Mac’s their man

Former Glassboro head coach Maccarone approved as Penns Grove’s new football coach, was Red Devils’ DC during their 2018-19 championship run 

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Mark Maccarone never ruled out being a head coach again when he stepped away in 2017 and now that door has reopened to him in a very familiar setting.

The former Glassboro head coach and one-time Penns Grove assistant was approved Monday night by the Penns Grove-Carneys Point Regional School District to become the Red Devils’ new head football coach. He succeeds John Emel, who is headed to West Deptford to become its new football coach, and he’s glad to be back as a head coach.

With his unanimous approval, Maccarone, 41, becomes just the third Penns Grove head football coach in the last 25 years.

“I’m very excited for the opportunity to come to Penns Grove and I’m taking over a program that’s been very successful for the last two decades,” he said. “I was fortunate when I stopped being a head coach, Coach Emel reached out to me and asked me to be an assistant coach here and I was able to form some very close relationships with some of the coaches on the staff and a majority of the players.

“I never said no to the opportunity (to be a head coach again). I’ve had opportunities that I’ve been offered that I turned down because it wasn’t the right situation for me at the particular time. This is an opportunity to come somewhere where I’m familiar. For me, this was the perfect opportunity to kind of throw my hat back into the ring, so to speak.”

Penns Grove athletics director Anwar Golden said the opening drew “five or six very strong championship-worthy coaches who brought a lot to the table,” but Maccarone rose to the top because of his vision for the future and desire to work towards it. 

“He’s got a lot of heart, he’s got a lot of charisma, he’s a thinker,” Golden said. “He has a lot of opportunity and a lot of lofty goals. He’s been putting in a lot of work to try to prepare for the next season. He’s ready to go.

“He knows the game, he knows relationships. The kids play for him and work with him because he is a person who develops and maintains strong relationships with the kids. They trust him. We talk about the kids and he was like I don’t know a lot of these kids yet because I haven’t been around, but I was like, ‘Mac those skill sets that you had when you were here, they’re still prevalent.’”

A resident of Washington Twp., Maccarone will remain as a social studies teacher at Camden County Tech while he coaches the Red Devils, unless, of course, a teaching position opens at Penns Grove.

“I’m in a better situation in my career, so it’s allowing me the opportunity once again to become a head coach,” he said.

Maccarone checks all the boxes. He has been a head coach. He has been in big games. He has won championships and coached players who’ve gone on to the NFL. He knows the Penns Grove players and the expectations the administration and community have for their football team.

He was 43-33 with five straight playoff appearances in his seven seasons with Glassboro, winning two South Jersey Group I titles and reaching the semifinals two other times.

After he stepped down from the Bulldogs after seven years of commuting between Bridgeton and the school, Emel scarfed him up to be the Red Devils’ defensive coordinator during their 2018-19 championship run and has helped with the program in a less formal capacity post-COVID.

He was a spotter in the coaches booth when the Red Devils shut out eventual state finalist Glassboro in the regular season this past October. He also was there when they beat Pennsville to retain The Boot, when they knocked off Florence in the first round of the South Jersey Group I playoffs and when they lost at Woodstown in the semifinals.

“I think Mark is a heck of a football coach,” Emel said. “After 2017 when we lost (in the South Jersey Group I finals) I wanted to find an assistant coach with big-game experience. One of the things he hangs his hat on is never losing a sectional championship game as a coach (6-0). He’s always had a great relationship with players. I care about the kids and I’d want somebody who’d put them in positions to win. He knows how to get a team ready to win.

“I’m excited because I want the program to do well. He’ll absolutely do some things better than I did. I think it’s a good situation for a team that has a lot of experience; they need to be coached hard by a guy who can get them to the next level.”

Maccarone inherits a program that went 70-41 under Emel, made the South Jersey Group I playoffs every year and won at least one playoff game five of the last six years. The Red Devils won three division titles and two of the school’s three sectional crowns (2018 and 2019) during a three-year stretch in which they went 35-3 with a 25-game winning streak. He currently has five players in college football at the Division II level or higher.

This past season the Red Devils went 6-6 after a 1-4 start and trailing 19-0 at halftime of their sixth game. They played for the WJFL Diamond Division title on the last weekend of the regular season and produced two 1,000-yard rushers who are both eligible to return with most of the 32 players they finished the season with. The JV team went undefeated and they have a weight room Emel has called one of the best setups in South Jersey.

Maccarone called his two official seasons with the Red Devils a “very fun two years” during which he forged some “life-changing” relationship with players and coaches that stand to this day. With the talent and support within the program, he said there’s no reason they can’t reach for those goals again.

With Maccarone’s hiring, there are now two football head coaching vacancies remaining in Salem County, but both are expected to be filled later this week. Former Penns Grove head coach Kemp Carr is up for approval as Salem’s new coach Wednesday and Woodstown is expected to approve its new coach Thursday.

Cover photo: New Penns Grove football coach Mark Maccarone meets with well-wishers after being approved by the board Monday night.