Oyster Bay High School athletes crowded into a classroom at the high school to meet the new head coach for the Baymen Football Program, Mr. Joe Knoll on Wednesday, Feb. 2.
Coach Knoll comes to Oyster Bay with an impressive track record. He began his coaching career as an Assistant Coach in Sewanhaka where he was part of an organization that won five straight championships. The highlight of his coaching experience at Sewanhaka was having the opportunity to coach a future Heisman Trophy winner. A young quarterback by the name of Vinnie Testaverde who went on to play in the NFL and was QB for the New York Jets.
Coach Knoll must have made quite an impact on those championship teams while an assistant coach, because he was soon elevated to be the Head Coach for Sewanhaka, where he led the team for five years. He took his team to the playoffs and led the Rutgers Cup Team. Under his watch, Coach Knoll coached two Martone Award recipients and a Jim Thorpe Award winner.
Coach Knoll left Sewanhaka to accept a head coaching job at Lynbrook where he served for nineteen years. He led his team to several Big 4 Championships, three County Championships, one Long Island Championship, and ran off a twenty one game winning streak. His players earned two Kessenich awards, two Unsung Hero awards, one NFF Top Scholar distinction, and a News 12 Top Scholar recognition.
Coach Knoll moved on to Locust Valley, where for five years he built on his already illustrious career. Coach Knoll ran the third winningest program in Conference 4 history. Four of the five years that he was Head Coach, Locust Valley went to the playoffs. Three years in a row they were Big 4 Champions. The last one going to the finals. His Locust Valley players also racked up an impressive number of accolades. Ten players were named All-County, All-Conference, and one of his players was a starter in the Boomer Esiason Game which pitted the best players on Long Island against the best players from New York City.
One would think that a coach would need some downtime after all the effort necessary to carry a winning team through the regular season. Coach Knoll found that in Italy, the Football season runs in the summer allowing him to coach a second season of football in a year. Joe Knoll coached the Jurassic Bowl in 2004 and was also the head coach for the Parma Panthers in 2004. The Parma Panthers were Silver Bowl Champions thanks to a game won by Coach Knoll in Florence, Italy. Italy Coach Knoll ran two NFL tryouts in Europe and in 2009 and 2010 he coached at the Milan Seamen Summer Training Camps.
Coach Knoll is now in Oyster Bay and is in the process of putting his staff together. He told his potential players who are playing other sports to concentrate on those sports until the season is over. For players not playing spring sports, Coach Knoll suggested they be in the weight room three days a week. Coach Knoll introduced the athletes to District Athletic Trainer, Daniel DeSimone, who will be guiding the players through weight training. He suggested going to watch spring football practice at C.W. Post or Stony Brook.
There will be an official team meeting right after the spring sports’ season ends. At that time Coach Knoll will schedule spring workouts for the offence and defense. There will also be summer workouts and a passing league.
The slogan for this introductory meeting was “Pride is Alive.” It was difficult not to be filled with pride hearing Coach Knoll inspire his young charges. He told the players that the Baymen are going to be a team to be reckoned with and regardless of the scoreboard every opponent is going to leave the field knowing that they have been a hard fought battle.
Coach Knoll will be a presence at the high school and sporting events, and encourages his players to stop him and say hello. “It’s good to start to get to know each other before the football season begins,” says the coach.
When asked, Oyster Bay East Norwich’s Director of Physical Education, Health and Athletics, Mr. Len Kies said, “Coach Knoll brings a tremendous amount of experience, success and an enthusiasm for coaching and teaching children. We are very fortunate to have someone like Coach Knoll heading up our football program.”
