Pushing 250 wins, Howard hasn't slowed

Glenn Howard went back to school in the spring and summer.

"Camps, clinics, lots of talks with other coaches," Howard said of his workload as he prepared to change the way his Paulsboro football team plays offense.

It's a funny thing to watch the Red Raiders these days. They hardly ever huddle. They are a spread, shotgun, hurry-up attack.

It's a strange sight after years of Paulsboro playing the I-formation, running the football behind generations of scrappy linemen with generations of speedy backs.

"I'm enjoying it," Howard said Saturday, standing on the old field with the refineries behind the visiting bleachers and the railroad tracks behind the east end zone.

Howard wasn't enjoying much else on this early October afternoon. His team made a half-season's worth of mistakes in a 16-14 loss to Collingswood.

The setback left Howard poised for another week on the brink of his 250th career victory. He has a 249-52 record in 27 seasons.

"I didn't know that," Howard said of approaching the milestone. "I wish you were telling me, 'Hey, congratulations on your 250th,' and it was over.' "

Howard still does the same things that drove Paulsboro to 11 South Jersey Group 1 titles between 1992 and 2006 and two of the three-longest winning streaks in South Jersey history - a still-unfathomable, 63-game run that ended in 1998, and a 36-game stretch that ended in 2003.

The man doesn't cut corners. That's why he spent all that time trying to learn as much as he could about the no-huddle, spread offense.

And that's why his team still is out there after 7 o'clock on most week nights, practicing under the lights on the dusty lot adjacent to the game field.

But the fact is that Paulsboro isn't quite the same dominant force in small-school South Jersey football anymore. It has been eight seasons since the Red Raiders won a sectional title.

That "drought" hasn't diminished Howard's status in South Jersey football circles. If anything, his colleagues and folks around the sport respect him even more, because he's working as hard as ever and acting with the same sense of sportsmanship and perspective that marked his long time on top of the mountain.

"When I think of class acts, I think of Glenn Howard," Collingswood coach Jack McConnell said. "The way he carries himself, I look up to that. He's a good man."

That's not to suggest that Howard, at 55, has lost his competitive edge. He still lives in the film room and on the practice field.

He still barks at players at times during games. He still keeps it real in analyzing the results.

"We didn't deserve to win," Howard said with typical honesty after Saturday's setback.

Howard could care less about his 250th win. He wants this 3-1 team to get its fourth and fifth, and as many as it takes to capture another Colonial Patriot title and maybe, just maybe, another South Jersey Group 1 title.

"We want to being the crown back to Paulsboro," Howard said.

Howard has as much right as any coach in any sport to stay set in his ways. He has had that much success.

But he's also not afraid to try something new, to take a chance.

That's why he did all that studying this past spring and summer and why his team is rushing to the line of scrimmage after every play this fall.

"It's making an old coach feel like a young coach," Howard said. "It's a little more fun for me because I'm back to learning."