As a football family, New Jersey's Olsens continue to roll

Pillar by pillar, Chris Olsen's world was crashing down.

Four days after two planes exploded into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, no more than 25 miles from his suburban home, Olsen's oldest son, Christian, took a snap, bootlegged left and felt his left knee buckle.

Absent from the stands that Saturday night, for the first time in Christian's career dating back to PAL, was Olsen's strength and wife of 24 years, Sue. Three months earlier, on the night of her wedding anniversary, the mother of three had been diagnosed with breast cancer. That spring and summer, her husband contemplated stepping away from the field, but his wife, the first high school coach in the family to win a state title -- as a softball coach -- insisted he continue as Wayne Hills High coach. "The games are normalcy to us," says Sue Olsen, a 12th grade health teacher at Manchester Regional High in Haledon, N.J.

Exhausted by her latest round of chemotherapy treatment on Sept. 15, 2001, Sue rested at home. Shortly after the game began, a family friend phoned to say that Christian was injured. Later that night, Christian stood in the mother's doorway to prove he was OK. "A football injury, compared with 9/11 and my mother's cancer, was the least of our worries," Christian says.

For the first family of Wayne football, the 2001 season had been previewed as theirs. Christian, a senior, started under center. Slotted at tight end was younger brother Greg, a junior. Wearing the headset was Chris Olsen, the patriarch and high school coach of 30 years. The fusion of the brothers' last season as teammates was to bring to fruition their dad's second New Jersey state title and first with the Patriots. Though his ACL had been torn, Notre Dame-bound Christian repaired to the sidelines for one game, only to return for the final 10 games. The brothers' quest to bring their father a title, though, fell short in Giants Stadium. It was not until the next fall, with Christian in South Bend, Ind., that father's day came in December.

From the depths of 2001, the Olsens have risen to the heights of 2008. Along the Garden State football landscape, Wayne Hills has rolled to four consecutive Group III titles and 40 consecutive wins, producing a graduating senior class of 2008 that did not lose on freshmen, junior varsity or varsity teams. The 55-year-old coach's blue-collar blueprints have proved thorough and true. In the last year, Chris Olsen watched Greg play his rookie season with the Chicago Bears, welcomed Christian to his Wayne Hills staff and promoted Kevin -- the youngest Olsen at 13 -- from water boy to ball boy. "Winning has certainly mellowed the temperament in this home," Sue says.

Olsen has molded his football program into a consistent power while the sport has shaped his life. A defensive end at Midland University, a small Lutheran school that competes in the NAIA, Olsen played in the World Football League for the Philadelphia Bell until it folded, and then segued into teaching. His high school coach, John Deibert, a former all-America at Penn State, pointed him to a physical education teacher opening at Passaic (N.J.) High and he jumped at it. "I knew football was where I was happiest," Olsen says.

He has whistled and barked at players at four schools since, instructing inner city and suburban, public and private school students. After three years as an assistant at Passaic, he became the head coach of St. Cecilia's in nearby Englewood -- the same school where Vince Lombardi received his start. The Packers sent plaques and pictures to put up in the locker room. "Being a head coach at such a young age it's either sink or swim," Olsen says. "You just hold your nose a bit." Two years later it was time to move again. In 1982, he won his first state title at Bergenfield. He then moved to the urban area of Eastside High in Paterson, N.J. Three years later, he settled in Wayne Hills, where he has remained for 22 years, collecting a 182-44-2 record for the Patriots and a 213-85-6 career mark. "He was the same then as he is now," says Teddy Sobota, who has been an assistant coach for Olsen at each stop.

Growing up Olsen meant vacation-less summers, pre-season camp trips to the Poconos, football-filled falls and extra hours in the weight room while friends rested. Team Olsen is the roster that the father has bred and developed since laying his roots in Wayne. Constants on the sidelines during their youth, the father and Sobota, would outline plays for Greg and Christian to carry out in the family garage. "Those are the times that made us who we are," says Greg, who was an All-America tight end at Miami and a first-round pick with the Bears in 2007.

Football commands a seven-day presence in the household, but Thursdays were the clan's favorite. With games played on Friday nights, the coach returned home earlier than other nights. He game planned with his staff Monday, leaving Sue to enjoy the kids, but Thursday was for WAC and nationally televised contests. By the time Christian played at Notre Dame under Bob Davie, the remaining family members would return home after Wayne Hills' Friday night games, pack the black Navigator, grab sandwiches and depart for 12-hour pilgrimages along Interstate Route 80. "What people don't know sometimes is the time, money and effort parents put in," says Christian, 25, who transferred to Virginia and now works in sales for Verizon.