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Volunteers
Spotlight
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Which
current Lacey Pop Warner coach and Board Member has been
involvedwith Lacey Pop Warner since 1972?

It
may surprise a lot of you to know that it’s our Head Football Coach
Keith Perrone. Keith started out in Lacey Pop Warner at eight
years old in 1972 and continued to play until his final Midget
season in 1978 when he fourteen. Back then they were called the
Lacey Pop Warner Eagles and wore Maroon and Gold and practiced
behind the Municipal Building on Lacey Road. He instantly fell in
love with the game that he has either played or coached for the last
34 years.
His
introduction to coaching began innocently enough. In 1980, after a
year away from Pop Warner, Keith was riding his bike past practice
one day and decided to stop and watch. His former coach, Pete
Luciano, called over to Perrone on the sideline and yelled,
"Go over and help the Mighty Mites, they have no coaches."
Since that day in 1980, Keith has been coaching ever since.
Incredibly,
the following year, at the age 16, Keith Perrone was named the
Lacey Mighty Mite Head Coach. Success seemed to come easy Perrone
stated in an interview, "I think for the first three or four
years we didn't lose a game, I was hooked." Perrone pushes
off the credit of his early success into being lucky to have very
good players. "It probably had nothing to do with me, we had
great players." Two of his memorable players from that era
were, Giants and Colts NFL player Keith Elias and our very own Vice
President and Jr. Peewee Coach Keith Boos.
Over
the years, Perrone has coached Mighty Mites for thirteen years,
Junior Peewees for six years, Peewees for 2 years and Midgets for 7
years. Within this time Keith Perrone has had 12 undefeated teams
(including Mighty Mites) and 9 championship teams (Mitey Mites do
not have championships).
His
favorite aspect of coaching football is that he gets the chance to
watch the boys learn and grow into adults. He states, "If I
had to pick two
favorite moments coaching, I would say it was 1985 and 2001.”
“In 1985 I was with the Midgets and had Keith Boos and Keith
Elias on my team.” That year in the championship game,
Lacey overcame a 12-0 half-time deficit against Tinton Falls to win
13-12. In 2001 while coaching the Junior Peewees, Keith’s team
went 5-4 for the season then easily beat three teams that had
crushed them in the regular season to win a championship."
Keith
said he coaches because he enjoys teaching and feels very fortunate
to know
a lot of his former players as adults. He looks forward to being at
the
field each day and interacting with the players and other coaches.
He loves
building self-esteem in his players and teaching them that football
is a
thinking sport. Finally Perrone points out that, "Most of all
I coach
because there is nothing more thrilling to me to see a player’s face
when he just accomplished something he never thought he could and he
is proud of himself." As everyone at Clune Park can
tell you, Keith Perrone loves giving back to Pop Warner.
"I started playing football when I was 8, there's
nothing I would rather do that give back to the organization that
made me love football so much."
From the players both past, present and future, the
parents, fellow coaches and friends and the whole Lacey Pop Warner
Organization, we say Thank You Coach Perrone….
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