Rick O'Brien: Rough debut for Malvern's new coach

Afterward, there was a quick father-son hug and a few words of encouragement.

One had to wonder who took Malvern Prep's rain-soaked, season-opening loss to La Salle on Friday night harder. Kevin Pellegrini, the team's first-year head coach? Or, his father, the Friars' former and highly successful boss, Gamp Pellegrini?

"It's probably harder for me," Gamp said, "because I'm thinking of Kevin and what's going on with him. When I was the head coach and lost, I didn't worry about myself. I knew what went wrong and could go about working to fix things. Now, that's all on his shoulders."

Gamp Pellegrini, winner of 219 games in 31 seasons, assisted his son and defensive coordinator Kevin Whitney from Plymouth Whitemarsh's press box.

And the 71-year-old was as sharp as ever.

Through his headset, Gamp Pellegrini said this to the coaches before a first-half play: "You got trips left. It's probably going to the fullback."

And that's exactly what the Explorers did, handing the ball to fullback Tim Wade for a short gain.

"It was good to have him up there," Kevin Pellegrini, 37, said. "We discussed some things on both sides of the ball. We went back and forth on things."

Stopping the run was Malvern's most glaring weakness. La Salle netted 139 rushing yards on 24 attempts in the first half while taking a 14-0 lead.

Before the kickoff, Kevin Pellegrini said he was "excited, anxious, wanted to do well. Nothing more than that."

The Friars struggled to tackle junior tailback Jamal Abdur-Rahman, who carried 26 times for 152 yards and a pair of first-half touchdowns. Wade accounted for both of the squad's tallies after intermission.

"We weren't stopping the run like I had expected we would," Kevin Pellegrini said. "Since they were running the ball well, they didn't have to pass much."

Not surprisingly, the first-year head coach did not take the 28-7 nonleague setback in stride. Yesterday morning, he was by the phone and waiting for his "film guy" to call. The film, he hoped, would make it clearer why the Friars' defense was often burned on the ground and why their offense found the end zone only once.

"We're not good enough to play like we played - and coach like we coached - and expect a better result," he said.

As always, Gamp Pellegrini provided laugh-inducing quips. Before leaving the press box to join the coaches and players at halftime, one of Malvern's assistants warned, "Gamp, watch yourself on the steps. It's real slippery out there."

Gamp's reply? "You telling me I'm not too agile?"

Agile, yes. Comfortable in the press box, no. His son wanted him up there so that he could get a bird's-eye view of the field, see what the sideline coaches could not see and then relay his observations to them.

"I'd rather be on the sideline," Gamp said. "You get a better feel for the game, and you can grab a kid and directly tell him something."

While Gamp Pellegrini will continue to provide midweek and game-day support, Kevin Pellegrini is now the one calling the shots. And he seems much more sincere about accepting responsibility than when the Eagles' Andy Reid says he will "take the blame for that."

"My dad is still involved," the younger Pellegrini said, "but this is my team. I'm going to make the decisions, offensively and defensively, as far as what we're going to do against an opponent."