Red Devils putting rough two years behind them, ‘thinking big’ with new coach, mindset

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – When you’re coming off an 0-9 season and have a new head coach on the sidelines, the only way to go is up and everything is wide open. That was the message Damian Ware conveyed when he became the Red Devils’ head coach over the winter.

The Red Devils struggled the last two seasons, winning just two games and going winless for the first time in modern memory last year, but seem to have embraced the idea of building something from scratch.

“We’re starting from the ground up, honestly,” Ware said. “We’re starting from scratch. Half the team probably hadn’t played football since they were 8.”

That’s because the feeder program has been on the shelf the last couple years until it was revived this year.

It is a young team with 16 freshmen, 15 sophomores and only three seniors – quarterback Brayden Lattig, running back Terrell Thomas and receiver Nehemiah Armstead.

But because they’re young, they’re moldable. There’s going to be a whole lot of teaching going on.

“The challenge is getting kids to understand how hard you have to work to be successful,” said Ware, who had been as assistant to each of the previous three Penns Grove head coaches. “That’s the main thing we try to preach, it’s the work. When you put the work ethic into it your results are going to come from it. We’ve been trying to get these kids back and get them more structure, more organization. The last couple years they’ve been all over the place, not putting the work in, not putting the effort in; that’s the main thing we’re doing, teaching them how to work.

“It’s not so much what we’re doing, it’s how you do it. It’s the how in everything and the why in everything. You can tell a kid what to do until you’re blue in the face but if they don’t understand why and how to do it … it doesn’t matter. It’s more about teaching. I tell them all the time you’ve gotta be a sponge and you’ve gotta soak things in the long term memory. We’re trying to get them to be sponges, take in all the information, get them an understanding of how to play the game more than just yelling and screaming at them and telling them what to do.”

The players have accepted the new approach and have embraced the expectations of being better.

“It’s been good,” defensive back Savior Allah said. “Last year everybody was trying to be separate players, not team players. I feel like we are together this season. It’s going to be a much different year. It’s a new year, we’re going to leave all that (from last year) in the past. We’re worrying about what’s in front of us.”

“We’re thinking big this year,” added JaKai Ingram, a returning first-team Diamond Division lineman and linebacker.

Defense was the Red Devils’ strong suit the last two years and is expected to be again this year with the likes of Ingram and Terrell Thomas at linebacker, Omari Robinson at defense end and Jerry Wooten and Allah in the secondary.

The trouble was an offense that couldn’t get going. The Red Devils scored only five touchdowns in nine games last year and came within a minute of losing a game 2-0. Ware expects more success this year with Thomas and freshman Jaivon Thomas in the backfield and a solid set of receivers and line. Ware calls Jaivon Thomas a “future phenom.”

“I feel we’re going to put more points on the board,” Allah said.

The key, of course, is finding a quarterback to run it all. They have three vying for the spot – returning senior Lattig, first-time junior Damion Robinson and freshman Avery Batts. Luckily, the Red Devils don’t have a Week Zero game so they have a little more time to figure it out before the games start counting on the record.

“Right now we’re working to get the quarterbacks up to speed,” Ware said. “They’re getting better. They’ll be rotating until somebody locks it down and takes it.”

The Red Devils already have gotten a taste of victory, having beaten Wildwood 31-6 in their game scrimmage last week. The real success will come when they win a real game.

When that happens, Ware said, “it will feel like relief, like, finally, they did it.” The players are looking forward to it and believe it’ll come sooner rather than later. Allah said they might even break out a song and get Ware to bust some of his salsa moves.

“We’re really looking forward to the first game, get that first win out the way and then go from there,” Ingram said.

Penns Grove’s Thomas ready to do whatever it takes to have a big senior year and help the Red Devils on the road back

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – When Jason Avant spoke to the Penns Grove football team earlier in the week he talked about some of the sacrifices he had to take his game to the next level. The former Eagles receiver wasn’t specifically talking to Terrell Thomas, but he could have been.

