Woodbury High School's Anthony Reagan is the South Jersey Football Coach of the Year

Hard work, togetherness, grit, sacrifice and family.

Those were the pillars Anthony Reagan wanted to build the Woodbury High School football program on when he took the head coaching job in 2018.

“The Woodbury Way,” he calls it.

Reagan has seen the Thundering Herd develop those foundational pieces time and again during his five-year tenure, but maybe never more so than a 7-on-7 tournament his team played in during the summer.

It was at Wilkes University. Reagan knew he had a talented group, but the heart of the program’s first sectional championship team since 2009, running back Teddy Lockhart, had graduated, leaving questions on what type of squad this year’s group would be.

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Woodbury made the finals of the event, but the championship game was going poorly.

“I saw them work through this adversity,” Reagan recalled. “We didn’t win it, but we clawed all the way back and we dropped a touchdown (that would’ve won) the tournament. I saw they were resilient in that moment. … That gave me the insight it could be a special team.”

The Thundering Herd were. They went 12-2 and became the first public school in New Jersey history to win a state championship, rallying from a seven-point halftime deficit to beat Mountain Lakes 31-7 in the Group 1 final at Rutgers.

Reagan is the Courier-Post South Jersey Football Coach of the Year.

“You hear all the time, word hard, do your best and this will happen,” Reagan said. “That’s not always promised that way. For God to see that be the case with this team this season, I was very thankful they were able to see their fruits of their labor show for that.”

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The labor was rigorous.

Woodbury emerged as a Group 1 power in 2021 on its surprise run to the South Jersey 1 title, but it wasn’t going to be able to sneak up on anyone this fall.

“Last year was more like a Cinderella season,” Reagan said. “We weren’t on the scene, but we knew we had a good program. After winning sectionals last year, we had higher expectations, we had a schedule change, tougher opponents, so going into the offseason, we had to be tougher as well.”

They were put to the test immediately as the school’s gym, weight room and locker room were out of order, forcing the team to train on the blacktop in 100-degree heat.

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“It was basically CrossFit training where it was constant movement, constant lifting, constant running, conditioning, lifting, pushups, sit-ups, dips, it was old school boot-camp training and we didn’t relent,” Reagan said.

It would’ve been easy to throw in the towel, but the kids believed in “The Woodbury Way,” and those training sessions became the backbone of this group.

“We had setbacks against Haddonfield and Salem in the regular season, and every time they responded well,” Reagan said.

Their rivalry with Salem showed that.

The Thundering Herd gave up a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead in the loss to the Rams on Oct. 22. They were beaten 34-8 in the regional final at Rutgers the year before. Salem had become the measuring stick, and Woodbury would never reach its expectations if it couldn’t get by its Group 1 rival.

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The two teams met again in the state semis on Nov. 19. The Thundering Herd gave up one touchdown and 215 yards from scrimmage as they controlled the contest start to finish en route to a 22-7 triumph.

“Everyone had to rely on each other, believe in each other because we knew we were getting everybody’s best (this season),” Reagan said. “That’s what allowed us to get over the hump of Salem and be a state champion.”

“Reflecting on the journey, you talk about the journey so much,” Reagan explained later. “I feel like that’s what I was holding onto the most. Look where we started at and look where we finished and everything in between. The toughness our team displayed, the family we became. It was definitely something I love, and to watch teammates become family members, that’s something that’s special.”

Josh Friedman has produced award-winning South Jersey sports coverage for the Courier Post, The Daily Journal and the Burlington County Times for more than a decade. If you have or know of an interesting story to tell, reach out on Twitter at @JFriedman57 or via email at jfriedman2@gannettnj.com. You can also contact him at 856-486-2431. Help support local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Woodbury's Anthony Reagan is SJ High School Football Coach of the Year