A wrap on Frapp: Great career of Florence football coach Joe Frappolli comes to an end

Every rookie sportswriter has a fear of making a big mistake.

Some are afraid to misspell a name.

Others might credit a goal to a wrong kid or have a score wrong.

Mine? I picked against the Flashes.

I ended up being right. I still remember, as I left the office to cover Burlington Township against Florence in my first year as a part time sports writer. I saw Township the week before and they looked good, so I picked them. Then my sports editor assigned me to cover the game.

The game was at Florence.

“They’re going to kill you,” said football writer Jeff Offord. “They don’t like people who pick against the Flashes. They’re going to love you!”

I don’t know if Florence fans ended up loving me, but I sure loved them.

When I was covering football at the BCT, for some reason, even though I was low man on the totem pole, I ended up covering the best team. With the best coach.

Joe Frappolli guided the Flashes for 50 years. He was the perfect guy to represent the hard-nosed football team, which included some of the rowdiest fans you’d ever want to meet, and they lined the field at “The Pit” and let every player on the other team know exactly what they thought of them.

That was the fans.

“Frap” was the exact opposite.

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A football coach, athletic director and teacher, Frappolli didn’t teach his kids to be tough. I think that comes from the water in Florence. He did teach them many other things though.

He made his players responsible.

He made them take accountability.

He made sure they knew all of their assignments, and that’s tough considering the small school had many players handling multiple roles.

He was a great coach and won 337 games, second most in South Jersey history. He won six sectional championships and won his division 24 times.

Frappolli, who grew up and played for Florence, was perfect for the Flashes. It’s crazy when you consider this perfect gentleman represented the wildest fans in Burlington County.

But they were a lot alike.

Sorry to out you, Florence fans, but while you might be the loudest, you’re not the meanest. Florence fans are wild and crazy, and they’d hate for this to get out, but they’re actually nice, good people.

And that sums up who Frappolli is.

Nobody wanted to win more than Frap. But take it from a guy who watched at least 20 of Frap's football games as his team won 43 straight games, including three straight section championships, Frappolli didn’t want to win for himself.

He wanted to win for his town, certainly. Nobody loved Florence more than Frappolli.

But his main reason for wanting to win was for his players.

The Group 1 school had a lot of talented players, and many of them went on to do great things both in football and outside of it.

He wasn’t coaching professionals, and he knew the bulk of the glory his boys were going to get were from the time they first put on a Florence High School uniform until they took it off the final time.

One of his players, Bryan Maus, a tough fullback and linebacker, once told me that playing football for Florence was like the movie “Varsity Blues” because of how serious everyone took football. But immediately after saying it, he was quick to point out “except our coach. Coach Frappolli is way better than the guy they had.”

Maus was right.

Frappolli was way better than “Coach Kilmer” because he wasn’t about wins. He loved to win, but for his players.

Florence was the best football team in Burlington County during those days in the early 2000s, and I was responsible for doing a preview on the top game. Many weeks, that involved a call with Frappolli.

Those conversations might last an hour or more. And for about 15 of those minutes, we’d talk about the upcoming game. They were always biggies.

The rest of the time, Frappolli would talk about family. He would tell me about his kids. He would talk about what his wife did that day. He would ask about my family. Here’s a guy who had just spent more than 12 hours at his school, teaching, coaching and doing whatever other responsibilities a coach and athletic director would have, and now he’s staying on the phone with a reporter for fun. I was a lucky one that got to bother him a lot, but he treated everyone like this.

It’s rare you hear people talk about what kind of offensive genius he is. Although Florence’s defense was feared, you hardly ever heard people talk about the coaching that made the defense so fierce. And nobody took special teams more seriously than Frappolli’s Flashes.

But people don’t talk about that.

It’s not because people aren’t aware of it. You don’t stick around 50 years at a place that loves football as much as Florence without knowing your stuff. Trust me, when you make a mistake, they let you know!

But when it comes to Frappolli, there are just so many other things to talk about.

He would only brag about the accomplishments of others, especially when it was someone he loved. You’ll find no prouder husband, parent, grandparent, teacher or coach anywhere.

And nobody loved their school like Frappolli.

He doesn't represent the people of Florence, he embodies it.

For years I would fight to cover the Flashes. Whether it was watching them knock off Keyport to win their first Central Jersey Group 1 title in 2003 or a regular season game against New Egypt, I wanted to go because I knew I’d see good football.

And I knew I’d see a friend.

Frappolli retired after winning his final game on Thanksgiving, knocking off Riverside in the annual tussle. Florence football will never be the same.

Actually it might.

Frappolli has been around so long and has rubbed off on so many of his charges, the next coach will likely be someone who has sat under his learning tree. A great hire would be his son, who served as an assistant.

But if the next coach is someone who sat under Frappolli’s learning tree, chances are they’ll preach Florence, Faith and Football.

That has been his motto since at least 2001, when I first met him.

Had I known the life and legacy of Frappolli back in 2002, when I picked the Falcons to fly past the Flashes, even though I was right, I probably would have picked differently.

I’m fairly certain that was the last time I picked against the Flashes.

You don’t make up room in Beat the Experts by picking against great coaches, and from what I’ve seen, Frappolli is the best.

Both on and off the field.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: What made Florence football coach Joe Frappolli special? A lot