UPDATED: Adams puts family first in his decision to step away as Woodstown’s head football coach after 14 seasons, process of finding his successor will be ‘methodical’

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – After spending more than half his life coaching other families’ kids, 18 of those years at his current school and 14 as its head coach, and a whole life ahead of him with his own, John Adams figured it was time.

Thursday afternoon, at the end of an emotional week, he quietly stepped down as Woodstown’s head football coach. He did it genuinely for family reasons.

He informed his coaching staff of his decision earlier in the week and told athletics director Joe Ursino the next day. He chose to tell the players during their weight room session Thursday, a day when the Wolverines’ basketball team had a home game and the other winter sports involving his football players didn’t have a competition.

“I basically said it came down to one major thing,” Adams told Riverview Sports News Friday morning in his first public comments on the decision. “I always would sacrifice things for the program but I always said to myself if my kids ever started having to sacrifice things for me to coach then I’d know I would need to step away.

“My son was starting to get into sports. He’s young, but it was one of those things my wife said to him do you want to play soccer or do you want to go to daddy’s game, because there was a conflict of time. His games would have been Friday nights for his age group and he said he wanted to go to daddy’s game, which I appreciated but at the same time I said a young kid shouldn’t have to be picking something I’m doing. That weighed heavy on me most of the season.”

Another element that made the timing right was the maturity level of the veteran underclassmen to handle such a transition.

Adams, 41, steps away about a season’s worth of wins short of 100 for his career, although he’s never been one to keep up with the numbers. His most recent teams have been a favorite in South Jersey Group I football only to meet some hard-luck finishes before reaching their ultimate goal.

After coming up short in the most heartbreaking of ways each of the previous two years, the Wolverines finally won the SJ Group I title this season and then fell to Glassboro on a last-minute gadget play in the Group I state semifinals.

The former Temple walk-on took the head coaching position in 2010 he admittedly wasn’t ready for but grew into the post and over the next 14 years won five division titles and made 12 playoff appearances. At least three of the seniors on this year’s team will be in the next wave of Wolverines signing to play college football next week – linebacker Jack Knorr (Kutztown), running back James Hill (Kutztown) and quarterback Max Webb (Misericordia).

“I would love to know what people could say negatively about the 14-year career he’s had as our head coach,” said Ursino, who came to Woodstown the same year as Adams. “I’m biased. John and I are friends and also as a former head coach I just look at him and look back on my career and kind of wish I could have had as much of an impact that I’ve seen John have. He was just as much a life figure, a life coach, as he was a football coach.

“I sent him a text message yesterday that it was a bittersweet day. The sweet part is we’re lucky to still have him in our building, still lucky to have him as a leader and someone who can lead our students to be productive citizens when they leave our high school. But it’s bitter because the feeling when you have a coach who’s had so much success and as much of an impact step away, it’s just a really big challenge because I want to make sure that position is filled with the respect of John in mind.”

Adams will remain at the school as a teacher, class advisor and union rep and hopes to stay involved with the strength and conditioning program if that’s the desire of the new head coach. He is hoping the school will stay in-house for his successor and the current staff, which has been together for the length of Adams’ tenure, has several viable candidates within it.

He didn’t rule out a return to coaching in the future, but for now he’s at peace with being a dad to his kids and fan to the Wolverines.

“I did pick the brains of some coaches who previously stepped away in other sports,” he said. “One thing I noticed was some of them said (they) probably stayed a year or two too long and I didn’t want that to be me. That’s why yesterday was so emotional.

“I still have a passion for it. I love the kids to death. But I didn’t ever want to get to a season where I was like gosh, can this get over, like I’m just done.”

Ursino said the process of finding Adams’ successor will not be a quick one, but a methodical one that will provide “multiple opportunities for candidates to demonstrate their ability and knowledge” so the administrative team can make an “informed decision” to identify the coach best to further their mission of “promising every Wolverine a future.”

“This is certainly not going to be the kind of shoot-from-the-hip and let’s get this in place (decision),” he said.

Adams is the third of Salem County’s five head football coaches to vacate since the end of the season, probably the largest shakeup on the county gridiron scene in a long time.

Penns Grove coach John Emel stepped down to take the West Deptford job. Salem’s Danny Mendoza stepped down a couple weeks ago to explore other opportunities. That leaves Schalick’s Mike Wilson and Pennsville’s Mike Healy as the last head coaches standing in Salem County.

Healy now becomes the longest-tenured head football coach in Salem County, beating Wilson by two years.

Reaction internally to Adams’ decision was swift and emotional. Players and former players offered the coach their thanks and messages of gratitude and appreciation on social media all night.

In reply to a post by one of his underclassmen, Adams wrote, “I am going to miss coaching you but I know the leadership is strong with you and the rest of the soon to be seniors. … I am excited to become a fan now.”

The John Adams File