By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Harry Flaherty wasn’t thinking about coaching when he came to Princeton University, but since graduating he has found himself more and more involved in what is something of a family tradition.
He didn’t want to be pigeon-holed into coaching, but he also wasn’t hiding from a calling that he felt and that had been followed by his father, the former Red Bank Catholic coach who now runs New Jersey’s division of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and his uncles, fellow Princeton graduates Judd and Jason Garrett.
“Deep down it’s something I’ve always been interested in,” Flaherty said. “I didn’t go to college thinking I’d be a coach. I wanted to be the best player I could be and get a degree.”
Flaherty met both of those goals. He was named the Dr. Harry Roemer McPhee Award winner after his senior year at Princeton for his durability and fortitude and went on to earn stints with three different NFL teams. After his final cut, he was an assistant at Lawrenceville School for a year before moving on to law school, where he became a graduate assistant for the University of Tennessee.
“A semester in, I decided I wanted to be involved in coaching,” Flaherty said. “I wanted to keep both doors open and see which one I was more passionate about. This offseason once we were done with bowl season, I was thinking about the next step, was I going to stay with coaching or law? Then the Lawrenceville job opened up, and I always had a lot of respect and appreciation for Lawrenceville. It was an opportunity too good to pass up.”
In March, he was named the new head coach at Lawrenceville, and he is one week away from opening his first head coaching job at a place that he visited even while at Princeton.
“When I was a student-athlete at Princeton, I got to know John Simar, the athletic director at the time,” Flaherty said. “He ran the FCA at Lawrenceville. A couple teammates and I would come over and help with their group. That’s how I became familiar with it.
“The year after I graduated, when I was pursuing professional football and got cut by the Saints, I coached the 2011 season at Lawrenceville and worked in the weight room. I got a lot of exposure to the Lawrenceville community.”
He will be even more entrenched now. Flaherty will teach history and live on campus.
“The great thing about Lawrenceville as a boarding school environment is you’re involved in the students’ lives in a lot of different ways,” Flaherty said. “Teaching history, coaching football, working in admissions some, as housemaster you’re involved in the residential aspect. I’m excited about all aspects of being here.”
Flaherty will get some of his first taste of Lawrenceville in his return with his exposure to his football team.
“I’m definitely excited about what we have in guys coming back from last year and some newcomers,” Flaherty said. “It’s early. It’s hard to evaluate. You have to see them on a day in and day out basis. Athletically we have some ability. We need to build depth and need younger guys to develop to the point where they can be ready if somebody goes down.”
If any of that assessment sounds familiar, it should. It’s just what Princeton University head coach Bob Surace was saying when he took over the Tigers in Flaherty’s senior year.
“My senior year was Surace’s first year as head coach,” Flaherty recalled. “We had a lot of talent, but early on we faced some injuries. That’s where the depth problems showed themselves.”
Flaherty was finishing up at Tennessee this spring and taking the bar exam, but he was also keeping tabs on his future post. He takes over for Dan O’Dea, the former Hun School assistant coach who came back to coach Lawrenceville and now is an assistant at Dartmouth.
“A couple weeks after I got hired, I came up and we had a team meeting,” Flaherty said. “I was around for a couple workouts at the end of the school year. We had a mini-camp the first week of July. That’s where I got to spend the most time with the guys so far.”
Flaherty is looking forward to running the program. He looks forward to getting Lawrenceville a Mid-Atlantic Prep League title.
“The MAPL is a great league,” he said. “There are great coaches at every school and it’s only getting more competitive every year. Watching film from last year, I am impressed with the talent of Lawrenceville. But overall I’m impressed with the talent in the league. You look at our league and our non-league and there’s no game you circle as a sure-fire win for us. It’s a short season. We have to bring it every week.”
Flaherty will be leaning on his vast experiences as he takes over at Lawrenceville. He will be pulling lessons from every stop that he has made as a player and coach.
“In general, I’m very thankful for all the experiences I’ve had — playing at Princeton, in the NFL briefly, coaching at Tennessee in the SEC,” Flaherty said. “All those prepared me for this. It would be a trap to say it would be an easy transition. There are a lot of good coaches. It’s a challenge to run a program. There are a million things you never thought about that go into just running one practice. That was part of the appeal.”
Flaherty hasn’t backed away from any challenges. He finished up his law degree and took the bar.
“I wanted a legal education to improve my critical thinking ability and speaking and writing,” he said. “I’m going to keep my options open. We’ll see what happens. Right now, I’m focused on this opportunity. It’s good to have in general.”
Flaherty’s position brings him back to the area where he spent four years as a player, and not far from where he grew up in Oceanport.
“After going to school here for four years and going down south for three years, it’s a little weird to be back,” Flaherty said. “It’s a beautiful area. I think I’ll be too involved in the job here to get too caught up in the area.
“If there’s opportunity to get over to Princeton to watch a game or see the coaching staff I’ll take it,” he added. “They’ve been very helpful and supportive.”
His experience at Princeton is a big part of preparing him for what is ahead in the MAPL and with his new team, including the later start to the season and shorter schedule.
“The MAPL is the Ivy League of high school football,” Flaherty said. “We start later. We don’t go to the state playoffs. There’s pros and cons to it. The cons are you’re itching to get going and it’s hard to watch other teams start practice when you’re just watching. It gives you some more time to get the guys in shape and plan out this season.”
Harry Flaherty is looking forward to getting back on the field to coach the Big Red and see the season take off. His experiences are flooding him with ideas of how to shape the program, and he is ready to follow the family tradition of leading a football team.
“It always comes down to effort and toughness,” Flaherty said. “When we get to preseason, we’ll have the opportunity to teach the guys and drill in their heads the standard it takes to win and the right way to practice. It’s going to come down learning how to practice the right way and play with a lot of effort and toughness.”
