September 12, 2007
Somes notes as CAL football hits its stride
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
The football season got started last weekend. It was the "early" week and there
was some good action.
Holy Spirit and Hammonton both flexed their muscles a bit, earning shutout
victories. Todd Busler may have set an Atlantic City record with 325 passing yards.
And St. Joseph did have a record win, its 31st straight, tying Millville (1952-55)
for the all-time record by a CAL school.
After this weekend, all of the teams in the Cape-Atlantic League will have seen
action and the season will be in full swing. And it could be an interesting
season.
First of all, on Saturday in Hammonton, St. Joe will host Pleasantville in an
effort to make it 32 straight wins. It would be the fifth longest win streak in
South Jersey history. The all-time record is 63 by Paulsboro. Florence won 43
straight until it lost to Holy Cross last year. Paulsboro added another streak of
37 games that ended in 2003. And Bordentown Military Institute won 33 straight in
the 1960s.
Paul Sacco is in a very unusual position this year, something that may never have
happened before in South Jersey. Sacco has 217 career victories. The seven other
coaches in the National Conference have 180 between them.
Hammonton's Pete Lancetta can become the first CAL public school coach to take his
team to the NJSIAA playoffs a 10th consecutive year. Last year, when he made it
nine straight, he broke a tie with former Ocean City coach Gary Degenhardt.
Lancetta also took over third place in all-time CAL wins by beating Ocean City on
Friday night for his 153rd. That broke the tie with former Millville coach Tony
Surace.
Doug Colman came to Absegami with a history of success. He was South Jersey
Defensive Player of the Year as a senior linebacker at Ocean City. He played on
two national championship teams at Nebraska. And he reached the Super Bowl (with
the Titans in 2000) during his five-year NFL career.
Colman brought Absegami into the South Jersey championship game in 2005, losing a
heartbreaker to Cherokee. He took them back again last year, winning a heart-thumper
over Cherokee. In doing all of this, Colman became the first football coach in
CAL history to win 35 games in his first four seasons as head coach.
Lee Chappine begins his Middle Township coaching career on Friday night against
St. Augustine Prep. Chappine has a chance to become only the third CAL coach to
take two different schools to the playoffs. Only Garry Schultz (Pleasantville and
Egg Harbor Township) and Chuck Donohue (Buena & St. Joe) have done it. Donohue
has actually done it with four schools, probably the most in the state.
Chappine took Hammonton to the playoffs three straight years (1984-86), winning
the South Jersey title in 1985. He had a chance to take a second school into the
playoffs once before, when he coached at St. Augustine from 1997-98. Middle
Township does not have a strong playoff history. The Panthers have qualified just
twice, in 2004 and 1993, and have never won a playoff game.
And here is another stat, though it is hard to figure out exactly what it proves.
Take this list of coaches - Bob Weiss, Bob Coffey, Gary Degenhardt, Pete Lancetta,
Ed Byrnes. A pretty impressive list, wouldn't you say. They have lots of things
in common.
They all won more than 100 games. They all have won South Jersey championships.
But there is one other thing that is part of each of their careers.
Give up? Every one of them had a losing season in his first season as a head
coach.
Interpret that however you like. That's the interesting thing about statistics,
they can lead to many interpretations. Next week, we'll again bring you the CAL
stat leaders here in your favorite weekly newspaper. And we'll continue to keep
an eye on these coaches who are setting new standards for success in local high
school football.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns