How does someone become a high school coach? Is it the love of the game or is it the enjoyment of teaching student-athletes outside of the classroom?  Coach Conlin has been coaching football at Abington Senior High School for 7 years ever since he was hired in 1999 as a teacher. Recently, I had a chance to interview Coach Conlin about his head coaching job. He had some interesting things to say about his coaching career so far and how he got there.

In 1999, Coach Conlin was offered and accepted a job as a teacher at Abington School District. He says, “It was one of the best decisions of my life”. Coach Conlin enjoys being able to influence kids in a positive way on the football field and in the classroom.  He describes his coaching style by detailing, “I like to push players and get the best out of them, some respond well to it and some don’t but all I ever care about is that kids do as well as possibly can”.  Obviously, Conlin enjoys his job which makes the players enjoy playing for him; otherwise, he would not still be the football coach after 7 years. 

In high school, Mr. Conlin played football and was a Defensive Tackle. In his experience, “Play[ing] Defensive Tackle in high school…was great. My best friends still to this day are my high school teammates”. Most people are inspired by athletes or coaches with exceptional talent and skill. For Coach Conlin, it was his baseball coach that inspired him to coach. He was also inspired by his older brothers who played at Penn State University.

 He became the Head Coach of the football team at the start of the 2016-17 season. But his best season was 2019-20 when the team went 8-3. They dominated their Conference 6-0. Also, in the State of Pennsylvania, their rank was  #30 in Division 6A. Some of the players on that team were Tight End/Middle Linebacker Danny Moynihan (who now is a Tight End for Carnegie Mellon University). Another Player was Wide Receiver/Defensive End Caleb Baker; he now plays for West Chester University. The final player was Wide Receiver/Cornerback Oreck Frazier, who currently plays for Harvard University. Clearly, Coach Conlin breeds his players for success.