Central Bucks West grad Jim O’Neil, now the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, held his fourth annual O’Neil Football Camp at Central Bucks West on Sunday. To view photos of the camp, please visit the Photo Gallery. Check back later this week for Scott Huff’s follow-up story.
By Mary Jane Souder
DOYLESTOWN – Sometimes life really does come down to something as simple as a right or left turn in the road.
It certainly did for Jim O’Neil.
The decision the Central Bucks West grad made to play football instead of soccer – in this case a right turn at an intersection – forever altered the course of his life.
“We moved up here from the city,” O’Neil said. “We were big football fans, but nobody in the city played football.
“I was soccer, baseball and basketball. When we got out here, it was like everything shut down on Friday nights. I’m in fifth grade, and the thing to do was to go to the football games on Friday night, so I quickly fell in love with the game of football.”
O’Neill’s father, Bob O’Neil, remembers the day Jim chose football over soccer as if it were yesterday.
“We moved up here, and, of course, the excitement of CB West football just overtakes you,” Bob said. “Everybody wants to be part of something as big as CB West football.
“It was registration day for football and soccer. We came up to the red light, and I said to Jim, ‘If we make a left, we go to soccer. If we make a right, we go to football. What would you like?’”
O’Neil opted for the right turn.
It might well have been the best decision he ever made. After a standout career at West and then Towson University, O’Neil went through the coaching ranks and this year – his sixth in the NFL – will make his debut as the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, joining the staff of Mike Pettine Jr, who was hired as the head coach in January of 2014.
On Sunday, O’Neil returned to the place where it all began when he held his fourth annual O’Neil Football Camp at War Memorial Field. Pettine and his father, legendary West football coach Mike Pettine Sr., as well as CB West grad and Cleveland Browns linebackers coach Chuck Driesbach also were in attendance.
“I think it’s fantastic that individuals who are successful as those guys are coming back and doing what they do and sacrificing their time and energy,” West football coach Brian Hensel said. “Jim has done this since he’s been an assistant coach with the New York Jets.
“As he progressed and went to the Buffalo Bills, he maintained it. He didn’t want to see it die. Obviously going from an assistant coach to defensive coordinator is a huge jump in responsibilities. He called me in February and said, ‘I still want to do this, but I’m not sure if I can.’”
O’Neil made it happen, and 150 aspiring football players went through the drill stations manned by coaches from the college and professional ranks, including a group of Cleveland coaches who made the trip.
Chris Krier, a rising senior from Central Bucks East, returned in a mentoring role after attending the camp himself several years ago.
“I definitely learned a lot at the camp, and I had a lot of fun doing it,” he said. “Now I’m just coaching them the best I can and being a role model.”
He admitted there was a different feel this time around.
“I wasn’t expecting the media to be here,” Krier said. “When I did the camp, none of that was here. I was shocked when I saw it, but it was kind of cool actually.”
For Krier and teammate David Gressgott, also a rising senior, it was a thrill to be part of the camp.
“It was really cool getting to meet NFL coaches,” Krier said. “I like listening to the coaches because it’s helping me. It’s not just for the young guys but us as players going into our season. It’s good to listen to what they say for us as well.”
“It’s an honor to be here,” Gressgott said. 
“I’m usually in the player role being coached up, and it’s a role reversal actually coaching kids and helping them out and teaching them the right things to do.
“It’s going to feed into the system. If we start them young and teach them the right things, when they’re our age, they’re going to be successful.”
If Gressgott and Krier are any indication, the Cleveland Browns have inherited some new fans this season.
“Especially with Johnny Manziel there and after meeting the coaches, shaking their hands,” Gressgott said.
“A lot of them are from the community,” Krier said. “They have a lot of other coaches from their professional team coming back and helping us out. It’s cool.”
Back to the beginning
Jim O’Neil knew from the moment he moved into the area in fifth grade that he wanted football to be part of his future.
“As a little kid growing up in the area, you dream about playing on this field on Friday night and then you dream about going on to play in college,” he said. “I started playing when I was in seventh grade. I loved every second of it.”
O’Neil got his first taste of the sport playing for Lenape Valley.
“I wanted him to play a year of football at Lenape Valley under the weight divisions, so he wouldn’t be playing with kids that were much heavier than him since he never played before,” Bob O’Neil said. “He played one year of Lenape Valley football, and the following year he started playing for junior high.”
O’Neil went on to have a stellar career as a two-way lineman at West under coach Mike Pettine, Sr., who laughed as he recounted one of his earliest recollections of his future standout.
“You dress some of your promising 10th graders – just figuring, ‘If I can get them in the game, fine, it’s a reward for their looking good at practice,’” the Bucks’ former coach said. “The night of this particular game we had this psych music to help everybody get in a good mood. Guys are in the corner banging on the lockers and on the wall, but the sophomores are kind of keeping to themselves – being seen but not heard.
