On The Spot

I’m sure Coach Neubeiser takes his job as a defensive coordinator seriously and our performance as a team that year never made him look any good at all. But he never gave up and was there everyday to do something with it.

The following year, in “The Big Payback” season, Coach Neubeiser and the Defense had a complete about face. After allowing 337 points in 1998, the team only allowed 151 in 1999; holding more than half the points it allowed the year before.

The teams that Northwest lost to in 1998 that they played in 1999 included B-CC, Poolesville, Walter Johnson, and Albert Einstein. The Jags went 4-0 against all those teams in 1999 with a combined score of 139-18.

The Jags quickly became one of the best defensive teams in the County.

Perhaps, Coach Neubeiser may have stamped the foreheads of teams in the county by letting them know that The Neubeiser defense is not one to be messed with by shutting out six of the ten teams in the regular season in 2000 including four straight that year. The Jags would again have another 4-game shutout streak in 2002).

Northwest recorded its first shutout in school history against Rockville in 1999. And that same year, in Northwest’s first-ever “Seniors’ night”, the Jags would outscore B-CC 33-0 in a memorable night for the Senior Class of 2000 at The Black Hole.

Nobody does it better than Coach Trivers when hyping up the team on Seniors Night, and Coach Neubeiser does a great job keeping the defense solid.

Senior’s Night is the final regular season game at home. During Neubeiser’s tenure as defensive coordinator for the Jags, the team went 5-0 and posted a remarkable combined score of 164-20. That included 4 straight shutouts until allowing 20 points against Wheaton in Seniors Night 2003.

He helped shutout an Ashwell-led Einstein team, a Changuris-led Seneca Valley team, and twice a Dean Swink-led Whitman team. There is no doubt that Coach Neubeiser’s relentless contribution to the defensive unit is something great.

I’m going to miss dropping by Northwest to hear his roar, his booming punts to punt returners in practice, the stories about him causing mayhem and havoc on the gridiron, his stories about his gigantic brothers (and his MLB veteran father and WWII veteran grandfather), the “P.E. office linebacker” practice jersey that hung in the P.E. office, and the sight of a bending bar in the squat rack.

I admit to make Coach Neubeiser seem like a year-round mean machine in this website, but he truly is not. He is a great man of humor and fun. He is a great friend as much as he is a coach. I was never a linebacker (that’s sooo impossible) in his circuit but I did step in his special teams unit, which he help coach with a passion too. And I swear, it has always been fun to share that same intensity and enthusiasm with him.

"I can cover Jerry Rice."

I met him as a freshman while we were still at Seneca Valley. This skinny, 5'4" 120 lbs kid talked a lot of smack. He loves competition. At times, he showed the sophomores on the team, "who the real starter should be."

ON THE SPOT

presents

Anwar Phillips

One-mAN WARrior

Vitals:

Grad. Class: 2001

High school career: Northwest High 2000, 1999, 1998 Seneca Valley High 1997

Birthdate: October 25, 1982 St. Petersburg, Fl

Hometown: Germantown, MD

College: Penn State University, State College, PA (Joe Paterno)

Nicknames: Pops, Ol' Man, The Jaguar

In 1998, as a sophomore, the mouth continued to roar. But it was backed up with an off-season filled with hard work and sacrifice. He was the starting receiver in the Jags' inaugural football squad where the team was criticized for having a coach with no head coaching experience. The team finished with a dismal 2-8 record.

In his junior year, he helped the Jags to a 9-1 regular season record and a spot in the playoffs. He helped turn the Jags from underdogs into the top cats of the county. He made the Washington Post All-League squad as a wide receiver. He was just getting started.

By his senior year, he has become the team's captain. This would be his third season in the varsity squad and coaches in the league knew who he was. Still, they couldn't contain him. He caught 39 passes for 827 yards and 12 touchdowns as the Jag's main offensive target. Defensively, he was as chaotic. He forced 2 fumbles, accounted for 40 tackles, and returned three interceptions for scores. On special teams, he ran kickoffs and punt returns for scores as well. "Pops was an all around player," says teammate Jon Green '02 "...he echoed leadership on and off the field and his work habits rubbed off on his teammates and up and coming players."

The team finished with a 9-1 regular season record. His mighty plays and spectacular catches were, unfortunately, not enough to lift Northwest HS to the semis in a disappointing 37-43 loss to Edmondson-Westside HS in the playoffs. He knelt down and cried as he watched the time run. A two-score lead was blown and no one looked more in disbelief than "Pops" himself. It was a bitter end to an illustrious high school football career in the silver and black.

