Montclair Football Coach Resigns
As New Mentor Is Sought For 2025

MONTCLAIR- Montclair will have precious little time to find a new head football coach after it was learned on Tuesday, May 6, that Jermain Johnson has resigned from the position he held for the past three seasons.

“We will be making a decision in the next few days as to how we plan to proceed in selecting a football coach for the upcoming season,” said Montclair’s first-year Athletic Director Matt Belford. “We appreciate all that Coach Johnson did for our program, but he will not be returning to head our football program for the 2025 season and we are ready to move in another direction.”

Sources have indicated to Sideline Chatter that since it is already May, and with 7-on-7’s kicking off the summer workouts in another month, Montclair will look for an interim head coach for the upcoming season, although it is unclear if that person might be someone from the current coaching staff or perhaps a former coach who may still work in the school system.

“I am stepping down as coach for personal seasons,” Johnson said when reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon; however, he would not elaborate on that decision.

He did say that he plans to remain as a physical education teacher at the high school.

“We will be meeting with our football players in the coming days to explain the current situation,” added Belford, a former AD at Hightstown who among other roles in an extensive career, was also at Elizabeth High School, both in an administrative role within the athletic department, and as the Minutemen’s head baseball coach. “We will undergo a thorough process to find the right person to help take this program to the high level where it belongs to honor the rich history of Montclair High School football."

Johnson, 52, had his finest moments as the Mounties coach in the 2023 season when he guided MHS to an 8-4 record and a strong, late-season playoff run highlighted by a superb fourth quarter drive and last-second, 24-21, road win at Watchung Hills in the North 1, Group 4 semifinals.

The season ended with a hard-fought and narrow 34-27 setback at Passaic Tech, in the N1G4 final in a game where the Mounties had a narrow lead entering the fourth quarter.

Montclair finished 4-6 last fall losing at rival East Orange Campus, 28-14, in a N1G4 first round playoff contest.

The 2022 season ended on a negative note when the Mounties were left with a final 0-9 record after in ineligible player was discovered as a 4-4 Mounties squad was preparing for a first-round playoff game at Ridgewood, a team it had beaten on the road in a regular season contest a couple of weeks prior.

The ineligible player in question had reportedly not achieved the necessary minimum grade or test score for a summer school course in order to be eligible to play school sports; however, that oversight by the athletic administration was not discovered until a phone call was made before the playoff were to start by someone from outside the district to school personnel, who then reported the news learned to the NJSIAA.

Johnson, 52, has always been a popular and well-liked coach and player on the North Jersey football scene dating back to his days as a standout running back and defensive back at Bloomfield High School.

He was a 4-year All-New Jersey Athletic Conference selection as a standout cornerback and safety at Montclair State University under coach Rick Giancola following his scholastic days for coach, mentor and lifelong friend Mike Carter at Bloomfield.

His coaching career began when he spent three years on Giancola’s staff with the MSU Red Hawks.

He then worked with Carter for eight seasons at Bloomfield before getting his first head coaching job at Paterson Eastside where he guided the Ghosts for four seasons (2009-2012), compiling a 15-25 record. His Ghost teams in the Silk City showed progress with records of 4-6, 5-5 and 4-6 after a tough 2-8 rookie season at the helm for a gridiron program that has had its struggles through the years and did not go .500 or better again after Johnson’s departure until finishing 5-4 under coach James Magazine in 2019.

Johnson then served as a defensive coordinator at Wayne Hills for five seasons on head man Wayne Demikoff’s staff with a Patriots program that remained a fixture in the Group 3 playoff picture year after year just as it did when the legendary Chris Olsen was the head coach.

Demikoff’s coaching staff also included another former high school head coach in ex-West Orange head man John Jacob, who ran the Wayne Hills offense and has since also been the offensive coordinator and then head coach at East Orange Campus.

Johnson left Wayne Hills and returned to head coaching duties at Belleville in 2018 and did a nice job with the Buccaneers, who have also had their struggles at times in football during the past two decades. He put together a very respectable 19-16 record in four seasons, including a 6-4 mark in 2021. Belleville was 7-3 in his second season at the helm in 2019.

