James Runner named new Lynn Tech head football coach

Lynn native James Runner will succeed Gary Sverker as the Lynn Tech head football coach.”I was extremely lucky to hear Coach Sverker was retiring,” Runner said on Thursday. “He did a great job. It was a huge opportunity. I’ve been coaching 10 years. I feel like I’ve been around a while ? I feel honored to be selected.”This is Runner’s first head coaching job. He comes to Tech from Dean College in Franklin, where was an assistant coach on the defensive side for five years. The Bulldogs finished 9-2 this season after a 10-9 loss to Glendale Community College in the Valley of the Sun Bowl. Lynn high school football fans might remember him from his Classical playing days (he graduated in 1998) and his four seasons as an assistant coach at St. Mary’s under then-head coach Mike Stellato – a stretch that concluded with a Super Bowl title for the Spartans. (Ironically, St. Mary’s has played Tech the night before Thanksgiving for the last several years.)”He’s just a wonderful young man,” Tech athletic director Ed Shadoff said. “He wowed us during the interview process. His resume is tremendous. He wants to come back to Lynn. He was a star at Classical and wanted to come back.”Runner had previously applied for the Classical head coaching job at one point, and while that did not work out, his second opportunity began when Sverker retired after going out with a State Vocational Super Bowl victory over Southeastern. Eventually he got a chance to speak with the screening committee, which included principal James Ridley, Shadoff, Coach “Junebug” Johnson and Sverker. He addressed questions ranging from how he would run the program, monitor students, work with a booster club and deal with any alignment change for a playoff system.”I’m glad I did my research,” Runner said regarding the alignment issue. “When Mr. Ridley asked that question, I was prepared for it.”He will now prepare the 2010 edition of the Tigers. On both sides of the ball, he mentioned versatility as a goal.”Defense is all about speed,” he said. “We have to attack, wear (opposing teams) out. One thing I have worked on is outlasting teams. Over the course of the week we’ll get them ready to go four quarters.”Offensively, he said, “We want to be versatile, get vertical. Tech has been a stack-I team for a long time. We’ll take a bit of that old-school and use a little new-school ? go to the sky, outjump, something different.”He also mentioned the mentoring aspect of coaching when working with student-athletes.”You have to be a student first,” he said. “Have great character, be a great football player, or at least put forth a good effort. You can really go far.”As for his assistants, he said, “I do have some coaches from the past who I would love to have,” but added that “I would absolutely speak, talk with, and emphasize bringing on the prior staff, and hear what they have to say.”Runner credited his former coaches in Lynn with helping him achieve success as a player and coach. At Classical, where his teammates included Agganis all-star Peter DeMoulas and two-time NHS member Jason McCuish, he praised coaches Dave Dempsey (“a father figure”) and Matt Durgin. He also had warm words for Stellato, who invited him to join his staff following a chance meeting at the Square One Mall.Runner has brought several Lynn players to the Dean program, including Eddie Owens-Finch (English) and former St. Mary’s players Pat Kearns and the top receiver on the Super Bowl team, Matt Lincoff. He will maintain his ties to the Dean program through this semester, and he will continue his full-time job as area coordinator for unity development at Dean, being responsible for monitoring a third of the campus.Although his day job remains in southern Massachusetts, his Lynn roots run deep. His grandparents, Lloyd and Berdell Warren, live in the city, as does his mother, Glendora Warren. He worked with current Tech basketball coach Marvin Avery in the district attorney’s office, and he also has Lynn connections