Carey's Corner
FROM THE MALVERN ARCHIVES
A LOOK BACK
January 17th, 2023
WIN NUMBER 1…..THE BEGINNING
As the saying goes you have to start somewhere. Gamp’s first season was ALL the way back in 1978. How long ago was that? Well, to give you an idea, gas prices were at $.65 a gallon. Fill your 16 gallon tank up for a whopping $10.40. Jimmy Carter was the 39th president and a 1st class stamp was $0.13. Yeah, that was a long, long time ago. Gamp came to Malvern after coaching at St. Joe Prep for 8 years. It was a good move for him as he lived out toward the Malvern way and his business was in Exton. As it turned out it was also a pretty good move for Malvern Prep. His debut was disappointing as the Friars dropped the opener to Lower Merion 29-21. This was back when Lower Merion was actually good. The 2nd game of the season was against local rival Archbishop Carroll. Malvern had played Carroll in four of the last five years and the record stood at a curious 1 win, 1 loss and 2 ties. The game started out the way the next 31 years would play out- ball control offense and a stifling defense. The 1st drive was 12 plays, 51 yards and ended with a 31 yard FG by future Wall of Famer Trooper Sullivan. The 2nd drive was more of the same with 9 plays and 72 yards covered. I know it might be shocking to some but all 9 plays were runs. QB and 2 time IA MVP (1978, 1979) Pat Van Horn scored from one yard out and Trooper added the extra point to make it Friars 10 Patriots 0. Not a good idea to let any MP team get up early on you.
Gamp also knew that Pat Van Horn had a pretty good arm and like any good coach would do, he took advantage. Van Horn found receiver Rich Jones for a 36 yard TD to go into halftime up 17-0. Rich Jones thought it would be a good idea to put on a show of his own. On the day Jones had 4 catches for 89 yards from the Malvern QB and made life miserable for the Carroll QB by catching 3 of his balls for 64 yards (that would be 3 interceptions in case you didn’t figure it out). This of course is a great segue into talking about something near and dear to all MP football teams- DEFENSE. The O’Brien brothers (Craig and Steve. You should have seen those two guys play!) and George Twardy harassed the Carroll QB into a 4-13 throwing day and dirtied up his uniform with 5 sacks. The Carroll O had no yards at half and only 140 yards total on the day. Malvern finished off their scoring with another 1 yard plunge from Pat Van Horn.
The Gamper Era had begun and after two games the Friar faithful had a taste of what was to come. Good offense, solid defense, quality special team. On this day the Friars ran 61 plays to Carroll’s 38 plays and racked up 333 total yards. Would not be the 1st time MP would go over 300 yards of offense in the Gamper era. Win number 1 in the books. 218 more MP wins to go.
On the year the Friars finished 8-2 and Gamp garnered his 1st IA title. More titles to come. Not a bad start.
MIDDLE WIN NUMBER 100.
Interesting that three of the four milestone wins were on Thanksgiving and that two were against Archbishop Carroll. Win number 100, like win 1, came against Carroll. The year 1992. The score? A nail biting, grind it out 7-0. Highlights and a description can be pretty quick here. Ryan Polley on a 1 yard run with Ryan Toland adding the extra point. That’s all she wrote, but it was enough. Polley, in his sophomore year was 4-13 on the day for 55 yards. Ryan is only one of two quarterbacks to start 3 years in a row and finished his career as one of the best. His career passing yards of 2994 sits 3rd behind two pretty good QBs- Drew Gunther at a whopping 4,903 yards and Alex Hornibrook’s very healthy 3,411 yards. Career TD passes are in the same order. Drew 54, Alex 39, Ryan 26. I have to take a bit of a timeout here and digress somewhat from the topic at hand. Call it a commercial break. As I write these articles I find things that catch my attention and make me go off on a bit of a side road.
Let me give you just a few more tidbits on one of Malvern’s best- Ryan Polley. Not only was he a multi-sport at Malvern. He was a multi-sport in college at Merrimack where he managed to play football, basketball AND lacrosse. Seriously folks, how many people would even try to pull that off? He served as a captain of the lacrosse team for 3 seasons (yes, elected captain as a sophomore) AND captain of the football team for 2 years as the squad’s starting QB. He put the scholar in scholar-athlete when he graduated from Merrimack Magna Cum Laude with a degree in business administration. I am not done yet. His coaching career in lacrosse has had multiple highlights. He was Coach of the Year at his alma mater Merrimack and Defensive Coordinator at Yale for 6 years. In his tenure at Yale he helped them attain their 1st tournament bid in 20 years. In 2012 he was tabbed as the inaugural head coach for the Boston University lacrosse program. Start a college program from scratch? Bit of a challenge? BU could have chosen from a long list. They chose Ryan and he has not disappointed. Went from 2-12 his 1st year to the school’s first ever regular season and tournament title in the very competitive Patriot League in 2022. AND he was named Patriot League Coach of the Year. I could go on for a few more paragraphs but will stop here. Ryan has done himself well and has made Malvern Prep very proud. He is a shining example of the multi-sport athlete at Malvern Prep.
Okay, commercial break is over. Back to middle win number 100. Just like it was the Rich Jones show in win number 1, John Dwyer followed suit in win number 100. John had 16 carries for 51 yards, recovered a fumble and added 3 sacks. On a day when the O couldn’t get it going the defense did what a MP defense does- 4 fumbles, 6 sacks and pitched a shutout. Win number 100 in the books. 119 more MP wins to go
MIDDLE WIN NUMBER 200
Win Number 200 came in 2006 at the expense of the other Friars, Monsignor Bonner. It also occurred on Thanksgiving. This was the 3rd TG battle of the Friars vs Friars. Malvern won the first two 36-12 and 21-0. These Malvern Friars kept the streak alive and as they say, "three times is the charm". MP chalked up an impressive 40-6 Turkey Bowl win. The 1st score was a common 2006 connection- Ryan Nassib (Syracuse, New York Giants) to the very fleet footed Joe Hoban for a 44 yard pass and catch. Joe Buckley (Navy) added one to make it 7-0. At this point the Friars had all the points they would need on the night. On the year Hoban caught 30 Nassib aerials for 830 yards and 10 TDS. That would only be 27.7 yards per catch. Let that last number sink in. You can put up those numbers when you are "fleet of foot". Joe was the chunkiest receiver in MP history to date (Careys Corner- Chunky Players, Nov., 2020)
Score number 2 was 6 plays, set up by two Nassib passes for 45 yards and finished off with a Nassib 2 yard run. TD number 3 was a Gamp football staple- a punch you in the face drive. MP goes 10 plays 65 yards with Nassib again from one yard away. Score MP Friars 19- The Other Friars 0. The next two scores were courtesy of top running back Chris Layne. 1 play, Chris goes 29 yards; the 2nd score a 6 yard burst. These were TDs 11 and 12 on the season for Chris who led the Friars with 925 yards and 7.3 yards a carry average. The last TD of the season was a run, of course. RB Matt Dolente gets 30 of the 35 and finishes from 3 yards out.
Oh yeah, the defense?? Created 5 turnovers and gave up only 1 first down when it mattered. And of course, defensive turnovers set up scores four and five. One pick, one fumble recovery. The player? Matt Bernier did the honors on both.
The 2006 team finished 8-2 like the 1978 team. However, they fell short of the IA title with a 23-19 loss at that crazy Penn Charter football field. However, this team set the stage for the 2007 9-1 IA title and the 2008 10-0 undefeated IA champs.
Win number 200 in the books. 19 more to go
WIN NUMBER 219…. THE END
Save the best until last? Isn’t that the way every legend should end his career? Of course, it is! And what better way than to play your former team SJP, on crisp November morning, before a packed house of 10,000+ at Villanova stadium. It is the way they would have written the movie script. I have to say it was one of the best, most entertaining football games I have ever had the pleasure to attend and I have seen quite a few over 50 years. The atmosphere in this stadium was electric. It was even more special for me that I got to watch my nephew, Matt Devlin, finish his football career at center and defensive end. And I will brag here a bit and say the center position is one of the toughest in football. You have to snap the ball backwards while blocking forward at the same time. The center has to perfectly execute this skill 40-50 times a game, knowing that any bad snap will be blamed on you even if it isn’t your fault. A thankless job handled by a select few. Very few kids grow up and say "Hey I want to be a center!". Thanks for the memories, Dev Dog.
When I say this team had a star studded line up that would be selling them short. There were absolutely no holes on offense or defense. There were loaded teams in Southeast Pennsylvania and then there was the 2008 Malvern team. In my opinion, multiple Malvern Prep Wall of Famers to come. For a storied career was there any better way to say good-bye and leave a lasting memory? Down in a 21-0 hole, 21-7 at half and battle back to a 34-27 win on a magical Billy Conners to Joe Price TD pass. I can still replay that last TD in my head. 10-0 Thanksgiving turkey never tasted so good.
For more information and coverage of this game check out Careys Corner- Review of the 2008 Undefeated Football Friars (September 2021) and Happy Thanksgiving (June 2020).
There you have it. The beginning, the middles and the unforgettable end of 219 Malvern wins. So many accomplishments along the way. All the while coaching hundreds and hundreds of boys to be good players and more importantly, even better men. I think if you would ask Gamp what he was most proud of he would not say wins, titles or personal accolades, he would talk about the players and their accomplishments not only at Malvern but what they did later in life. For Gamp it was always about them.
Thank you Gamp.
More to come....