His senior year wasn't as bad as it may see. In fact, he was living the high school football athlete dream. He was named to the All-Gazette squad as both a wide receiver and a defensive back. He made the Washington Post All-League squad for the second season in a row. He was a second-team small school All-State wide receiver. He was named to the All-County Coaches Association team as well. He topped it off with a spot in the Super-44 all-star game as one of the 44 best players in the state of Maryland joining fellow teammate Brian Shaw and coach Randy Trivers as representatives for Northwest High School. "Anwar has the athletic ability to play any position on the field and to also excel at any position." continues former teammate Jason Koenig '02, "Secondly, he has the confidence to do whatever is necessary to win."

Now, the 6'1" 180 lbs wide receiver is working his way atop the wide receiver spot for the legendary Coach Joe Paterno-led Penn State Nittany Lions. "He works hard to get where he's at," says former teammate George Hackey '00, "and I'm glad he's at Penn State doing it."

He is still wowing scouts and fellow teammates with dazzling catches and his animated mouth. As long as the man who believes he could cover Jerry Rice keeps up his work ethicthis one-man warrior is sure to make it to the top.

I had the privilege of knowing Anwar as a friend and teammate. He was definitely one of the hardest working players I know. He was sort of the Michael Irvin of the team; he talked a lot of hype but he knew how to back it up. He was, and still is, a great guy who made us laugh as well as let us know when its time to take care of business.

-Michael Cornejo

August 2002

"I play the game as if it is my last and go hard 'cause I work hard for anything want to get."

-Anwar Phillips

A collection of Mike Cornejo's experiences with the people in the Jaguars football family, past and present.

OCTOBER 2005

MIKE NEUBEISER, Jags Defensive Coordinator from 1998-2003

AUGUST 2002

ANWAR PHILLIPS, Jaguars superstar athlete. 1998-2000

"Come onnnnnn!!!" I've heard it in practice and I've heard it it games. You'd hear it in a roar/growl-type way. It meant Coach Neubeiser's unhappy about something. At his players, or a call by the referee. Regardless as to whom it was directed, you just experienced classic Neubeiser. You didn't have to hear it, just look at the signature fire in his eyes... you know he probably just said it.

Coach Neubeiser has to be one of the most interesting people in the Jags football community. He is definitely one-of-a-kind.

I remember meeting “Coach Neub” for the first time in early Spring of 1998. He, along with Coach Trivers, Coach Fields, Coach Wappaus, and Coach Tapley spoke to about 20 Jags football hopefuls and parents in Kingsview Middle School (where Northwest High had its temporary administrative office situated when the school was still in its finishing touches).

He was (actually he still is) very intimidating. He had his biceps squealing to get out of his arms and he had the eyes of a hungry predator.

I remember looking forward to seeing him during the summers. His game face and his hard to ignore ‘WF’ (for Wake Forest University) tattoo inked on his ankle made you almost believe he will be playing on the field with you.

He was not your ordinary coach that held a whistle, sported a belly, sweated bullets and watched you run sprints in those scorching summers. He ran with you, and I’ve seen him beat a number of the young guys too.

In the early beginnings, I had doubts with Coach Trivers, simply because he came from Wootton and I knew nothing but the fact that Wootton was not much of a team to fear. And as the ignorant player I was - I’d think anyone else associated with a team that struggles to win would pass on the struggle to others (well we all know I was dead wrong!).

But Coach Neubeiser was hard to pass off. He came from Gaithersburg and many of us MCPS football enthusiasts know that the Trojans are a consistent power in the 4A Division. Coach Neub brings a presence of strength. He looked like what a prototype football player should be: A Mack truck with a heartbeat. You felt fortunate to be in the same team he’s in.

Coach Neubeiser was a product of John Harvill at Gaithersburg High. He played for him and coached with him. Also, he was a starting linebacker and captain of a Division 1-A team in Wake Forest in the mid-90’s. Like Coach Trivers and Fields, he was under 30 as well during the early beginnings of Jags football. I believe their youth played a role in making us feel a sense of brotherhood with them.

We were, overall, a young team.

In 1998, Northwest fielded a varsity team without seniors. We were one horribly offensive team. But more horrible was our defense. Opposing teams were consistently putting up 30 or more points against us. As they say, defense wins games; we obviously didn’t have much of it then.

(above) Coach Neubeiser in the red and black of Quince Orchard High in 2004. The Cougars battled the Jags in a hard fought battle with the black and silver coming out on top.

