No one was more involved with Holy Name football during its 43 seasons than Jack Causa, who played quarterback and was both an assistant and head coach for the Blue Jays.
He was on the sidelines for 39 of those seasons, plus four more at Berks Catholic after Holy Name and Central Catholic were merged for the 2011-12 school year.
He retired following last season, which also coincided with the graduation of his son, Patrick, the Saints quarterback.
Reading Eagle scholastic football writer Mike Drago sat down with Causa, 61, this week to reminisce about some of the Hall of Famer’s favorite memories over five-plus decades of Berks football.
I haven’t seen you at any games this season. Why is that?
From Aug. 1 to Dec. 1 I haven’t gone away for a weekend since I’m 22. And now I’m turning the chapter. I get to follow Patrick (who’s playing baseball at Mount St. Mary’s). I have two grandchildren and another coming; they come over to visit every Wednesday. I’m not willing to give that up anymore.
So, you’re not missing football?
I wouldn’t say that. I’m a little melancholy. I’ve literally been coaching my entire adult life; I don’t know anything else.
You played quarterback at Holy Name from 1969-71. What’s you most vivid memory of those early years?
We got to play all of our games at Municipal Stadium. For me every weekend was like going to the Super Bowl. Every time you walked out of the tunnel it was a big deal.
How is playing quarterback now different than it was 45 years ago?
Back then the coaches didn’t call the plays. The quarterback called the plays. That was pretty neat. Now, more than ever (the players) are so much more technically advanced with the film and with Hudl (a web-based video library of game film). We did very little study of anything. We were told who we were gonna play and how they lined up and that was about it. We didn’t know if on third-and-6 they had a propensity to rush or drop back. It was just playing.
Is it a better game now than when you first started coaching in 1976?
(Long pause). I’d say probably yes. It’s a thinking man’s game (now). They want to get bigger, faster, stronger, and they are, because they’re putting in the time (in the offseason). We weren’t asked to put in the time. And we didn’t ask our kids to put in the time for the first 10, 15 years that I coached. Everybody to a man (now) has a mental job that he’s thinking on every play and he believes that his job is going to make the play successful. We didn’t think about that then. And we didn’t ask our players to think about that then.
What else has changed?
You know what hasn’t changed? The hearts of the kids. They still want to win. They’ll still give you whatever they’ve got. They’ll do whatever it takes to make it successful.
What’s one of the changes you don’t like?
You know what I miss? Standing in the end zone (while scouting on a Saturday afternoon), writing down every play. There was a coaching camaraderie there. You saw coaches from all the other teams there, teams you were going to play this week, teams you were going to see down the road.
As a quarterback would you have liked to play in this era with a more sophisticated passing game?
As much of a passer as I was, I made my bones from running. I got the nickname “Keeper” because the (public address) announcer would say, “There goes Causa on a keeper.” I would love to throw in this atmosphere, but I don’t know that I’d like to give up as much running as I did, I’ve gotta tell ya.
Let me get you in trouble here: Who was the best player ever at Holy Name?
(Long pause). Fred Caruso (2007-10). He could do it all. He was our biggest hitter. He could catch anything anywhere near him. I’ve never coached a better runner. (He was a) kick returner. Punt returner. Punter. It was like looking in the mirror. Jamie Albrecht (1993-95) comes in at a close second. He could run around you or he could run over you, he made no bones about it. Pete Shumaker (1983-85) was a good one. Chuck Brice (1978-80) was a good one. I’ve said before that that (2010) backfield (Jeremy Figura, Danny Christian, Brian Eliff and Caruso) was the best backfield I’ve ever coached.
What’s your favorite memory from a Holy Name game?
The Central (Catholic) game (in 2002), with Jared Heins (catching the game-winning TD) when we won it in overtime (21-20). It knocked them out of the playoffs and we (shared) the division (title with them).
Berks Catholic is so much bigger and has the ability to be more dominant than Holy Name ever was. Was that mindset difficult to adjust to?
One of the reasons I liked being part of Holy Name was I liked being the underdog. I loved being the Single-A school and kicking your butt. And we did a lot of it.
