Last month, many in northern New Jersey were shocked that Don Bosco Prep football head coach Greg Toal retired. Toal held a 178-29 coaching record at the school, bringing national and state championships, and coaching NFL talent like former Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant, former Chicago Bears defensive end Corey Wootton and current NFL prospect Jabrill Peppers.
After Toal’s abrupt retirement, the school named Mike Teel the new football coach. Toal didn’t show up to Teel’s introductory press conference and many began to wonder what was going on?
Former Don Bosco Prep quarterback, Steve Levy is one of them. Levy appeared on the Scoop B Radio Podcast and chatted about the debacle. Levy helped Don Bosco become a nationally ranked prep powerhouse from 1999-2002.
Listen To Steve Levy’s account on Scoop B Radio.
Click here to listen to Steve Levy on the Scoop B Radio Podcast
Levy, a former quarterback at Don Bosco, played at the University of Cal Berkeley with Desean Jackson, Marshawn Lynch and Aaron Rodgers. He believes that there was a personal vendetta against the departed coach. “I think that the only people that thought Coach Toal was way too big for Don Bosco [was] leadership,” Levy told podcast host Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson.
“What I want to happen with Father Jim Heuser, which a lot of alumni which a lot of people that went to Don Bosco that are reading and hearing everything that has happened we want him out,” Levy told Scoop B Radio.
“He has another year and a half on his contract or rather his reelection we want him out. It’s not so much as how he handled firing Coach Toal as a legend, yeah obviously that is a huge thing, but I’m talking about leadership and the lack of accountability, the lack of integrity, the lack of just not business sense. To treat employees that way and then that trickles down to the students that affects everybody.”
Don Bosco Prep president, Father Jim Heuser addressed the Coach Greg Toal’s retirement in a statement circulated to the community, stating:
“Finally, there has been much discussion concerning the announcement of Coach Toal’s retirement before and during last week’s press conference. Prior to the press conference last Thursday, representatives of the Board of Trustees, including our Board Chairman, met with Coach Toal concerning my decision and left with a handshake and the clear understanding that he had agreed to retire from his position. Respecting that decision, we communicated that to our students, faculty, and other interested parties last week, as Coach Toal was advised was our intent. We were surprised to later learn that Coach Toal had apparently reversed his decision.”
Greg Toal coached football for 33 years. He’s 305-55-2 all-time, which ranka him 10th all time in the state of New Jersey in wins.