“The psych music is on, and I walk in the corner, Jimmy’s doing a dance down the hallway to the music. With the tone I like in the locker room before a game, it didn’t go over too big.
“As the game went on, and we had a lead, people are being put in the game. (Assistant coach Mike) Carey put him in, and I said, ‘Get him out of there. He doesn’t want to play. He just wants to dance.’ That was his only low point. After that, it was all positive.”
O’Neil has nothing but fond memories of his experience at West. Ask him to pick out one that stands out, and he points to West’s game against archrival Central Bucks East his senior year.
“It was a close game,” O’Neil said. “We ended up driving the football in the third quarter – it ate up most of the quarter, and we went for it three or four times on fourth down and ended up winning the game. That was a pretty big memory.”
O’Neil went on to earn a scholarship to Towson University where he was a defensive lineman and was named captain of his team in 2000.
“Mike’s dad taught me a lot about work ethic and physical and mental toughness,” O’Neil said of the senior Pettine. “I truly think that athletically I accomplished all I could, and a lot of that was because of my parents and Mike Pettine Sr. They pushed you to get everything out of yourself that you could.
“For me, I knew I couldn’t play after college, so I got right in the coaching ranks and worked my way up the ladder.”
After coaching stints at several colleges, O’Neil was hired in 2009 as the defensive quality control/defensive backs coach of the New York Jets under Pettine, then the defensive coordinator. Four years later, when Pettine took the job of defensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills, O’Neil was named the team’s linebackers coach.
This year he is one of 32 defensive coordinators in the NFL.
“I actually never really had any aspirations of coaching in the NFL until I met Mike in 2005,” O’Neil said. “I was the defensive coordinator at Towson University, and Mike was coaching outside linebackers for the Ravens.
“Senior (Pettine) put us in contact with one another and Mike let me sit in on all the Ravens’ meetings. I was just a fly on the wall. I went over there whenever I could. I couldn’t stop thinking about getting to this level. I was lucky that four years later it happened for me with the Jets.”
A point of pride
Bob and Deb O’Neil can’t stop smiling when they speak about their son’s ascent to defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns.
“I’m just so thrilled,” Deb said. “It’s almost just like make-believe.
“He was always just so driven. I remember when he was in reading class. He wouldn’t read the paragraph – he’d drop down because he wanted to be the first one done. He wanted to be number one, even reading a paragraph.
“It’s just amazing. Just the support you give them – every parent gives their heart and soul.”
“It’s amazing,” added Bob O’Neil. “How can you not be (proud)?”
That pride extends to the entire West family.
“You always like to see your kids go on and be successful,” Mike Pettine Sr. said. “You hope some of the life lessons that athletics is supposed to engender to these guys takes effect.
“Of course, it’s really special if they go on and they take some of the coaching aspects and parlay that into a career – in this case, three guys in the NFL is really special.”
“It’s rare,” Jim O’Neil said. “I don’t know if it’s ever happened that there are three coaches from the same high school. We all bring different things to the table.
“Chuck’s got such a wealth of knowledge, so many years of experience. He’s been a huge resource for me as a coordinator just because he’s been a coordinator in college for over 20 years. It’s been awesome having him on board and obviously Mike being a (defensive) coordinator and having all the success he’s had in the NFL – it’s been huge.”
When it comes to giving back to his community – that’s something that comes naturally to O’Neil.
“Jim is a great philanthropist, and he gets it from his father and mother who have done charitable work for years,” West coach Brian Hensel said. “For 15 consecutive years, they have run a 3-on-3 (basketball) tournament that raises money for kids for scholarships.
“Jim grew up watching that happen – a second generation paying it forward.”
“I grew up watching my dad,” O’Neil said. “He always volunteered his time as a coach and all the youth programs.
“I felt like I was blessed because I had a lot of great coaches – they helped mold me into who I am today, along with my parents.
“If we can give back, even though it’s one afternoon for six hours, and touch any one of these kids to help shape them or give them something that they can hang onto to motivate them, it’s worth it.
“There are nine guys here from the Cleveland Browns who donated their time for the seven-hour bus trip to come out, and that’s rare. I think that speaks a lot about the guys on our staff, and it speaks a lot about the camp and people wanting to come back and give back.”
For the three West alums who have made it to the NFL, Sunday’s camp was an opportunity to give back to a community that will always be home.
“I just think it’s important that you stay grounded and you never forget where you came from,” Mike Pettine Jr. said. “There’s such a rich tradition of football here that Jim and I both draw our coaching roots from. It’s such a natural thing for us to come back and give back.”
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