Eyes on the Prize
Jay Flanagan learned early in his high school boys’ basketball coaching career the difficulties of the job. Yet Flanagan’s story is one of tremendous perseverance and even greater success.
His beginning, from a record standpoint, was one that many wouldn’t have the ability or motivation to recover from.
Flanagan’s passion to teach the game along with his confidence in his own ability allowed him to turn the tables on a career that has put him among the all-time greats in South Jersey basketball coaching history.
When Rancocas Valley won its second game of the season with a 60-40 victory over Clearview in Cherokee’s Jimmy V. Showcase, it gave Flanagan his 500th career win. He became only the 13th boys’ basketball coach in South Jersey history to achieve this milestone.
Flanagan was more relieved that it was accomplished, simply because he has always been uncomfortable being the center of attention. Still, he understood the magnitude of his accomplishment, but like any successful coach, he was only looking forward to the opportunity to win that next game.
“I appreciate it and will reflect much more when my coaching days are over,” he said.
That might not be for a while for this coaching lifer who is now in his 39th season, including 34th as a head coach.
Flanagan’s achievement is even more impressive considering he began his head coaching career with a 24-94 mark during his first five years which consisted of three years as a head coach at Riverside and two at Moorestown Friends.
Those teams were undermanned, but as a young coach, it didn’t make taking the losing any easier.
“Those years were really hard, and you questioned yourself, is this really what I want to do,” he said. “I never thought about the [500 win] record. I thought I would never make it to 500.”
Yet he said he learned plenty of lessons in those five years, and he saw that if he could survive those tough times, then he could tackle any challenge.
One of those challenges was replacing Ken Faulkner as head coach at Burlington Township in 1996. No pressure there. Faulkner was the all-time leading winner among Burlington County coaches at the time and earned entrance in the South Jersey 500-win club with 521.
Yet Flanagan prospered at Burlington Township for 10 seasons, and the success has continued at Rancocas Valley, where he is in his 19th year as head coach. His 500th win increased his record to 317-174 at Rancocas Valley, where he helped guide the Red Devils to the Group 4 state championship in 2008 and a second South Jersey Group 4 title in 2011. That season his team advanced to the state final before falling to Paterson Eastside.
Flanagan, who was a basketball player at Delran, where he graduated in 1982, has learned so much through victory and defeat over the years. Early in his coaching career, one of his teams lost 111-31 and it left a profound impact on Flanagan.
“I will never forget the kids’ faces way back then,” he said. “I know a score like that could be avoided and I decided if we got close to 100 (points) unless it was in the flow of the game, we would never run it up like that.”
While so much has rightly been spotlighted from his basketball coaching, Flanagan always was a highly successful girls’ soccer coach, a sport he no longer coaches.
He went 101-51-5 with one South Jersey Group 1 championship, another sectional final appearance and four Burlington County Freedom Division titles at Burlington Township. Flanagan was 145-68-9 in 10 seasons at Rancocas Valley, ending in 2022 when the Red Devils were Olympic Conference American Division champions. It was his third division championship for the program that was also a sectional finalist one year and a South Jersey Coaches Tournament finalist the other.
In both instances at Burlington Township and Rancocas Valley he took over teams with losing records the previous year. It took him until his third season to have a winning record at Burlington Township, but from that point the Falcons were consistent winners.
Flanagan, who teaches English at Rancocas Valley, has boundless energy. He is a dedicated workout warrior and at 60, he says he has no other choice.
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have the energy it takes to coach today’s athletes,” he said.
He has plenty of energy, not to mention wisdom and perseverance to continue to prosper, traits that have allowed him to join an elite coaching fraternity in South Jersey.
Photo: Jay Flanagan with his Rancocas Valley team / Courtesy of Rancocas Valley
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Author: Marc Narducci
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