebrates winning the Central Jersey and New Jersey State Pop Warner Championships.,
