Old Bridge’s Matt Donaghue – here patrolling the sidelines as Defensive Coordinator – has taken over as the Knights’ head coach. (Submitted photo)
The first thing Matt Donaghue talks about when asked about his promotion to head coach of the Old Bridge football program is how Anthony Lanzafama’s January announcement that was was stepping down came as a total surprise.
And why not?
Consider that Bob DeMarco was the head coach for 33 seasons, first at Madison Central, then at Old Bridge when the school was formed via merger with Cedar Ridge in the mid-1990s. Then, former DeMarco student Anthony Lanzafama – who played on the last Madison and first OB team – took over for the next 12 years.
That’s remarkable in this day and age. And now, another DeMarco student – and one who has coached under Lanzafama, too, for the past decade-plus – is the head coach.
Talk about consistency.
No wheel need be reinvented here. The option won’t be going away at Vince Lombardi Field, where the stadium is named after DeMarco, and where the press box will be christened in honor of Mr. Old Bridge, Ron Mazzola, who passed away suddenly this winter.
Donaghue loves coaching, so much so that he’ll remain the head baseball coach as well, a position he’s held since 2018, already with a GMC Tournament title (2019) to his program’s credit.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko’s interview with new Old Bridge football head coach Matt Donaghue:
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