Warren Wolf: Brick's man for all seasons
A township legend looks back on 50 years of football, politics and life
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

ERIC SUCAR staff Warren H. Wolf is gearing up for his 50th season as coach of the Brick Township High School football team in August. Wolf, 79, has also served as mayor, freeholder, state assemblyman, and Township Council and school board member over the years.

In the long-ago spring of 1958, Warren Wolf, his wife Peg and her parents drove down from North Jersey to take a look at a sleepy little town in Ocean County called Brick.

"We came down Jordan Road and my wife's mother said, 'You're not taking my daughter down here, it's a wilderness,' " Wolf recalled with a smile.

Wolf had been offered a job as a physical education teacher and head football coach at the new Brick Township High School, which was slated to open in the fall of 1958. He decided to take the job. The young couple had a home built on Nicholas Avenue. Their house was one of only three on the road back then.

They have lived in that house for five decades now. And Warren H. Wolf, who will turn 80 in August, has another milestone that month. He will begin his 50th year as head football coach of Brick Township High School.

1959

"Age is nothing but attitude," he said in an interview last week. "It's 'How do you feel?' As long as I feel I'm productive and I get some pleasure out of it ... it keeps me mentally clear. I think football 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

And he can't imagine a life without his family, football or Brick Township.

"This is our home," he said, as he sat in his well-kept backyard. The pool filter hummed in the background and his beloved dog Rusty slept under his lawn chair. "It was a blessing we came here. We raised our children here. It's a great community. It still has a lot of warmth and community spirit. Many of our friends have migrated here."

Warren Wolf hasn't just coached football for 50 years.

He served as mayor of Brick Township from 1971 to 1975. He was elected to two terms on the Ocean County Board of Freeholders, from 1975 to 1981. He was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1981 through 1983. He finished up his political career in 1993, after serving three terms on the Township Council.

1970

He credits his late friend Jack Meyer for his entrance into politics in 1971, when he ran for mayor.

"He made me the mayor of Brick Township," Wolf said. "He was my coach in politics."

Back in the early 1970s, the township government was nonpartisan and nonstop bickering, he said.

"I spoke to my pastor," he said. "He advised me not to go into politics. But I've always believed you have to be at the table to make decisions. Brick was in an uncomfortable, unsavory position. Brick was too good to have that. I wanted to try and change things, and I think we did."

The current municipal building on Chambers Bridge Road was built during Wolf's administration. So was Windward Beach. And the police department was born in 1973. Prior to that, the New Jersey State Police patrolled the township.

Unlike many politicians, Wolf, a Republican, tried to stay humble during his years of public service.

"If you are not humble, you'd better not be there," he said. "If you think you are God's gift to the people, you are mistaken."

But football has always been the dominant force in his life, from the time he played center linebacker for Memorial High School in West New York back in 1944 to now.

"Football is the nearest thing to life," he said. "It's a preparation for a young man. There are more presidents that played football than any other sport. There's no doubt in my mind, a boy who doesn't play football has missed a step that will prepare him for life. I can't imagine my life without football."

He grew up poor in West New York.

"When I was growing up, we didn't have 10 cents," Wolf recalled. "The G.I. Bill paid for college."

He and Peg recently celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary. They were married on April 5, 1950, at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Weehawken. He was 23, Peg was "almost 20."

"I don't know how she does it," he said, as he reached out to grab his wife's hand. "God bless you."

"He's great," Peg said. "I have no complaints. He's very kind, very loving. Just a good guy. What do I get for that?" she joked. "

The Wolfs have two children, Warren and Donna. They have no grandchildren, but Wolf makes up for that many times over.

"All my grandchildren are on the football field," he said. "You get so close to them."

Warren Wolf has three heroes. His father, his former football coach Joseph Coviello, and his pastor, Paul Voitko, who is now retired from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Point Pleasant.

Wolf took a lesson from each of them. He learned how to work hard, the honorable way to play and coach football, and how to love the Lord.

He feels that he was "born" a Lutheran. His rock-hard faith in Christ has never left him. He is an elder in his church.

"Without a doubt," he said. "Without faith there is nothing. You can't be afraid. Jesus is with you all the time. I'm not a Holy Roller, but I believe that. It gives you comfort. If you have no belief, how could you go to bed at night?"

Council President Stephen C. Acropolis first met Wolf in the late 1960s, when he played Pop Warner football. He considers Wolf a mentor and a role model.

"He's a great adviser, he's a great mentor," Acropolis said. "He's one of the greatest men I've ever known. With Warren Wolf, you know what you are getting. I've tried to emulate Warren Wolf; I'm not Warren Wolf."

Dennis M. Filippone first met Wolf on the football field in 1969, when he was a freshman at Brick Township High School. Today Filippone is the high school's principal.

Wolf's influence on 50 years of football players goes far beyond his record number of wins, Filippone said.

"His impact on kids is the way he taught them to be young people of character and commitment and hard work," he said. "He preached that, and the wins came. Other than my own father, he has had the greatest impact and influence on my life. I could line up 1,000 more people who would say the same. He's an absolute straight shooter."

Wolf came to Brick Township after serving as Coviello's assistant coach at Memorial High School.

"I spent 10 years at Memorial," he said. "We lost two games in 10 years. And then I came to Brick.

Brick Township High School was slated to open just a few weeks after the Wolfs arrived in town. He had to find a team in a hurry.

Eleanor Martin, the school's first guidance counselor, rounded up the boys she thought might be interested in playing football for the new high school.

"She always said she was the first coach," Wolf joked.

Before the high school was built, Brick students either went to Central Regional High School in Bayville or to Point Pleasant Beach High School, depending on where they lived in the township.

School spirit exploded once the high school went up, he said.

"Now we had our own school," Wolf said. "We had our own teams. Everybody knew we were Brick Township."

He taught physical education during the 1958-59 school year. He did that for a year and a half, then was promoted to assistant principal. His first season, the football team was 4-4-1.

His lifetime record at Brick so far is 350 wins, 113 losses and 11 ties. His teams have won more games than any other high school football coach in New Jersey history. But he remembers all the losses.

Warren Wolf will step onto the high school football field Aug. 13 for his 50th season. He will wear his trademark gray suit and tie to all the games.

"Football has been my life," he said. "I've grown up in football."