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October 12, 2005

Gary Degenhardt joins a select group

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist


Only 10 coaches from the Cape-Atlantic League’s schools have won 100 varsity football games. And two of them were at Carey Stadium last Friday night.

Gary Degenhardt was soaking wet on the Ocean City sidelines, more from a dousing by his players from the water bucket than the light rain that fell off and on throughout the game.

The other was Tony Surace, the former Millville coach who now works for Quinn Broadcasting as a color analyst on radio and cable television coverage of the Thunderbolts.

Eight others have reached that magic level. Paul Sacco (St. Joseph), Pate Lancetta (Hammonton) and Bob Coffey (Mainland) are still adding to their totals. There were John Boyd (Atlantic City), Nello Dalollio (Vineland) and Al Hedelt (Pleasantville), who all won most of their games before their schools joined the CAL. And the list includes Chuck Donohue, who won his at St. Joseph and Buena and is still coaching at Southern Regional. And the late Ed Byrnes, who pretty much had become the face of Holy Spirit before his sudden death.

“I guess if you coach long enough,” said Degenhardt, “you’re going to win your share of games.”

Actually, Degenhardt has won well more than his share. He won his 100th in his 151st game. Only Byrnes, Surace and Dalollio did it that quickly.

“There have been some really good kids,” Degenhardt said, “and some great coaches on our staff during the last 15 years.”

Degenhardt’s story begins long before that. A football and baseball player at Frankford High School in Philadelphia, he went to Valley Forge Military Academy for a year and then on to the University of Miami for football. He played mostly on special teams for coaches Charlie Tate and current ESPN analyst Fran Curci before a shoulder injury ended his career.

After teaching briefly at Bryant Elementary in Philly and in suburban Huntington Valley, Degenhardt was told of an opening in the Ocean City physical education department while he was working over the summer at the local yacht club.

“I filled out an application that day,” he said, “and was quickly called in for an interview. I borrowed a sports coat and met with Dixie Howell and Scott Johnson. They offered me the job.”

Degenhardt joined a department that concluded Howell, Fenton Carey, Mike Slaveski and Pat Dougherty - almost an Raider Mount Rushmore.

He joined Slaveski’s football staff and later served as an assistant to Ed Woolley, Tony Galante and Wayne Colman before being named head coach in 1991. He went from the fiery assistant with the well-trimmed beard to the clean-shaven head coach.

His first game, ironically, was a loss to Millville, coached by Surace. After another loss to Atlantic City, that 1991 team – featuring Brian Tilley, Danny Davis and Rick Lipford – won four of its final seven. The next year, Degenhardt took the Raiders into the NJSIAA playoffs for the first of his nine times.

“A lot of people influence you,” said Degenhardt, “and I’ve been lucky to be around some terrific coaches. But there is no doubt that my biggest influence came from my high school coach, Mr. (Al) Angelo. He knew how the game should be played and how to teach it.”

Al Angelo spends a lot of time watching Degenhardt coach, especially now that his grandson, A.J. Harris, is part of the team and his son, Skip, a former Degenhardt assistant, guards the buffet in the press box.

In one eight-year stretch, Degenhardt led Ocean City to eight straight playoff appearances, winning three South Jersey championships and reaching the finals a fourth year. His teams also won six league championships. No CAL public school coach has won more South Jersey championships. Only Sacco at St. Joe has more. And no coach with three or more appearances in South Jersey finals has a better record in those championship games than Degenhardt’s .750.

All that is more than enough to make Gary Degenhardt one of the most successful Cape-Atlantic League football coaches to ever walk the sidelines.

Victory No. 100 was just icing on the cake.



Read more of Tom Williams' columns