COACHING KINSHIP
Former Lehigh teammates Snyder, Stambaugh now rising stars among Colonial League coaches
One of the best games of the 2018 scholastic football season came at the beginning.
On Aug. 24, opening night, Notre Dame-Green Pond and Northwestern opened the season with fireworks on a late summer's night.
The Crusaders and Tigers combined for 853 yards of offense and 83 points. The game went overtime and was decided by an extra point.
Northwestern won a classic 42-41.
Anyone who remembered Josh Snyder and Phil Stambaugh from their playing days at Lehigh University wasn't surprised that their first-ever meeting as head coaches delivered an offensive spectacle.
Stambaugh was the quarterback and Snyder was a receiver on Lehigh's Patriot League championship teams in 1998 and 1999, a pair of squads that were a combined 22-3 and began a four-year run of league titles and a 45-5 record.
Snyder and Stambaugh became friends. In fact, Stambaugh's roommates were Snyder's older brother Brett and former Northern Lehigh standout Kody Fedorcha.
They later played on the same baseball and slo-pitch softball teams together and
stayed in touch over the past 20 years, especially as Brett Snyder has waged his courageous fight against ALS.
Their friendship has remained and their respect for one another has grown as each has carved his niche with their own Colonial League programs — Snyder at Northwestern and Stambaugh at Notre Dame.
Both are going for District 11 championships. Stambaugh’s Notre Dame team will play North Schuylkill for the Class 3A crown at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lehighton. Snyder’s Tigers will take on Saucon Valley in a 4A semifinal Saturday night in Hellertown.
Both teams feature potent offenses with outstanding quarterbacks — Cole DeFranco for Notre Dame, Deven Bollinger for Northwestern.
“We still have a good friendship and there are no hard feelings after they beat us in a tough game at the beginning of the year,” Stambaugh said. “We were disappointed at the time, but I’ve been impressed with them and the season they’ve had and what they’re doing in the playoffs. I’m proud of him and happy for him.
“And when I look back, our team may have needed that game as an eye-opener because our kids have responded through the tough schedule we had after that game.”
Notre Dame has won 10 straight games. Northwestern is on a four-game winning streak and coming off an impressive 50-13 quarterfinal-round win over Allentown Central Catholic.
“I’m not surprised by their success because I know who they’re being coached by,” Stambaugh said. “Josh was a great player at Lehigh and a great competitor.”
Snyder said the local guys at Lehigh in that special era were all pretty close and have remained friends.
“I go way back with Phil,” Snyder said. “In fact, I think I caught his school-record 63rd career touchdown pass at a home game in 1998 or 1999. Phil’s the ultimate competitor and the kind of guy you love to compete against. I’m the same way. I’m very competitive myself and it’s tough to be friends with the other coaches when you’re that competitive, but I will always have a great amount of respect for Phil and what he does year in and year out.
“It’s kind of neat that two local guys who played at Lehigh got to be high school head coaches and are doing what I think is a pretty good job. We didn’t play them the last two years and so this was the first time we went head-tohead as head coaches and we had a thrilling overtime game. Things came full circle for both of us this year.”
Both Snyder and Stambaugh spoke highly of the people who coached them at Lehigh. Kevin Higgins was the head coach in that era and current head coach Andy Coen was the offensive coordinator. Dave Cecchini, now the head coach at Valparaiso, was also influential as the receivers coach as was Pete Lembo, who succeeded Higgins as Lehigh’s head coach and is now an assistant at Rice.
“Our offense at Northwestern is a hybrid of what we did at Lehigh and what coach Bob Mitchell ran at Northwestern,” Snyder said. “It’s everything that I’ve learned. We were very multiple at Lehigh and I still like to be multiple and take what the defense gives us.”
Stambaugh, who coached at his alma mater Pius X in Roseto before it closed and he came to Notre Dame in 2015, said he learned a lot from his Lehigh days as well as what he learned from a few stints with NFL teams.
“I learned a lot about preparation and I learned there was no situation too big for us to compete in no matter if we were playing Delaware or Richmond or any team in the Ivy League or the Patriot League,” he said. “In terms of offensive football, I learned it’s not about one guy, it’s about the system and making the reads and setting the protection. It’s a lot about the little things and caring about what you’re doing.”
“It’s about attention to detail and being a stickler about the basics and the little things,” Snyder added. “If you do the little things the right way, it takes care of the big things. I think about those days a lot.”
Both teams have been fun to watch for their fans and difficult for opponents to stop.
No matter what happens this year, both men appear poised for outstanding coaching careers.
And both have been inspired by Brett Snyder’s determination to fight and never give up against the longest of odds and the most dreaded of diseases.
“Brett was such a great athlete and that passion and desire he had is still within him,” Stambaugh said. “I feel so bad he’s going through what he’s going through, but it shows his true character that he has fought for as long as he has. He is an inspiration to us all.”