Former Pitman Coach Thomas Excited about Taking over RCSJ-Gloucester Flag Football Program

by Marc Narducci | Oct 2, 2026

Chris Thomas was offered a challenge he simply couldn’t pass up. Thomas, the former head football coach at his alma mater Pitman for 11 seasons, was named last week as the first head coach of the women’s flag football team at Rowan College of South Jersey/Gloucester.

The program will begin this spring, and Thomas can’t wait to get started in this new venture.

“Football takes a lot of commitment and dedication and something like this will be quite a commitment, and there is the excitement of building a program from scratch with a sport that is taking off,” Thomas said in a phone interview. “It is pretty cool to be part of something that will be historic and who wouldn’t want to be part of this opportunity?”

Thomas sure knows about building a program.

Before his third season coaching at Pitman in 2017, the school decided to have a reset. Due to declining numbers, Pitman announced that it was suspending the varsity football program that season. The Panthers did play a JV schedule that year and returned to varsity action the next season in 2018.

Pitman played a limited varsity schedule and went 1-3 in 2018 but by 2019, the team went 6-3. In 2022, Pitman was 5-4 overall and won the West Jersey Football League Royal Division with a 4-0 mark.

Two years later in 2024, Pitman went 8-2 and again won the Royal Division with a 5-1 mark.

Thomas’ final year at Pitman was last season when the Panthers went 4-6.

The year before he took over at Pitman, the Panthers were 1-9 in 2014 and hadn’t had a winning season since going 7-3 in 2002.

Amidst all of the rebuilding, Thomas compiled a 42-46 record at Pitman with the two division titles, a remarkable run with all the obstacles the program faced.

Now this new program isn’t expected to lack participants.

Flag Football in New Jersey and really nationwide, has become among the fastest growing women’s sports. In New Jersey the popularity kept growing as schools fielded flag football on the club level. This past May, the NJSIAA announced it would make flag football an official sport.

This spring will be the first season that the change in status will take place for New Jersey high schools.

Thomas realizes how popular the sport has become in South Jersey and understands that the area provides a vast recruiting pool.

“We know the kind of athletes there are in South Jersey playing flag football,” he said.

After resigning from Pitman as head coach at the end of last season, Thomas decided he wanted to stay in the game in some capacity.

He is currently an assistant coach at Haddonfield, the defending South Jersey Group 2 champion. Thomas wanted to continue to increase his knowledge of the game and wanted to work under Haddonfield head coach Frank DeLano, who is among the best in South Jersey.

“It’s been a great experience at Haddonfield,” he said.

In fact, Thomas plans to continue to coach there, since it will be in the fall and his team at RCSJ-Gloucester competes in the spring.

While it seems like a quick turnaround to be hired in September and playing the first season this spring, Thomas said the school actually announced last spring that it would be fielding a women’s flag football team. He added that since then, RCSJ-Gloucester has put the word out about the team and has received a favorable response.

“This sport is really taking off,” he said. “I am so excited to be part of this.”

New Rowan College of South Jersey/Gloucester Flag Football coach Chris Thomas (right) with executive director of athletics Brian Rowan / Photo courtesy of Gus Ostrum

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Author: Marc Narducci

Former Pitman Coach Thomas Excited about Taking over RCSJ-Gloucester Flag Football Program

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