Championship Wing T Clinic
Set For Jan. 4th At Bloomfield

The Wing T offense, which remains popular today in a variety of forms, will be highlighted for coaches to be able to learn more about with ‘The Championship Wing T Clinic: A Philosophy of Offense,’ set for Saturday, Jan. 4, at Bloomfield High School.

‘The 3 Amigos’ Ed Sadloch, Gerry Gallagher and Don Smolyn – all legendary New Jersey football coaches – will once again spearhead the popular clinic, while also joined by other impressive Garden State coaches such as Mike Moschella of Pequannock and Mark Costentino, a Bloomfield native and the retired coach at Shore Regional.

“The clinic offers coaches new to the Wing T great insights on how the offense should be run and gives coaches the opportunity to listen to active and retired coaches who have had great success running the Delaware Wing T,” said Sadloch, who boosted the success at a number of North Jersey schools, including as the longtime head man at Cedar Grove. “Plus, we have expanded to having two (winter) clinics.

“On Jan. 11 we will also be at Schalick High School.”

The Jan. 4th clinic at Bloomfield will begin with registration from 8:15 to 9 a.m.

For further information, contact any one of the 3 Amigos via email: Sadloch at esadloch@yahoo.com, Gallagher at coachgg1225@aol.com or Smolyn at dsmolyn@lvhs.org

When the single wing offense which was perfected by Lawrenceville coach Ken Keuffel and the T-formation that legendary figures in the sport such as Clary Anderson of Montclair utilized so well combined through the inspiration of coach David M. Nelson of the University of Delaware, a new offense known as the Wing T was ready to take off in the mid-1960s and Nelson’s successor with the Blue Hens, one Tubby Raymond, was just the man to promote what at the time was a revolutionary approach to utilizing motion and misdirection to evolve a successful offense.

Fast forward more than a half century later and the Wing T is still alive and well, and a few of the masters of the popular high school offense will be looking to give back to the coaches of today with the upcoming early 2025 clinic on Jan. 4th at Bloomfield High School.

In a day and age where the spread offense is ultra-popular along with variations of the multiple attack, the Wing T still has its prime place in high school football as various programs such as Ridgewood and West Essex, which uses variations of the offense mixed in with various wrinkles, continue to succeed with an offense that legendary coaches such as Frank Bottone at New Providence, Doug Wilkins at Mountain Lakes, Bob Taylor at Johnson and Lou Rettino at Union rode to many a banner season with their respective teams.

Retired coaches Sadloch of Cedar Grove, Bayley-Ellard, Bloomfield, St. Peter’s Prep and Smolyn of Lenape Valley are joined by longtime high school and college coach Gerry Gallagher, who is currently on his son’s staff at Morris Knolls, in continuing to provide their expertise during the Jan. 4th clinic.

The Delaware Belly Series, which Tubby Raymond perfected, the Jet Sweep Break, the Wing T trapping game, running back technique and Offensive Line play will all be discussed during the full day of different sessions.

“Now that we are retired, we felt it was a chance to give back to the game,” said Sadloch, who won 203 games and directed his teams to five playoff championships during a superb 25-year head coaching career at Cedar Grove through 2015, and then served as an assistant at St. Peter’s Prep through the 2020 season. “Bloomfield coach Mike Carter offered us Bloomfield High School for the clinic a couple of years ago and we are very grateful to him and his staff and the administration and Booster Club for their assistance.

“We have all spoken at clinics both locally and nationally about the offense and we have been bouncing ideas off of each other for years.

“It was a ‘no-brainer’ for us to continue to help keep this clinic going strong for as many coaches out there as we can assist in the process of learning as much as they can about such a great, time-honored offense.”

Smolyn, who before he retired from coaching had been the winningest active coach in New Jersey with 348 wins in 45 seasons at Lenape Valley where his Patriots also captured seven sectional playoff titles.

Gallagher, the former head coach at William Paterson University and a former head man at Montville High School, had previously been on Brian Bowers staff at Delbarton before joining his son Bryan this season at Knolls.

“The three of us are all very good friends,” said Sadloch. “We all worked the original University of Delaware Camp along with John Senesky of Belleville in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“If you are a young coach and want to learn about the Wing T the clinics at Bloomfield and Schalick are the places to be!

“If you don’t run the Wing T but you play people who do then you might get a better understanding of what the offense is all about, and there will be a question-and-answer period at the end which should also be very helpful.”

The genesis of the Wing T seems to always come back to the late, longtime Delaware coach (1966-2001) who built on the concepts of the offense to the point where scholastic and college coaches around the country found at least components of the attack that they could implement in their own game plans.

“The Wing T is a system of offense, an order of football,’ that’s what Tubby Raymond used to preach,” said Sadloch. “It’s an offense that revolves around angles, misdirection and plays that complement each other. It is considered a run first, pass second offense because it is a 4-back attack, but that assertion is not necessarily true.

“I spent five years working with the spread offense at St. Peter’s Prep and it’s my opinion that the Wing T is easier to install and easier to teach.

“You don’t need Division I talent to make it go, although that’s always nice to have.”

And, Jan. 4 and Jan. 11 are simply continuations of a passion in the sport for senior citizens Sadloch, Smolyn and Gallagher as they enjoy imparting their own vast knowledge of their favorite offense.

“The plan continues to be to hold clinics every year,” said Sadloch. “The response from coaches who attend has been tremendous!”