Kevin “Kip” Finley might live in Sussex County, but North Arlington has always remained home. So when the North Arlington head football coach job became available again this winter, the chance to come back was one Finley couldn’t pass up on.
Finley, a 2001 North Arlington High School graduate, was formally named as the school’s new coach in late-January. To him, it was an opportunity he couldn’t possibly pass up on.
“It’s always been a goal to become a head coach and living out where I live now, it’s always been a dream to go back and coach in North Arlington,” said Finley.”Like I’ve told people before, it’s nothing better than being able to wear the uniform and then put on a coach’s polo and coach on the sideline of where you graduate high school. The old sideline where we used to run up and down and sweat, now I can give it all back to the town and to the program as well.
“I couldn’t turn this down. I came back more eager than ever to prove that I can be a head coach at my alma mater. I feel like I went through the proper channels and I worked really hard to get to where I am. And I’ve had some great mentors that showed me how to become a head coach.”
At North Arlington, Finley played football, basketball and baseball before going to Centenary where he played baseball for two years.
Finley’s coaching career started with North Arlington junior football before his first high school position at St. Mary’s of Rutherford. Finley had two different stints as an assistant at North Arlington, sandwiched around a stint at Morris Catholic. Most recently, Finley was the special teams coordinator at Sparta.
Finley, whose background is more on the offensive side, cites current Sparta head coach Frank Marchese as well current Mendham head coach John Hack as two of his biggest influences.
Another key figure in Finley’s coaching career is former North Arlington head coach Paul Savage. Finley has brought back his longtime friend to serve as the Vikings defensive coordinator.
“I want to play fast and beat you to the line of scrimmage and get set up before the defense can get a call,” Finley said. “That could very well change depending on the manpower we have on the team. But that’s my end all philosophy is being able to just go no huddle, play fast, and keep the defense on their heels. “
While summer workouts, let alone the season opener at Hawthrone in late-August are still months away, Finley has set out to change the culture of the program, starting with apologizing to his group of current juniors, who will be playing for their third head coach in four years.
After that, Finley said he assembled a veteran coaching staff to help with that change and has seen increased participation in the winter strength and conditioning program.
“I definitely feel like they’re buying in just their attitude and the way they’re talking to each other and the way they’re reaching out to me,” Finley said. “Just in the weight room, you can see their attitude like, okay, this has to be the year, this has to be the year.’
“We have something to prove here. There’s no reason we can’t win football games, but at the same time, you guys have to put the work in. I think getting them to buy into that has been so far the best thing we’ve done.”
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)