Sports

N.Y. Jets Pick Nielsen as "Coach of The Week"

Pascack Valley High School football Coach Craig Nielsen was awarded $1,000 for the school's football program as a part of the honor.

The New York Jets picked Pascack Valley High School football Coach Craig Nielsen as their most recent "coach of the week."

The award is given to tristate area coaches who both teach the fundamentals of football and motivate their players to achieve, according to the post announcing Nielsen's award on the Jets' website. In addition to the prestige of being recognized by a NFL team, Nielsen was also awarded $1,000 to benefit the school's football program.

Nielsen has coached the Indians for more than 11 seasons and led the team to seven of its last eight titles. This season, the team is 7-0 coming into its final two games against Ramapo this week and West Milford November 2.

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Pascack Valley Principal Thomas DeMaio said the award was "well-deserved."

"Coach Nielsen epitomizes what a high school football coach should be," DeMaio wrote in an email to Patch. "His primary focus is to teach young men the values of hard work, discipline and responsibility to oneself and to others. Though we have had great success on the field over the past 11 years, Coach Nielsen never loses his focus on the fundamentals of high school athletics. His teams have always represented themselves with great class and sportsmanship. We could not be more happy for others to recognize the greatness that we get to witness on a daily basis."

Find out what's happening in Westwood-Hillsdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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