Back in the game

Hall of Famer Mason returns to the coaching ranks, takes the Woodstown track team for the spring

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

When Tom Mason coached his last indoor track meet in 2019 to pursue other interests in the sport, he was done with that side of the game unless some “special circumstance” drew him back.

The special circumstance surfaced.

Intrigued by a query from team trainer Dan Evans following a mid-season coaching change, Mason looked into the Woodstown track coach’s position. On Wednesday, the longtime Penns Grove coach and state track official confirmed he was getting back in the game as the Wolverines’ coach for the spring season.

He met with Woodstown athletics director Joe Ursino and then superintendent Chris Meyrick, a former Penns Grove administrator and four-year anchor on Buena’s 4×400 relay that battled Mason’s Penns Grove teams back in the day. He starts Monday, the day after the winter Wolverines return from the indoor Meet of Champions.

“I told them there were two reasons as to why I’m accepting,” Mason said. “One is your senior boys. I just love those senior boys. What great people. You take the running ability aside, they are just outstandingly class people. And my second reason was because of (Meyrick) being the superintendent.

“The Woodstown senior boys and the girls and both teams, to be honest with you, I was very impressed with how they were such class people, especially those seniors, and I did not want those seniors for their last year to have to go through a major change. My thinking is veteran coach comes in, can kind of just guide them and help them to get success.”

Mason brings Hall of Fame credentials to the job. In Mason’s 45-year high school coaching career (126 total seasons) includes 396 wins, four state team titles, six South Jersey sectional titles, 15 Salem County crowns and nearly 70 individual and relay state champions. He was inducted into the Salem County Sports (2011) and New Jersey Scholastic Coaches (2016) hall of fames and recently was approved as the cross-country assistant at Salem Community College.

He’s well aware of the Wolverines’ unparalleled strength in the middle distances, he’d like bring hurdles, sprinters and jumpers into the fold to enhance their depth.

“In Salem County history this group is the best in terms of middle distance,” Mason said. “No school in my memory of Salem County sports has had this many star middle distance runners. It’s unheard of.”

The appointment was met with excitement by the Wolverines.

“I’m very excited for this amazing honor to have a Hall of Fame coach for my final high school season,” said senior 800 specialist Josh Crawford, the anchor on the Wolverines’ decorated 4×800 relay team. “I’ll always appreciate the coaches who helped my team and I find our strides and who shaped us to be ready for this next step.

“I’m honored for what’s ahead and grateful for who got me here. I can’t wait to meet him and I couldn’t be more grateful that he is willing to step up and make our senior year memorable.”