By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
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After making one of the biggest coaching moves in South Jersey history, the storyline around St. Augustine Prep and new coach Bill Belton isn’t necessarily about the team’s 2-0 start to the season.
Celebrating the game-winning touchdown in a 24-20 victory over Bonner Prendergast (Pa.) in the Hermits’ season-opener on Aug. 28, Belton suffered a torn Achilles tendon while jumping in the air.
Since then, he’s been making his way around practice in a golf cart and riding on a scooter when needed. In a recent 30-20 triumph over Atlantic City on Saturday in Delaware, he even started the game in the press box. Abnormal for Belton, he didn’t last up there long, however.
Belton, who previously directed Winslow Township to the last two NJSIAA Group 4 state titles before making the switch to St. Augustine this offseason, is scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday, he said.
“The road to recovery starts tomorrow,” Belton said. “Lord willing.”
Belton said he intends to coach when the Hermits host Holy Spirit on Friday at 6 p.m., but that’s no guarantee.
“If I’m not, that man is in charge of running the offense,” he said, pointing in the direction of Offensive Coordinator Everett Wormley.
The Hermits should be in good hands as Wormley was Belton’s OC at Winslow last year and helped lead the Eagles to a Group 4 state championship.
“At the end of the day, we feel like we have the two best coordinators in South Jersey on the same team between him as head coach and me as offensive coordinator,” Wormley said. “They’ll be prepared to play just as if he’s here. The show doesn’t stop.
“We always say, ‘next man up’. That applies to both players and coaches.”
In his first season as a starting quarterback, sophomore Dylan Dellanoce has filled the next-man-up category in a big-time way so far this fall. Through two games, he has completed 55 percent of his passes for 358 yards and five touchdowns. The best performance of his young career came in the Hermits’ victory over Atlantic City on Saturday, when he threw for 229 yards and three scores.
Just like Wormley, Dellanoce says the team will be prepared in case Belton is not ready to go.
“I like how hard we’ve been working. We take every week like we’re 0-0,” Dellanoce said. “We have to be prepared even if he’s not there. Obviously, we want him to be there, but we have to be able to work without him.”
