Dream comes true for McAneney

Tim McAneney remembers driving past Lenape High School on his way home from football practice at Bishop Eustace Prep.

McAneney lives about a mile from the big school with its vast expanse of manicured fields at Hartford and Church Roads in Mt. Laurel.

"I remember wondering if I could ever be a coach at a big, Group 4 public school," McAneney said. "And I wasn't dreaming about any Group 4 school. I was dreaming about that school."

McAneney was the coach at Bishop Eustace in those days. He had good teams, twice taking the Crusaders to the Non-Public 2 state title game.

He was a career football guy - if you were around Pennsauken during its glory years in the 1980s, you saw Tim on the field while his dad, legendary coach Vince McAneney, roamed the sideline in his gray pants and cranberry blazer - who seemed to have limited coaching options.

Tim McAneney is not a teacher. He's in private business. So there wasn't much chance that he ever would be a head coach at a big school such as Lenape, because big schools in big districts almost never hired adjuncts as head coaches.

"All I want to do is coach high school football, but I just didn't see any way that it could happen," McAneney said of landing a job at a Group 4 program.

Two things jump out about Lenape's surprising decision to hire McAneney as its football coach at Wednesday's Board of Education meeting.

One, it's tough to overstate McAneney's jubilation. Like his father, he's energetic, talkative and upbeat under normal circumstances.

But he thinks he has died and gone to high school football coaching heaven.

"My dad was telling a family friend, 'If Notre Dame or Army knocked on his door, he'd turn them down to take this job,' " Tim McAneney said.

The coach's enthusiasm won't make a block or a tackle for Lenape in the West Jersey Football League's American Division. But over the long haul, that kind of energetic leadership and can-do pep - combined with Lenape's talent, plus a decades-old desire to look eye-to-eye with district rivals such as Cherokee and Shawnee - could work wonders for the Indians.

"I want us to be relevant," McAneney said. "I want us to be part of the landscape in South Jersey football."

McAneney doesn't arrive with sophisticated schemes or tricky alignments. He's a basic football guy who believes in a strong running game, sturdy defense, and dependable special teams.

"We've got to do the little things well," McAneney said. "No turnovers. No mental mistakes. Block. Tackle. These kids, I know they want to win. I know they want to work hard and make this happen."

Also significant about the McAneney hire are the actions of Lenape administrators. The easiest thing to do would have been the safest thing to do: Hire an assistant from within the district, or another veteran head coach who also would have been hired as a teacher.

That happens 99 percent of the time. And there were some strong candidates, both inside and outside the district.

But Lenape did something different.

Lenape did something bold.

Time will tell about the wisdom of the decision, but it says one thing right now: The Indians want to win in football.

When the coach has that kind of enthusiasm, and the administration has that kind of commitment, and the school and its feeder programs have that kind of talent, big things can happen.

For years and years, we've all heard the same thing: Lenape football is a sleeping giant.

But as of Wednesday night, the Indians and their new coach weren't dreaming anymore.