Freehold Township High School’s new head football coach Cory Davies, middle, is flanked by quarterbacks Jack O’Brien, right, and Charles Sabbagh. Davies was the head coach at Howell High School for 21 years before resigning four years ago. He led Howell to its only NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV title. Cory Davies is back on the sidelines as a head football coach. Four years after stepping down as Howell High School’s head coach, Davies is back in the Freehold Regional High School District — this time at Freehold Township High School.
“I had the itch to get back,” said Davies, who was the head coach for 21 years at Howell before resigning at the end of the 2011 season.
Davies wasn’t exactly away from the game the last three years. He was the offensive coordinator at Lacey Township High School, where his son, Conor Davies, was quarterback.
With Conor Davies headed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York) and his other son, Ryan Davies, who graduated from Howell, playing football at Montclair State University, it was a perfect time for Cory Davies to get back into the game.
He can’t be blamed if he has a feeling of déjà vu.
He remarked about how similar the situation he is walking into at Freehold Township resembles that of Howell when he first took over.
“It’s almost identical,” he said.
He is heading a program that has had limited success in the past, as the last winning season for Freehold Township was in 2004, and the program has struggled to gain respectability.
Having coached against the Patriots during his years with the Rebels, Davies had an idea of what he was getting into.
“Some very good athletes have played there over the years,” he said.
Davies saw some film of Freehold Township last year and noted that the Patriots had talented athletes on the field.
While many may question whether a winning tradition can ever be established within the football program, Davies pointed to the overall success of the basketball, soccer, baseball and track and field programs as proof that the student body at Freehold Township has what it takes to win.
Since meeting the team in February and being with them for weight-training sessions and now the 7-on-7 tournament, Davies has gotten off to a good start.
“They’ve been very receptive,” he said. “They’re really good kids and fun to coach.” Davies got an idea early of how eager his players are to play when they came up to him in mid-April and asked how soon it was before their first 7-on-7 scrimmages. Davies thought about skipping the popular tournaments because his team would need to learn a new offense, and he wanted the time to teach it. But seeing how much the team wanted to play in the tournaments, he quickly changed his mind.
“Our first 7-on-7 [at Monmouth University] was a learning experience,” Davies said. “We were greatly improved in our second [at Kean University]. I was very, very pleased with our play.”
Davies believes the experience he gained in turning the Rebels around will help him at Freehold Township.
He said it all starts with changing the attitude.
Like with any non-winning program, the biggest hurdle to overcome is negativism. It manifests itself in games when things go awry at the first sign of adversity. Teams are waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Hopefully we can change that,” Davies said.
One of the things that turned things around for the Howell program was the spread offense. The pass-friendly offense helped make Howell one of the highest scoring teams in the Shore and helped lead the Rebels to their lone state championship.
Freehold Township’s offense has been just the opposite of Howell’s. The Patriots have had trouble stretching defenses and making big plays.
Davies figures to do something about that with his spread offense. In returning starting quarterback Jack O’Brien, he has the talented athlete who can add a running dimension to the passing game.
In becoming Freehold Township’s coach, Davies is taking the reins of the program that is Howell’s natural rival. He’s now on the other side of the rivalry after years of looking at the Patriots as a team the Rebels wanted to beat.
“It will be interesting,” he said.
In his 21 years at Howell, Davies had two memorable runs. In the mid-1990s behind Mike Cerminaro and Tom Martin, the Rebels made the state playoffs for just the second time and set the school records for wins in a season (seven) twice.
In the mid-2000s, Howell was back with the spread offense. In 2005, Howell won its first state playoff game. The next year, with Sean O’Reilly, Howell reached the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV championship game, falling to Hunterdon Central Regional High School in the finals.
In 2007, with Tim Lamirande at quarterback and a bevy of wide receivers, the Rebels won it all against West Windsor- Plainsboro High School South, 46-13, in the Central Jersey Group IV finals. That team established a single-season record for wins (11-1).
In 2009, Howell was 9-2 and won a division championship.