It’s all about respect

Pennsville coming to play every week so no one takes them lightly

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Mike Healy didn’t grow up in Pennsville. He never played football for the Eagles. But he has been in the game around here long enough as a player and coach on the other sideline to remember when they were one tough team to play.

It’s been a while since they’ve enjoyed that status, and the Pennsville coach would love nothing more than to have them regain that reputation on his watch.

The sooner the better. Like now.

Every August teams come to camp with a theme that fits nicely on a t-shirt and spirit banner. The Eagles have rallied around “Live The Standard, FTC” – family, trust, commitment – as a consistent theme the last couple years, but this year the focus is also about raising their profile among the teams in the region.

“As every other team is working all the time, if we want to get back to where we were we’ve got to get it back to working out like we did,” Healy said. “For us, it’s all about getting respect back.

“We haven’t been good the past couple years; it’s very clear, you can look it up. The biggest thing for us is to get respect and be a good football team. Don’t worry about yourself, but really understand it takes all 11 guys doing the right thing. It’s not OK for somebody to say I did my job it doesn’t matter. No, no, no, no. We succeed or fail as a team to get that respect back.”

The fastest way to reach that goal is making the playoffs. The easiest way to do that is dominate their Royal Division of the WJFL that is likely to get only one team in the playoffs this year.

The Eagles have been a playoff team under Healy before, but always with less than .500 records and they haven’t had a winning season since 2016. They were 1-8 last year, winning only their season opener.

In the six years since that winning season they’ve been a combined 16-39. In the seven years prior they were 59-19 with six winning seasons, a South Jersey Group One championship and a sectional runner-up.

Healy remembers the atmosphere back then was electric and that’s what he wants to recapture. 

“Every team talks about it, but for us … we’ve got to take it week by week and make sure every week we’re focused, we’re not letting anything slip by us,” he said. “We did not play good football last year, so, obviously, we don’t have any room for error. We’ve got to show who we really are and every game really show people we’re a different football team, we’re coming to play and then no one can take us easy.

“It’s something we want everyone to be proud of again. But as a team we want to be respected again. Regardless of what people say outside, we want to get back to doing what we know we can do.”

The Eagles went through a lot of growing pains last year with a roster full of young players who have returned with a year of valuable experience. Among the returnees is versatile Sky Eppes, their leading rusher (652 yards, six TDs) and tackler (42), Malik Rehmer, their leading receiver (23-268) and pass defender (two INTs), and sophomore quarterback Robbie McDade has made “a huge jump since last year.” They’ve also brought back the wisdom of three coaches from the successful staffs of the past, two of whom were head coaches.

“A lot of those kids have taken a big step, so far,” Healy said after Friday’s practice. “Obviously, it’s early, we haven’t even had a full padded practice yet where we can really start to see. It’s really going to come to when we start getting our scrimmages in to see who we are.

“We’re in a way better spot right now than we were last year, except we haven’t had full pads yet. We haven’t gone against another team to see how we react. We’ve talked a lot about things are going to go bad, how are the kids going to react in a game; nothing is ever perfect. Ever. That’s the stuff I want to see from them.”

The Eagles scrimmage for the first time Wednesday 2 p.m. against Bishop Eustace and Pemberton.

DATE	PENNSVILLE SCHEDULE	TIME
Aug. 31	at Lindenwold	6 p.m.
Sept. 8	Lower Cape May	7 p.m.
Sept. 15	Gateway	7 p.m.
Sept. 22	Schalick	7 p.m.
Sept. 29	at Cumberland	6 p.m.
Oct. 6	Overbrook	7 p.m.
Oct. 14	at Penns Grove	Noon
Oct. 20	at Pitman	7 p.m.