ANALYSIS: Brick School Board Faced With Tricky Job After Football Coach Steps Down

The Brick Township Board of Education finds itself in the hunt for a new football coach for Brick Township High School, after Green Dragons head coach Rob Dahl announced Thursday that he is stepping down from the post.

Dahl told the Shore Sports Network that he is stepping down to spend more time with his family.

While that may not seem like a big deal, anyone who was in town in 2009 will likely remember why this hiring will have people’s attention.

When the legendary Warren Wolf announced his retirement in December 2008, after 51 seasons on the sidelines for the Dragons, the belief in football circles was that his successor would be someone from the Brick program.

When then-Superintendent Walter Hrycenko recommended Patrick Dowling -- who was an outsider to the program -- for the job as head coach, the result was vocal opposition at school board meetings from Brick football alumni, from fans and the community at large, and even from Wolf himself.

Wolf, a former Brick mayor and state assemblyman, came out of political retirement to run for a spot on the Brick Board of Education because of his unhappiness over the choice, and was elected to the board.

And when the board approved Dowling, it set the stage for two very difficult years for Brick, with back-to-back 4-6 seasons. Dowling was removed as coach in early 2011.

Dahl, a 1991 Brick High School graduate who played for Wolf, was the selected to take the reins after Dowling’s removal, and in his four years has revived the program. The Dragons went 27-16 under Dahl and have now made back-to-back trips to the NJSIAA playoffs for the first time since the 1980s. Brick won the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV championship in 2013, its first state title since 1994, and last fall won its first Shore Conference Class A South title since 2008.

Wolf, now 87, spent 51 seasons on the sidelines, during which the Dragons won or shared 24 Shore Conference divisional championships and 13 state sectional titles.

“The goal was to put Brick Township football back on the map where coach (Warren) Wolf put it, and I feel we did that as a coaching staff,” Dahl told the Shore Sports Network. “I’m very proud of the boys and the coaches, but this is a time when my family needs me, and I can’t let it go on any more.”

It wasn’t an entirely smooth ride for Dahl, either. He was at the epicenter of the controversy of the arrival of quarterback Carmen Sclafani, who spent his first two seasons at Toms River North -- a transfer that, though cleared by the NJSIAA, continues to anger some in the community.

And Dahl also found himself in the reflected glow of the story of Anthony Starego, the Brick placekicker with autism whose feel-good story gained national attention and whose big for another year of football eligibility stirred passionate debate.

Dahl leaves behind a staff that is a mix of Brick alumni and program outsiders, including Len Zdanowicz, whose name often has been mentioned as a candidate for the head coaching job, and Chip LaBarca Jr., the Toms River South graduate who was forced to stop coaching at Toms River North when he became an administrator. LaBarca also is Sclafani’s uncle.

The Brick job is the only head coaching vacancy in the Shore Conference right now, according to the Shore Sports Network.

“Coach Dahl was the greatest thing to happen to this program,” Sclafani told the Shore Sports Network. “He wasn’t just a coach, he was a father to all of us. He brought the best out in all of us, and he got all of us to play with heart.

“I could say a bunch of other things he taught us and sayings of his, but what is important is that he is living by the morals he always taught us. His family needs him. He was the heart and soul of the program, and will always be. You don’t know how much we love that man.”

The next coach will have big shoes to fill. Almost as big as the ones Wolf left behind.

(Rob Dahl with the Brick football team stretching before the second half of their quarterfinal state playoff game in the fall. Credit: Karen Wall)