If you watch “Friday Night Lights” or know anything about high school football in places like Texas then you are aware it’s a big deal in certain areas in this country. Stories of coaches being run out of town for not winning enough are legendary and the selection of a new coach at a school with great tradition is sure to be front page news. That is certainly not the case around here and when a high school names a new coach it often barely warrants more than a paragraph or two in the newspaper.
However when a school is replacing a legend who has been the only head coach in their 51-year history and is the winningest coach in state history it’s a bit of a different story. That’s why the apparent choice of the Brick Township Board of Education to replace Warren Wolf and guide the Green Dragons is one that will raise some eyebrows…that is after the question, who is he?
He is Patrick Dowling, a 45-year old Howell resident who was given the nod over three other final candidates including two with direct connections to the Green and White. Dowling was the head coach at Allentown last fall, going 2-8 and before that coached Monroe Township High School to three winning seasons in four years. He is a father of six children and is candidate for the local school board in Howell.
There is no questioning his resume but certainly there will be some, maybe many who will wonder why the Board of Education chose someone with no connection to the school or football program. Among the other three submitted final candidates to replace the retired Wolf were current assistant coach Len Zdanowicz and Jackson Liberty Head Coach Tim Osborne, who many including yours truly thought was the favorite all along. Osborne, a retired New Jersey State Trooper, played for Wolf and was a longtime assistant on his staff before moving to Toms River North and then becoming Jackson Liberty’s first-ever head coach a couple of years ago.
Dowling though is the one who gets to replace a legend and there is no question a new era is about to begin.
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