Thomas was an absolute beast for the local youth league powerhouse coming up and the Red Devils were hoping that rep would translate once he got on the high school field last year. He, of course, was hoping that, too.

It hadn’t gone that way for various reasons but as the running back/linebacker approaches his senior year he’s made some sacrifices on and off the field to help him make the most of his football potential.

“I’m going into my senior year, I have to make something shake,” he said. “I can’t settle for anything less. I have to go my hardest. I have to play my hardest. I have to put in work. I have make some sacrifices.

“What stuck with me was when he said he didn’t come in to college football and start; he had to work to get into that position. That was a lot of fuel right there. I’ve got to be better, even if I wasn’t coming in as the starter or whatever. If I’m trying to get better and get where I want to go, I’ve got to be better.”

One of those sacrifices was giving up some hours from his job as a host at a local restaurant. Teens like having their own money to spend, so that was a big move. His supervisors understand and are working with him so everyone’s goals are satisfied. The restaurant keeps a valued employee and Thomas gets to continue his quest to play college football with the ultimate goal of helping his family. 

“I’ve been playing football since I was 6 or 7; I’ve got a lot of love for football,” he said. “I don’t know where I would be without football.”

The Red Devils are looking for Thomas to take them places as well. He is expected to have what head coach Damian Ware calls a “major impact” and as one of only four seniors in the program he needs to.

Thomas, they say, was The Man while he played for the Twins, but since those days life intervened to keep him off the football field until last year. The time away took its toll.

The Red Devils were looking for big things from him last year and he did have flashes, but conditioning issues kept him from being all that he could be.

He led the team in carries and rushing yards, but he had only 293 yards on 73 carries in an offense that struggled to score. He also had 21 tackles on defense.

He went for 94 yards and a 42-yard touchdown against Schalick and had 146 yards on 31 carries in his last two games. But in between had back-to-back games with eight for minus-4 and four for 0. 

“Last year his conditioning didn’t allow him to play at a high level for long periods of time; that’s just the hiatus of not playing for 3, 4 years,” Ware said. “Going from the eighth grade to varsity football no matter what age you are is a big difference if you don’t play for 2, 3 years and I think that was the major difference for him, getting his feet back underneath of him and getting his conditioning right.

“That’s really the crux of what we’re doing right now. We’re out practicing, we’re conditioning, we’re running, we’re doing drills, we’re in the weight room, and that’s all stuff he didn’t really, I guess, take seriously last year. Now he’s taking it more seriously, he’s starting to realize this is my last year, so it’s now or never.”

And to make it all happen it takes making sacrifices.

Former Eagles receiver Jason Avant visits Penns Grove workout, shares insights of qualities that got him on the field at Michigan, NFL and can help the Red Devils succeed

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – Damian Ware wasn’t sure exactly when or where the conversation with Jason Avant took place, but he’s almost certain it happened on, of all places, a salsa dance floor.

The two have known each other for several years in a friendship that’s carried from the basketball court to the salsa circuit. They talk whenever they’re in the same place and it was during one of those conversations Ware shared he was in the running to become Penns Grove’s next head football coach and if it happened he wanted his friend to come talk to his team. If the timing worked out, Avant told him, he’d be there.

The former Eagles receiver fulfilled that promise Tuesday, spending about an hour with the Red Devils as they worked out on the practice field.

This wasn’t one of those call the local NFL Alumni chapter and hope they can send a player to talk to your team kind of things. Ware has a genuine friendship with the 10-year veteran who played eight seasons for the Eagles and finished his career in Kansas City in 2015.

It goes back to their days as teammates in the very competitive Don Polk Basketball League in Camden. Avant, a three-sport athlete growing up in the southside of Chicago before going on to play at the University of Michigan, was the small forward who could take it to the hole and was, Ware said, “a monster on the glass,” Ware, a reserve on an FDU basketball team that nearly upset UConn in the 1998 NCAA Tournament, was the guard who could bury it when Avant kicked it back out.

“He’s a shooter,” Avant said. “He definitely can score, but for our team he was the shooter. I would drive and he was the kick guy and he would splash that thing.”