Neither the 2019 or 2021 Buccaneer teams qualified for the playoffs, but were certainly in contention for a spot before the power points criteria at the time dictated otherwise.

Johnson took over at Montclair where John Fiore guided the Mounties to four playoff championships during his 11 years at the helm (2010-2020). Fiore took a leave of absence to deal with a family matter in the fall of 2021 when Montclair finished 5-5 and reached the North 1, Group 5 playoffs under interim head coach Pete Ramiccio, a longtime Fiore assistant coach, who has since moved on to be the head coach for the last three seasons at Governor Livingston in Berkeley Heights.

Fiore, who then coached Elizabeth football for the 2022 and 2023 seasons before being fired last September over a residency dispute regarding his son, initiated by the city’s school administration, had an impressive run in Montclair with a 93-31 (75 %) record that included three undefeated seasons, four playoff championships and seven appearances in the sectional final.

He posted a 20-6 playoff record with the Mounties which is identical to his predecessor Ed Lebida’s own fine playoff mark (1993-2009) at Montclair.
Lebida guided the Mounties to three playoff championships.

Fiore had much of his success at Montclair during the time when former NFL and college linebacker James Earle was the high school principal and longtime, successful Morristown head football coach John Porcelli was the Mounties’ assistant principal in charge of athletics.

Both men have since moved on and the powers-that-be in place when Johnson was hired in 2022 were led by Schools Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Ponds, who assumed his current position in May of 2020 and passed away suddenly in the summer of 2024; high school principal Jeff Freeman, who had been in the Montclair school system for a number of years before becoming principal of the high school in November of 2020, and AD PJ Scarpello, who came aboard at Montclair in 2017 and left for a similar post in New Hope, Pa. in 2022.

Freeman is still on board as principal inside MHS while Belford was named as AD in February of this year.

Montclair last won a N1G5 playoff crown in 2017 when the talent-laden squad spearheaded by James Earle’s son Tarrin at quarterback, put together a perfect 12-0 campaign.

NOTES- Jermain’s father Charles Johnson was once the trainer for light heavyweight champion boxer Bobby Czyz…His mom Alice is a retired nurse who worked at Clara Maas Hospital in Belleville…The Johnsons resided in the South end of Bloomfield off Belleville Avenue and Jermain attended the Fairview Elementary School as a youngster growing up in Bloomfield…Johnson was also once an assistant track and field coach at Belleville.

Jermain Johnson’s Head Coaching Career:

Montclair High- 3 seasons (12-19*)
2024: 4-6 (lost at East Orange Campus in N1G4 quarterfinals)
2023: 8-4 (lost at Passaic Tech in N1G4 sectional final)
2022; 0-9* (team was 4-4 and headed to playoffs before player was ruled ineligible and Mounties were ordered by NJSIAA to forfeit their 4 victories)

Paterson Eastside- 4 seasons (15-25)
2009- 2-8
2010- 4-6
2011- 5-5
2012- 4-6

Belleville- 4 seasons (19-16)
2018- 4-5
2019 – 7-3
2020- 2-4
2021- 6-4

Johnson has also been an assistant coach a Montclair State (3 seasons), Bloomfield High School (8 seasons) and Wayne Hills (defensive coordinator for 5 seasons)

Montclair High football coaches since 1920:
Clarence Woodman 1920-1925- 6 seasons (22-27-7, 48.5%)
Ken Sprague 1926-1933- 8 seasons (31-35-6, 47.2%)
Ernie McCoy 1934-39- 6 seasons (23-20-6, 53.1 %)
Clary Anderson 1940-41, 1946-1968- 25 seasons (197-22-5, 89.1 %)
Butch Fortunato 1942-45, 1969-1983- 19 seasons (115-52-8, 68%)
Jack Davies 1984-1990- 7 seasons (52-18-2, 73.6%)
Len Rivers 1991-1992- 2 seasons (7-10-1, 41.7 %)
Ed Lebida 1993-2009- 17 seasons (130-54, 70.7%)
John Fiore 2010-2020- 11 seasons (93-31, 75%)
Pete Ramiccio 2021- 1 season (5-5, 50 %)
Jermain Johnson (2022—2024 – 3 seasons (12-19, 39%)