SACKVILLE, N.B. — He brings so much passion, intensity and love of the game that it becomes contagious, and the guys automatically perform above their normal talent base.
That is the way Lucas Cormier explains how coach Scott O’Neal has been able to build a lasting legacy for football at tiny Tantramar Regional High School in Sackville.
Cormier, of course, became an outstanding star while playing four years with the championship Titans and has since moved on to earn all-star honours with the Mount Allison Mounties.
“For what it’s worth, Scott O’Neal might be the one guy who could give an AUS school a chance to beat the “big guys” from the other provinces. He has a special ability to get young athletes to work incredibly hard and, most importantly, to believe.”
And these are the words of veteran coach and football guru Sonny Wolfe who contributes to Football Canada.
During his travels, Wolfe visited every provincial championship high school across the country and concluded that it all comes down to coaching – the school with the most talented and committed leader will eventually win despite the size of the student body.
Tributes like this arrive on a daily basis, especially since he announced he would be “stepping back” from the coaching ranks to take a break. But he stressed he is definitely not retiring from the game he so passionately loves and would even consider returning to the Titans if the program should start to go sideways. Otherwise, he will be returning when his youngest son John reaches high school.
He says he has never thought about moving up to the university level to coach but if he does it would require an AUS school to make a huge financial commitment for the program so it could be rebuilt in his image.
While opposing coaches marvelled at how the Titans handled their teams with relative ease, they might use a page or two from his play book.
“During the season, I would devote as much as 60 hours a week, planning and working with the Titans and they learned to work and keep in shape year-around.”
As a financial advisor in Moncton, he was free to spend so much time away from the office and it contributed to the sport he has always played and dearly loves.
During the early part of his career, O’Neal volunteered with the Titans from time to time but became a full-time assistant in 2000 and assumed the head coaching role in 2008.
“In those early years we weren’t very good,” he recalls. “Some were suggesting we should either drop out or move to a lower category; we were being whipped by huge scores.”
But that was not his style. Several directional changes were initiated with a big one being cancellation of the local bantam program. At that time, there simply weren’t enough athletes to make two decent teams. Instead of each fielding 20 players, the Titans immediately moved to 40 with kids in Grade 9 becoming a Titan for the first time. And this proved a key shift since the boys were initiated into a winning system at an early age.
Then a connection was forged with the Mounties that O’Neal claims was a saviour.
“Our coaches learned a good deal from people like Kelly Jeffrey and we can never thank a man like Gaetan Richard enough for what he did to improve us overall.”
Meanwhile, O’Neal was scrambling to attend high-profile coaching clinics in order to upgrade his own credentials.
Beginning in 2015 his Titans ran off 23 consecutive victories before dropping a one-pointer to Riverview, and then proceeded to reel off 22 more, which meant they have brought home five consecutive provincial titles that includes 45 victories in 46 games.
Yet it has been anything but fun and games. Asked to name the highs and lows, O’Neal said they pretty much occurred in one year. After one team sustained a number of injuries, a grievance was laid against his staff and players ‘for illegal play.’
“This caused us a lot of grief, especially when we were called out in the media,” he recalls, “but the findings of the tribunal completely exonerated us and said we were simply playing football at a higher level than the others and injuries resulted from their lack of understanding of the game.”
O’Neal will continue coaching with Team NB and will encourage as many players from the Titan program as possible to join him, as the experience is valuable.
Meanwhile, primarily due to his hard work, many boys have developed into outstanding young men and he sees football as a great catalyst. But he admits the game is not for everybody – only those who are prepared to sacrifice and be committed will succeed.
Scott O’Neal was only the sixth head coach in the 47-year history of the team but he has been by far the most successful. Don MacIntyre was the original coach followed by Bruce McMillan, Chris Porter, Mark Bohan and David Burns.
The question of who will follow should be known early in the New Year when the staff meets with the school administration but you can be certain Scott O’Neal will not be far away.
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