When Polk died unexpectedly in 2022 and the league disbanded, they reconnected on the Mid-Atlantic salsa dancing circuit.

“We’re both very good, actually,” Ware didn’t mind saying (and there are YouTube videos to prove it). “We just get out there and have some fun. It comes back to being athletic because you’ve gotta have footwork. If you don’t have footwork, you can’t salsa dance. If you don’t have footwork, you can’t play football. If don’t have footwork, you can’t play basketball. It all ties together.”

There was no dipping into the salsa on this morning. This day was all about football.

Avant spoke to the team for about 15 minutes, sharing the life lessons that got him out of the toughest part of his city and helped get him on the field and become a reliable player on the levels many of the Red Devils aspire to reach.

“You love the opportunity because you try your best to say something that can be impactful to the next generation of kids,” Avant said. “I do it as much as I can. It can become overwhelming with the requests so I kind of limit it to the people I kind of know. It’s a blessing to be able to share as much information as I can. Hopefully it takes root.

“I remember doing a camp when I played and giving a speech after the camp. I was at the Eagles’ facility not too long ago and I get a tap on my shoulder and it’s (first-round draft pick) Jihaad Campbell. I’m like, oooh, you were one of the kids at the camp. He said I want to thank you, man, because what you said at the camp really inspired me, and that was many years ago and now he’s at the Eagles.

“Those are the things that kind of make it realistic for you, and that’s happened to me on maybe 10-15 occasions with guys around the league, so it’s a blessing to be able to do these type things in whatever facet it is. It’s not about the NFL as much as it is we want these kids to be successful in their endeavors in life, whatever that is, and we know football can be an avenue for them to be successful.”

The players listened intently as Avant talked about how, as receiver with less-than-NFL receiver speed, he was willing to do all the things it took to become an exceptional player, get on the field at Michigan and kept him in the NFL. It was by having the desire, work ethic and a love of the game that drove him to do what it took, sometimes doing it well into the night with a high school coach who recognized his potential.

It didn’t go unnoticed. Legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler recognized that a sophomore receiver named Jason Avant was always open on the film he saw and never dropped a pass, so he asked head coach Lloyd Carr what the player was doing standing between the two coaches and not on the field.

“It wasn’t that I was doing spectacular things,” he said. “It’s just that I got to a point where when you looked at the tape I was always open, so the quarterback and Bo Schembechler and everybody else realized I’m going to make the coaches look dumb (by not playing).

“That’s what you need to do at your position,” he told the players. “Don’t worry about the ball. You can affect the game without the ball. Everyone wants to talk about what they want rather than putting the action and the work in. So you’ve got to think about this: What am I doing to be exceptional?”

The message of working hard to get better is what stuck with the players most, where one day they’ll be the guy tapping Avant on the shoulder the way Jihaad Campbell did in Eagles camp not so long ago.

“It was inspirational,” said freshman quarterback Avery Batts, who raised his hand to answer Avant’s question about the meaning of leadership. “It was helping me out, telling what to do so I can be a better person than I am. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to end up like him, work as hard as I can so I can be on top.”

After addressing the players, Avant spent some time with the Red Devils’ receivers, giving them pointers on one play in particular.

“I ain’t going to lie, it was pretty cool,” junior Isaac Wright said. “It was very cool. Just the way he moved off the line, I could tell that’s an NFL type structure. It’s something different than high school. Kids in high school don’t really move that swiftly, for real. He’s still got it. And he’s not even in cleats.”

Ware was hoping Avant’s visit would be a source of inspiration for his young first team that’s coming off an 0-9 season that relegated them to the WJFL Independence Division. Looks like it has.

“We’re young, we have a lot of guys who are inexperience,” Ware said. “We’re finding out who can play what positions, who has the skills to play at the varsity level. Coming off an 0-9 season everything is fair game.”

Top photo: Penns Grove football coach Damian Ware introduces his friend and former NFL receiver Jason Avant to the Red Devils Tuesday morning.