Jerry McConnell owes a lot to the Cardinals.
McConnell, who spent two stints as an assistant coach and another as a head coach of the Cardinal Dougherty High School football team, has learned a lot of what made him be a great football coach at 2nd and Godfrey.
But the best thing it gave him was his best friend, his wife Patty.
“At home, she’s the head coach, she has made everything possible,” McConnell said of his wife, a St. Martin and Little Flower grad. “She’s the reason we all do what we do. She has made so many sacrifices. She did everything at home. She’s the coach at home, and she’s the best coach.”
She might be the best Coach McConnell, but she certainly has some great ones living with her, including her husband, who was just named the sprint football coach at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sprint football is a sport at 10 colleges. It’s football, but players must maintain a weight of 178 pounds or less and a minimum of 5 percent body fat.
McConnell, who coached at Rowan, La Salle and Temple at the college level, and Neumann, Dougherty and his alma mater Holy Cross in New Jersey, has been the offensive coordinator at Penn under Bill Wagner for 12 seasons. Now, he loves the game, but at first, he really wasn’t interested.
“After I was done at Holy Cross, they asked me if I wanted to coach and I told them I wasn’t interested, thanks but no thanks,” said McConnell, who went 26-8 at Holy Cross and won two conference championships in three years. “They told me to come to a practice, and that was the start of it. I’ve been there ever since.
“Coaching at Penn is a great situation. It’s a great place with great people. I love the game. It’s a lot faster, the players are great athletes. We have a great thing going.”
McConnell, who helped the Quakers go 5-2 this year, has been successful everywhere he’s gone.
While at Dougherty, he didn’t have the best football players, but he did have great athletes, so years before it was the norm, the Cardinals ran the spread offense with three, four or five wide receivers. The innovative offense, which McConnell picked up from watching the Houston Gamblers of the USFL, helped an undermanned Dougherty team compete. It helped the Cardinals knock off heavily favored Archbishop Wood during a playoff game in 1999.
“That was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been a part of,” McConnell said. “It was a very special place. The kids appreciated everything you did for them, and I loved coaching there. I went back a few times because it was a special place.”
McConnell has been at a few different places, but some things were constant. Everywhere he went, he and his family put down roots and they developed relationships with the players and the community.
McConnell always put his family first, and when he was coaching at a college, the school put in a rule that families couldn’t come to practice. McConnell soon moved on and when he ended up at Dougherty, his children were mainstays at his practice.
And like his players, they must have learned, because three of McConnell’s four children are now working in sports.
His daughter Katie is the lacrosse coach at Lafayette. His son Tim, a former quarterback, is the special teams coach at Rice. And his son Frank, who was a bruising lineman, works with his dad coaching the offensive line with the Penn sprint football team.
His other daughter, Jeannie, might not work for a school, but she’s certainly a great coach. Her and her husband Derrick have six kids, which keeps the coach and his wife busy.
“She’s a great coach herself, just like my wife,” said McConnell, who lives in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. “I don’t get to go over too often during the season, but she just had a new baby, so my wife goes over a lot.
“Family is everything. The relationships are everything. When you play sports, 20 years from now, nobody remembers what your record was. They don’t talk about that type of thing, they talk about the memories. The fun you had. The relationships you have.”
McConnell and his wife are always on the run during the fall. He and his son Frank are typically busy on Friday during their game, which will be even busier now that he’s the head coach. after the game, he and his wife do their best to check out a Rice game. The drives are long, but well worth it.
They stay busy, but it’s a great kind of busy.
“All of my kids know how important athletics are,” McConnell said. “I can’t tell you how special it is to see them coach. And to coach with your son, it’s so special. He knows football, and you see what a great teacher he is. I’m very fortunate to do what I love, and I couldn’t do any of it without my family.”
And he couldn’t do it at a better place than Penn.
“Penn is a great place with amazing people,” McConnell said. “I didn’t think I would ever be coaching sprint football, but I love it. It’s great athletes. And every kid is there because they love football. They’re not getting scholarships, and they’re playing football because they love it.
“I can’t tell you the number of kids who come in as skilled guys and they end up playing on the line. Your running back is 175 pounds and your linemen are 175 pounds. Everybody is fast and everyone is a great athlete. It’s a great game, and I’m lucky to be doing it at a place like Penn.”
