With the football signing date on Feb. 1, Pajic has had to gather a staff and hit the recruiting road running, selling hope for a new venture.
"It's been overwhelming, awesome, exciting, exactly what I thought it would be," Pajic said by phone. "You wear a lot of hats as a head coach, and you don't look to the right or left - you look in the mirror because you are making all the decisions."
Pajic, whose parents live in Cherry Hill, and sister, Dawn, resides in Marlton, has clearly paid his dues in climbing up that difficult coaching ladder.
The last eight years, he was offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Bloomsburg. Before that, there were assistant coaching stops at South Florida, Wilkes, Hofstra, Fordham, and Gettysburg.
So many times we see the head coach introduced at the podium and don't realize all the miles traveled to reach that spot.
"At one time, I moved five times in seven years," Pajic said.
He wasn't complaining, just stating a fact.
Pajic turned 43 on New Year's Day. Now that he and his wife, Julie, have two young children, he is looking for some stability, something he also had at Bloomsburg the last eight years.
Yet something always burned inside to be a head coach, and now he is running his own program, while on a virtual sprint to catch up on lost time.
With the signing date approaching, the coaching staff is trying to move quickly. Pajic often begins his day at 5:30 a.m. and might not end it until 2 a.m.
"You can't keep this schedule all the time, but right now, we are getting our feet under us and we have a lot of work to do," he said.
Pajic can certainly identify with Division II recruits, since he was one at Bloomsburg. As a senior for a 1-7-1 Paul VI team in 1986, he led the area with 56 receptions that accounted for more than 900 yards and nine touchdowns in earning Inquirer first-team all-South Jersey honors.
