Veteran BTHS football coach 'astounded' by school board pick

One week ago the Board of Education incomprehensibly voted to ignore the pleas of parents, students and residents to appoint a veteran Brick assistant football coach at Brick Township High School to replace the legendary Warren H. Wolf.

They also ignored Wolf, who got a kick in the teeth for his 51 years of building the Green Dragons powerhouse football program.

Instead, the practically mute board settled on outsider Patrick Dowling, whose latest job was a oneyear gig at Allentown High School.

And when the unanimous vote was taken, the several hundred people who packed the meeting filed quietly out of the auditorium at the Lake Riviera Middle School. They ignored Schools Superintendent Walter J. Hrycenko when he got up to give his monthly report. They ignored his exhortations to support Dowling and welcome him to the district.

They gathered in the hall, many pausing to stop and shake Wolf's hand, thank him for a memory and all the hard work he had done since 1958, when he came to the new high school as a young teacher.

Several days later, Wolf was back at the card table in his study, working on his book that chronicles 51 seasons of Green Dragons football. This week he was up to 1990.

And he's not stopping his work on the book, which he hopes will be ready in time for Christmas.

"I was terribly disappointed in the board for being so silent," he said. "We asked questions and we got no answers. To me, there is no logic in the decision they made. It was cut and dried and it was astounding."

So for Wolf, the battle is over. At least this one.

"What's done is done," he said. "I'm just looking forward to what we are going to do with an unresponsive board. That's not Brick Township."

What hurts the most is the "dismantling" of a coaching staff that had been at the school for years, he said.

"A number of people are going elsewhere to coach," he said.

And while some have suggested the boys on the team stay off the field in protest, that's not what Wolf wants.

"I recommend for the boys to play," he said. "They're young boys. They're not involved in this. You gotta go out and play."

It also hurts that no board members or the superintendent called him for advice about his replacement.

"They never called me, they never asked me," he said. "I'm in the phone book."

And he makes no apologies for his very public fight for the position to go to a Brick person.

"I fought for a local fella," he said. "I not talking about anybody. I'm talking about qualified people."

He's not sure whether he and his wife, Peg, will be on the sidelines when the football season starts.

"I don't think so," he said. "I'm undecided. Right now I'm disappointed. I love the boys. I feel sorry for the boys. It's going to be a new staff working with a bunch of great kids. I wish them luck. I'm still for Brick Township."

Meanwhile, his book goes on.

"We've had nothing but great times," Wolf said. "My memories are vivid. The book is a chronology of the highlights of all of the teams. The last chapter will be about my replacement. It will be about what happened."

Patricia A. Miller is the managing editor of the Brick Township Bulletin.