Garnet Valley High School – located in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania – plays in 5A and is ranked #61 in the state of Pennsylvania according to MaxPreps. This past regular season, the Jaguars won 7 games and lost 3 games, earning a playoff spot. While the team lost in district semi’s, there is still plenty of reason for hope. The school is home to professional talents on both sides of the game, such as Brandon Hitner, a starting lineman at Villanova and an NFL talent, and Shane Eachus, who covers the analysis for Penn State. But the big star from the football program is former head coach Mike Ricci, who made Garnet Valley High the team that it is today. This past week, I had the honor of talking with the Garnet Valley Jaguars’ head football coach, Eric Van Wyk.
What interested you in becoming a coach? How did you get to Garnet Valley HS?
“It was really the impact that the coaches had on me. I was fortunate enough to comme through Garnet Valley, and Coach Ricci and many assistant coaches really molded me into being a better person. That played a big role into why I wanted to become a coach, and hopefully make a positive impact on other players as well. I went to La Salle University, and when I graduated I got a job at Garnet Valley teaching, as well as the freshman football coach here. I was in that role for ten years before taking over the varsity program. So really, Garnet Valley is all I know when it comes to football.”
Do you have a personal coaching philosophy?
“When it comes to my personal philosophy, it’s about relationships with players and developing young men. When players know they care about you, and you show that you truly care about them, that is when players will do anything for you. The ultimate goal as a coach, in my opinion, is to develop young men and football comes second nature. So really, trying to help them be good students, be a good person on the weekends, be a good son… if they can do those things, then usually they will be good football players as well.”
Is there something specific you try to teach your players, either football-related or not?
“The big thing we try to preach here at Garnet Valley is the bigger picture. We want our guys to be model citizens. We take a lot of pride in community service around Garnet Valley. This past year, our players did over 1,500 hours of community service, so we really want to see them be servant leaders and help others out, and and in turn they usually get a lot out of that.”
How do you get your players to be more of a family than just a team? What do you do for team building?
“Two big things we try to emphasize is a “squad program,” where each of the seniors will take juniors and sophomores under their wing. Those guys will then take the juniors and sophomores out to dinner some time, or grab them in the hall to connect with them. We are big on that “big brother” belief, where seniors trickle it down to juniors, juniors trickle it down to sophomores, and everybody tries to build on that family aspect. The other thing we try to emphasize is a mentor program with our coaching staff and alumni, where they take a couple seniors under their wing. [That’s] more about talking about leadership with them, and working through mistakes that they may make. Our big emphasis is seniors, because as we know, you only get a couple more months of life as a high schooler, than you have to make some serious decisions. We take a lot of pride in trying to have mentorships with our seniors, as we get them ready for when football ends and when school ends.”
What is your team’s strength? What is your team’s weakness?
“Our strength is our culture and the bonds created by the players. They play for each other and buy into the beliefs we have into our programs. For our weakness… it might sound silly, but we have such a great league in our area that it really challenges us to do different things. So I think our biggest weakness is just playing to the level of competition that we see every single week, day in and day out. Day in and day out, it’s a grind. You’re always trying to perform to a high level, which is a good thing, but it is something that you really have to take pride in.
How do you choose who your team’s captains are? What do you have to see from them?
“We do a sleepover camp for a couple days that allows for team bonding, but the very last night, all the players pick the team captains. The coaches have no say in the matter. We are a big belief that if it is three guys that are higher than everyone else, than we will have three captains. Sometimes it has been two, this year it was five. It’s my belief that the players know who. The players know who the leaders are. For me, when it comes to the best leaders, they are the ones that always put the team first, they are great students, and great guys on the weekends. If I am looking for leadership, [it’s about] what are they doing on the weekends and what are they doing in the classroom, and if they are holding themselves to their standards, then usually, then you pick them to be captain and they will be successful. This past year, we had five captains and one didn’t even start. He was a glue guy. He did everything right, and the players recognized that, and I think that’s the cool part.”
Two players Coach Van Wyk mentioned were TE/OLB Caden Olinger and OL/DL Brandon Scanlon. Olinger is a graduating senior and a captain this past season, who immediately bought into Van Wyk’s program and helped incredibly with making sure the underclassman felt important within the team. Scanlon will be a leader for the team next year as an incredibly hard worker on the squad.
67
0
17
20
