Longtime head coach returns as assistant for upcoming season
After a year away, Craig Nielsen will be back on the sideline as an assistant coach
Craig Nielsen talks to his players during his time as head coach. He is returning as an assistant coach for the upcoming season following his retirement a year ago.
When Craig Nielsen announced his retirement last season, it sent shockwaves through the Pascack Valley football program.
Now, a little more than a year later, Nielsen is again the talk of Pascack Valley football.
After spending the 2016 season as an assistant coach at Clifton, Nielsen was approved as an assistant coach at PV for the upcoming football season at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.
Former offensive coordinator Len Cusumano was named Nielsen’s successor and guided the Indians to a 4-6 record.
Cusumano and athletic director Tom Gattoni were both unable to comment when asked, as the move was not yet official.
Nielsen’s return as an assistant comes on the heels of the resignations of assistants James “Antony” Muir (quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator), Jim Cleary (assistant defensive coordinator) and Bill VanKersen (line coach/special teams coach), and it remains a possibility that he fills one of these roles.
The resignations of Muir, Cleary and VanKersen all occurred at Board of Education meetings over the last two months.
Nielsen previously spent 15 seasons as the head coach at PV (2001-15), compiling a 119-46 record and winning two consecutive North Jersey Section 1 Group 3 titles in 2013 and 2014, with PV’s last title before that coming in 1990.
