By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
@tortreports on Instagram
Kare Waddington still remembers when her oldest daughter, Abigail, came home from her first high school cross country practice and shared what her coach had to say.
One of the most respected coaches in the region, Clearview Regional’s Tom Hengel laid down his ground rules to the freshman class, and Waddington was delighted to have the comfort of knowing her daughter would be in good hands during the four years of her scholastic career.
“I remember the first year of freshman cross country. Abigail came home and she was telling me all the things that coach was telling them about the rules of the team,” said Waddington, who is now in her first season as the girls track and field coach at Clearview Regional High. “My husband and I both looked at each other and thought, ‘alright, this sounds like a good coach. He’s old-school and expects them to be there every day. No excuses.’ It was really her first high school sports experience.”
Abigail became one of the top athletes on the team by the time her senior year came around, and now competes at the Division I level for Boston University.
But what truly made Hengel special is that everyone was treated equally, no matter how skilled you were. His expectations were always the same for every athlete who joined his program.
“One of his famous quotes is, ‘it takes no talent to give great effort,’” said Lauren Kilson, a 2007 Clearview graduate who competed under Hengel and has served as an assistant for the last 10 seasons. “It’s something that I’ve embodied as a coach now. It didn’t matter if you were the star on the team or maybe not the star, he was going to give you 100 percent, no matter what.”
Hengel, 72, and his wife Lisa tragically died in a car accident in January and were honored at the prestigious Woodbury Relays on April 18 with his immediate family present.
A 2018 inductee of the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame, Hengel coached more than 100 combined seasons between cross country, spring and winter track, basketball and baseball throughout his 40-year coaching career that started in 1981.
“Sometimes people cater to the stars and the top athletes, but it didn’t matter with him,” Kilson added. “As long as you showed up to be on his team, he was giving you 100 percent, pushing you to be the best version of yourself. I had the honor of having him as my coach, and he made me into the athlete I am. He was a phenomenal person; he was an overall genuine human being. He would give you that tough love — but you always knew he cared.”
