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….