As the Rockland High School football team prepares for its 2006 season opener at Foxcroft Academy next Friday night, it also is breaking in a new defensive coordinator.

But Archie Stalcup is no rookie.

Far from it. His most recent previous coaching stint was as head coach at Div. I-AA LaSalle University in Philadelphia during the 2002 and 2003 seasons, after serving as defensive coordinator since the school reinstated football in 1997.

Before that, he was defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. There, on a staff that also included head coach John Bunting (now at North Carolina) and offensive coordinator K.C. Keeler (now head coach at Delaware), Stalcup helped the Profs reach the 1992 NCAA Div. III semifinals and earn a trip the next year to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Div. III national championship game.

All told, 63-year-old Stalcup has coached at the interscholastic and collegiate levels for more than four decades – something that brings instant respect from his newest students of the game.

“Coach Stalcup has plenty of experience, and we believe everything he says,” said senior tailback Mike Marsh. “We can all tell he knows what he’s talking about.”

Stalcup found his way to coastal Maine in fairly typical fashion.

“My wife and I had been coming up here the last 15 or 16 years during the summer, and each year we found ourselves staying longer and longer,” he said.

There were thoughts of moving to Maine permanently one day, but first Stalcup figured he had four or five more years of college coaching in his future.

Then two years ago he learned he had prostate cancer. He retired from LaSalle in early March 2004 and subsequently underwent successful surgery. After getting a clean bill of health, he and his wife came to an agreement.

“If we were going to do it, we better do it now,” he said.

So the Stalcups moved to Owls Head in June 2005, but after a summer of kayaking and other things coastal Maine, autumn arrived and with it the football bug began to resurface.

After the season, Stalcup visited Rockland High in search of a conversation with Tigers’ head coach Daryle Weiss about helping the program in some way.

Weiss was out that day, but after a brief bit of phone tag they met and soon discovered some common football bonds through their shared New Jersey backgrounds. From there the relationship has blossomed, not just between coaches, but throughout the growing Rockland football program.

“He’s a great addition to our staff,” said Weiss. “It’s nice to have another head coach on the field, and the kids have a tremendous amount of respect for him.”

That’s a mutual feeling for Archie Stalcup, who not so long ago thought his coaching days might end prematurely, only to have them revived in his new home.

“Coaching is coaching, no matter what the level is,” he said. “They’ve got a great group of young men here, and a coaching staff that is really working hard. There’s a real family atmosphere, and I’m just grateful to be part of it.”

And this year’s varsity squad – eyeing a trip to the Class C playoffs after narrowly missing out last year – is grateful for the chance to soak up Stalcup’s defensive acumen.

Said Rockland junior quarterback and defensive back Andrew Weiss, “It’s hard to argue with a guy who has been to a national championship game.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or at eclark@bangordailynews.net