VITALS:

Connections to NW Football: Defensive Coordinator, 1998-2003.

Currently: The defensive coordinator for Quince Orchard HS.

High School: Gaithersburg, Class of 1991. Played for John Harvill.

College: Wake Forest University, Class of 1995

Just some notable facts...

Earned the Beattie Feathers Award in 1994 as the most improved defensive player in WFU Demon Deacons football squad. Also was team captain his senior year.

Played in Maryland-Pennsylvania Senior All-Star Game

Admires Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame Linebacker Jack Lambert.

Twice has been invited to assist the Maryland High School Senior All-Star game.

People had to learn to respect the name Dick Butkus, Ronnie Lott, Jack Lambert, Dick Lane, Mike Singletary, Howie Long, and such. When you hear ‘Defensive Coordinator Mike Neubeiser’… you already knew the vitality of knowing which side he is on. His name was surely almost synonymous to defense. I found it hard to imagine Northwest defense without Coach Neubeiser.

I once envisioned a Northwest football team with Coach Trivers, Coach Fields, and Coach Neubeiser together years from now still in the black and silver of Northwest and coaching my kid (I don’t have one yet but someday in the future is what I’m saying). Share experiences of having played in the same system for the same guys. That would have been something!

I’ve thought about it, because a lot of us alums who have played under the trio of coaches never saw them apart. And I wasn’t alone in that vision. Coach Trivers, Fields, and Neubeiser were almost inseparable and to think the tremendous trio would be cut down to a duo was just unheard of. What was a Chicago Bulls team with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen without Horace Grant? A Dallas Cowboys team with Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin without Emmitt Smith? Heck, have we ever heard of “the two stooges?”

Coach Neubeiser not coaching the defense was like a new terminator movie with someone other than Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the lead cyborg. It’s just weird.

I’m not trying to take anything away from Jags defensive coordinator Coach Bucky Clipper, who after all, was the defensive mind that took the Jags to its first-ever State Championship, not to mention leading an under-sized, underdog defensive squad against a much huge Lackey High with an infamous running game in that memorable December 2004 night in Baltimore.

It’s just that no matter what happens, it is a mere fact that Coach Neubeiser played a very huge part of building the Northwest football team that everyone respects in the state. And I think it’s important that people do not forget that.

Notes: The 2005 Jaguars are actually being carried with the defense. The departure of the offensive fire power starting with All-Met Offensive Player of the Year Ike Whitaker and wide receivers Darren Brownlee, Salim Koroma, and Alphonzo Griffin among others in 2004 left some really huge holes to fill. The Jags are still young and are learning. But defensively, the Jags have kept games close despite a lack of offensive spark. This Coach Clipper-led defense may very well be one of the most underrated units in all of Maryland.

Michael Cornejo - October 2005

(the majority of the write-up was created in July 2004. Thus, some of the wording may be inaccurate or outdated)

(above) Coach Neubeiser in his last game with Northwest in November 2003.

On Coach Neubeiser...

"His everyday intensity always rubbed off on me and the defense. That made us want to play better."

-Michael Theberge, Northwest Class of 2000

The 1999 "Michael Neubeiser Defensive Player of the Year" award winner played linebacker in 1998 and 1999.

"I liked playin for Coach Neubeiser on defense... we all had assignments.. but he didn't restrain you.. he set you loose and told you to go make plays. He always got me pumped to play D... we didn't stunt too much up front.. but it's because he had enough faith in us to beat players head up.. we didn't need to do alot of slanting and crosses or any of that stuff."

-Terrell Golden, Northwest Class of 2001

The 1999 and 2000 All-Gazette defensive lineman was the starting defensive tackle for VMI. Golden captained the NW 2000 team that won nine games and lost just two.

Coach Neubeiser was intense! He was a great coach who knew a lot about the game of football. He always harped on the fundamentals and when we were smart enough to actually use what he was teaching us, we made big things happen. I think my senior year, 2002, was a culmination and learning the fundamentals. We had a severely depleted team and our defense (after the first three games and sniper attacks) become a shut down, shut out D.

He will always be part of the NW family. As a matter of fact, his father coached me in little league in Damascus, so I have been around the Neubiser family for quite some time. They are all class acts, a family in the true sense of the word.

-Chris Ropko, Northwest Class of 2003

The Cornell graduate was a captain during his senior year and was a 2002 Montgomery County Coaches Association selection defensive end among his other accolades in high school football.