Howell High School’s new head football coach, Luke Sinkhorn, watches his Rebels during a weight-training workout in the school’s weight room. The players can put on pads for the first time on Aug. 11, as the high school football season nears. The Howell High School football team is going on the defensive this fall. Luke Sinkhorn, who was appointed as the Rebels’ new head coach in June, comes from the defensive side of the ball and is looking to instill that mentality in the Howell football team.
“You have to embrace [defense],” said Sinkhorn, who starred at Manasquan High School before playing linebacker for College of the Holy Cross. “We’re going to emphasize physical toughness.”
To Sinkhorn, who believes in the traditional 4-3 defensive alignment, defense is all about pursuit, players flying to the ball and, of course, a mentality.
Over the last few years, while putting up eye-popping offensive numbers with the pass-friendly spread offense, the Rebels’ defense was porous. Sinkhorn plans on changing that, along with a different approach to the offense, which would go hand-in-hand with the team being more physical. While the passing game won’t be abandoned, “We’ll put a little more stress on the running game,” he said.
Toughness begins on the line of scrimmage and is needed on both sides of the ball. Running the football builds that toughness, as well as ball control.
Sinkhorn, who comes to Howell after seven years at New Egypt High School — the last five as the Warriors’ head coach — replaces Derek Reichenbecher, who resigned following last season after two years heading the program. Howell went 4-6 in 2013.
Sinkhorn has been impressed by the consistent turnout for summer practices and workouts (50-70 players each night), as well as the enthusiasm his Rebels have shown him.
“The effort has been great,” he said. “They’re pretty eager to get going and play football.
“They’ve been absorbing everything,” the coach added.
Sinkhorn credited his seniors for the turnout and making the transition to a new coach smooth.
“We have a good, solid core of seniors,” he said. “Their energy and leadership have been phenomenal.”
The new coach is in the process of evaluating what he has learned and will continue to learn on Aug. 11, when teams can start practicing in pads. Sinkhorn wanted the position at Howell for several reasons, the first being location. He wanted to coach at a school that would put him closer to his home in Spring Lake Heights, where he lives with his wife and three young children. As a Shore Conference alumnus, he wanted to return to the Shore because of his familiarity with it. He also noted that the Howell football program “has done some good things.”
That includes winning the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV title in 2007. As recently as 2010, the Rebels were in the state playoffs.
After leading a Group I school at New Egypt, Sinkhorn, who will be teaching social studies at Howell, knows the step up to a Group V program is a big one. He is looking forward to it. “I always like a challenge,” he said. “I’m looking forward to running a bigger program.”
His goal is to make Howell a winning program again.
At Manasquan, Sinkhorn played under the legendary Vic Kubu. Winning was a given there, and it wasn’t until Sinkhorn left Manasquan that he appreciated what the Big Blue had, he noted.
“We had a very special thing at Manasquan,” he said,
From Kubu, the Rebels’ new head coach said he learned how to build a program. That will be the first step for Sinkhorn at Howell, laying that foundation. Sinkhorn brings 13 years of experience to Howell. After graduating from Holy Cross, he was an assistant coach for three years at Point Pleasant Beach High School before becoming an assistant at Manasquan for three more years. He spent seven years at New Egypt, the last five as the head coach. He took the Warriors to the state playoffs for the first time in program history for two straight years and to New Egypt’s only state playoff victory. During his best season at New Egypt, the Warriors went 8-3 in 2010.
Sinkhorn said that it wasn’t until he graduated from Holy Cross that he began to think about coaching. Once he got into it as an assistant, he soon discovered that he “loved it.”