The 37-year-old former Wood-Ridge and St. Mary assistant takes over a program that hasn't reached the playoffs since 2021.
Former Wood-Ridge and St. Mary assistant Michael Negron was approved as the new Wallington High School football coach at by the district’s Board of Education on Jan. 12.
The 37-year-old was a record-setting quarterback at Bishop Ahr (now St. Thomas Aquinas) before a year of college football at St. Anselm. He graduated from Rowan in 2013 with a degree in history and law and justice studies.
Negron will start working at the high school on March 1, and has a meeting planned with the Panthers' assistant coaches scheduled for Jan. 13.
“Wallington has a great community feel, it’s a great Group 1 program with a lot of tradition, it’s everything you want in a program,” Negron said. “I coached against them twice last year and like to think of myself as pretty observant; the talent is there but we have some things to work on. I wouldn’t call it a rebuild, that can have negative connotations, but a rebrand.”
The Panthers last made the playoffs in 2021. They finished 3-7 last season, losing two games by less than a touchdown.
“One of the first things I will tell the team is they just have to be the best version of themselves,” Negron said. “The only opponent right now that we have is in the mirror. We have a great strength and conditioning program, and when summer comes around, we will hit the ground running.”
Negron was thinking about a career in police work when his old athletic director at Bishop Ahr suggested he try coaching football. He spent some years working with at his alma mater, then went to work at Colts Neck and Red Bank Catholic.
“You come out of college and you think you know football and then you get with these guys, I mean, they coached [Colts Pro Bowl lineman] Quentin Nelson,” Negron laughed. “You get hit with reality. I didn’t know anything. I learned a lot.”
From RBC, he spent a year at Weehawken, then was the offensive coordinator for the last year of football at Immaculate Conception (Montclair) before that school dropped the program. From Immaculate, he worked two years at St. Mary before joining his friend Andrew Carbone at Wood-Ridge last season.
At both St. Mary and Wood-Ridge, Negron was responsible for working with the quarterbacks and offenses.
“I think one of my biggest selling points is the last three years working with Brad Higgins at St. Mary and Chris Rios at Wood-Ridge, and I know Chris had an amazing year,” Negron said.
He said he’s hoping to call plays at Wallington, but isn’t committed to a specific scheme or approach. He’s just starting to learn the Panthers' personnel and plans on tailoring the offense to fit the talent on hand.
“I worked for some guys who are legit,” Negron said. “I think one of my biggest strengths is I am coming in with a plan, I was a good player, I think I offer being efficiently organized and laying out a plan for practice of how long things will take to learn and execute.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Michael Negron hired as Wallington NJ football coach
Category: General Sports
