William Tennent replacing Leach as football head coach

Colin Leach is out after three years as football head coach at William Tennent.

Leach confirmed Tuesday morning that he is no longer the coach.

Leach, 32, said Tennent principal Joseph Carracappa told him “It has nothing to do with you as a coach or your X and O ability. There is a nonnegotiable you need to be at William Tennent at 2:30 (each school day) to be the head football coach.”

Leach is a guidance counselor at Colonial Middle School in the Plymouth Whitemarsh School District and is unable to get to Tennent that early.

Carracappa said that since Leach cannot be there at 2:30, “we are going to look internally at filling the football coach position,” according to Leach.

The Panthers went 7-23 in Leach’s three seasons as coach, compiling a 2-13 record in the Suburban One League American Conference. Tennent was 1-9 (0-5 SOL) this fall. WT compiled a 48-149 record in football over the past 19 seasons and hasn’t qualified for the District One playoffs.

In a Facebook post addressed to the “William Tennent Administration and Community”, the Tennent senior football players wrote that Leach and his staff are being asked not to attend the Jan. 10 team banquet and that they really want him there.

“He’s the one who shared in our highs and lows, who pushed us and guided us,” the post said. “When the coach is excluded, it feels like we — as players — are being pushed aside as well. It sends the message that our relationships, our experiences, and our final moments as seniors aren’t important enough to protect.”

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Leach coached the offensive line and special teams at Tennent for two years (2019-20) when he was getting his master's in counseling at Gwynedd Mercy and was also the WT assistant athletic director. He was the tight ends coach at Council Rock South in 2021-22.

An All-Catholic center at Bishop McDevitt for Pat Manzi in 2009, Leach coached the offensive line at McDevitt from 2013-16 before becoming the Cheltenham offensive line coach in 2017-18.

When hired by Tennent in January 2023, Leach said “this is somewhere I plan on being for a very long time.”

Neither Carracappa nor athletic director John Creighton immediately responded to emails about the coaching decision.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: William Tennent football Colin Leach let go in PIAA Suburban One League