Tri-State Coach Award

IGolden began his coaching career in 1993 as offensive coordinator at Red Bank (N.J.) Catholic High School. He then served as a graduate assistant under George Welsh at Virginia from 1994 to 1996, where he worked primarily with the linebackers and the kickoff and punting teams. He helped develop All- ACC linebackers James Farrior and Jamie Sharper, both of whom were chosen in the 1997 NFL draft.

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The standard for great coaches, Vince Lombardi once said, is consistency. It is one thing to have a great season, he said, but it is another to be great for a generation. "To have (players) come and go and still maintain that level of excellence is the biggest challenge for a coach," said Lombardi, who built the Great Bay Packers dynasty of the 1960s. "You have to be consistent in your approach, even though every season is different. You have to find a way to make all the pieces fit."

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Mike Pettine has coached Central Bucks West High School to many victories, 326 of them to be exact, but the 14-13 win over Erie's Cathedral Prep in December was perhaps the sweetest. Certainly, it was the most dramatic.

It was CB West's 45th win in a row and it gave the school its third consecutive Class AAAA state championship. That alone made it memorable. But the way in which it was accomplished spoke volumes about the CB West program and what Mike Pettine has instilled in his players over the past 33 years.

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With the 2000 season, Tubby Raymond began his seventh decade of coaching football. Just think about that for a minute. Seven decades of coaching.

How, you ask, does someone last that long? There can be only one explanation. Tubby Raymond loves his work. Coaching isn't what he does. Coaching is what he is and what has made him an institution at the University of Delaware.

When Bill Zwaan took over the Widener University football program in 1997, he set a high standard - on and off the field.

"My No. 1 goal was to win the conference championship," Zwaan told Edward de la Fuente of the Wilmington News-Journal. "But I didn't just want to win conference championships. I wanted to have good, solid kids playing for us - kids who were graduating and staying for four years."

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Expectations were lower than usual for the Penn Quakers going into the 2002 football season. The team had graduated 22 players, including 16 starters and 11 All-Ivy selections, from the previous year. It appeared coach Al Bagnoli faced a rebuilding task, maybe even a losing season.

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K.C. Keeler understood the challenge he faced in succeeding Harold "Tubby" Raymond as head coach at the University of Delaware. Keeler played for the Blue Hens under Raymond, so he knew the standard by which he would be judged.

Raymond coached the Blue Hens for 36 years and was only the ninth coach in college football history to win 300 games, so he was a tough act to follow. But Keeler, 44, was up to the task.

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For Delaware Valley College football coach, G.A. Mangus, the initials G.A. stand for George Alford. But Bill Manlove, the former Widener coach who served as defensive coordinator under Mangus, has his own interpretation.

"I don't know if the G stands for Genius, but I know the A in G.A. is for amazing," Manlove told Drew Markol of the Doylestown Intelligencier. "He talked about how this team was going to win when we weren't and he's backed it up."

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In his four seasons as head coach at Rowan, Jay Accorsi has carried on the school’s winning tradition. In 2005, Accorsi led the Profs to an 11-2 overall record and their 15th New Jersey Athletic Conference championship. They went to the NCAA Division III playoffs for the 12th time and advanced to the semifinals for the second consecutive year.

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His real first name is Gaspare, but to everyone in the Philadelphia football community, he is “Gamp” Pellegrini. He just completed his 40th season as a high school coach and at age 68, he shows no signs of slowing down.

OK, maybe a few signs.

“I have a beach chair now at practice,” Pellegrini told Ted Silary of the Philadelphia Daily News. “For the first hour, my assistants run stuff and I just wander around and think about which kids might look good in other positions, how it’s all going to fit. Sometimes I sit and watch.”

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