2025 BCG Season Preview – Faces in New Places

RB Chukwuma Odoh and WR/DB Josiah Zayas were two standouts from last year’s St. Thomas Aquinas football team that changed addresses during the offseason. Odoh is now attending Paramus Catholic while Zayas, an Iowa State commit, is attending Piscataway.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – Not only was this past offseason tumultuous for head coaches in the Big Central Conference, it was quite chaotic for many players as well.  Since the 2024 high school football season ended, at least 28 players from the Big Central changed addresses.  One key factor in a number of these changes was coaching changes at a few of the BCC schools.  These personnel changes will make things even more interesting in the BCC in 2025.

Player	Position	Old School	New School
Josiah Zayas	WR/DB	St. Thomas Aquinas	Piscataway
Chukwuma Odoh	RB/LB	St. Thomas Aquinas	Paramus Catholic
Ca’si Thomas	RB	St. Thomas Aquinas	Don Bosco Prep
Mickye Simmons	RB	St. Thomas Aquinas	Piscataway
Caden Sternlieb	OL	St. Thomas Aquinas	Red Bank Catholic
Jordan Mercado	WR	St. Thomas Aquinas	Old Bridge
Phillip Palmer	LB	St. Thomas Aquinas	Spotswood
Ryan Toth	QB	Metuchen	Edison
Austin Loreti	K	Metuchen	St. Joseph’s
Jamir Hall Jr.	WR/DB	Hillside	Union
Uyi Igiehon	DL	Hillside	Union
C.J. Edwards	DL	Bergen Catholic	St. Joseph’s
Anthony Walker	LB/HB	North Brunswick	St. Joseph’s
Mike Wellet	FB/LB	Seton Hall Prep	St. Joseph’s
Kevin Lynch	RB/LB	Seton Hall Prep	Jonathan Dayton
Tyler Fulscado	RB/DL	Seton Hall Prep	Jonathan Dayton
Kevin Taylor	DL	Linden	Watchung Hills
Makarayouys Reyad	OL	Edison	North Plainfield
Jahmier Black	RB/LB	Immaculata	Bridgewater-Raritan
Enoch Adisa	OL/DL	Beach Channel (NY)	Roselle Park
Jonathan Burke	RB	Belen Jesuit (FL)	Highland Park
Zyke Knowles	LB	North Plainfield	Somerville
Victor Montalvo	RB/LB	St. John Vianney	Perth Amboy
Luis Rivera Vasquez	OL/DL	East Brunswick	Sayreville
Tristan Bester	WR	St. Joseph’s	St. Thomas Aquinas
Jaylen Frias	LB	St. Joseph’s	St. Thomas Aquinas
Max Aksander	ATH	Monroe	St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Stroud	QB/LB/TE	Port Richmond (S.I.)	St. Thomas Aquinas

Sources for this article: NJ.com, MyCentralJersey.com, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Gemini.