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It isn’t often the Westfield High School football team needs to fill a head coaching vacancy. But with Jim DeSarno being promoted to athletic director after 18 years at the football helm, the 127-year-old program needed to make a change.
It’s only fitting the 13th head coach in the storied program’s history would not only be one of DeSarno’s longtime assistants, but also a Blue Devils alum.
Matt Andzel, who played three years of varsity at Westfield for longtime coach Ed Tranchina, before graduating in 2002 and going on to play at the College of New Jersey, has been the Blue Devils defensive line coach for the past 11 seasons. He was approved as the new head man at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
He takes over a program that has not only had just a dozen head coaches before him, but one that has played since 1897 that has a long, storied history of success, with five state championships, 12 undefeated seasons, and a culture in which Andzel is quite immersed.
“Growing up in the town and hearing about Coach Gary Kehler, he was just this legend and tis revered icon in the town.” Andzel said. “Coach Tranchina used to talk about him all the time, and I loved coach Tranchina, as well. Heard about the history of the program and how they won all these state championships and played in front of these crazy crowds, and it created this aura about the program that people admired.
“On that end, it’s still sinking in with me. I knew this was a big job, but I must have had over 100 text messages from people in the last couple days. If people know about it that much and care about it that much, it’s really special.”
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After playing at TCNJ, Andzel moved on to Kean University, the first two years as a graduated assistant, and then continued on for four more season before moving back to his alma mater in 2013. He also spent 10 years working as a sports performance trainer, before he began teaching health and physical education at Westfield in 2019.
DeSarno, who held the helm since 2006, is happy his successor has such deep Blue Devils roots.
“I’m excited for Matt and excited we were able to stay in-house for our next coach,” DeSarno said. “He brings a great energy to the program and the kids are going to enjoy playing for him.”
Of course, Andzel doesn’t have a lot of time for reflection. His hiring came relatively late, as DeSarno’s promoting to AD didn’t happen until about a month ago, and with Westfield heading to Phillipsburg to open its 2024 schedule in a couple of short months, there’s a lot the new head coach needs to prepare for. He will retain almost all of last year’s coaching staff, as well as bringing in some new offensive minds, including former Blue Devils star quarterback Hank Shapiro to work with the signal callers and the offense.
“Biggest challenge for me will be learning offensive stuff,” Andzel said. “But I have a lot of really good offensive coaches that will help. So, it gives me confidence. But I was born and raised on defense, and we’re going to have that same identity. I’m very excited to do this and bring my philosophy and mentality not just to the D-line, but take that approach to the whole team. We’re going to reward hard plays and teamwork.”
Staff writer Simeon Pincus has been covering NJ sports since 1997. He can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter/X @SimeonPincus