Larry McElreavy’s unquestioned love of coaching football has taken him to South Carolina. It is there, in humidity so thick you can seemingly swim through the air, that the former Newport High bench boss is working 16-hour days for free.
This isn’t much of a surprise, however. Yes, the 71-year-old Claremont native made five stops in college football, including two as a head coach, but he also restarted his career with a stint at Claremont Middle School before joining the Tigers. After winning a 2015 state title with Newport, McElreavy became the fourth coach in as many years for a Pembroke Academy program that was one of the worst in the state.
“There’s no faking the amount of passion this guy has for the game,” said first-year Newport coach Dennis Borcuk, who worked under McElreavy during the older coach’s two-year stint, which netted a 20-2 record for the Tigers. “I’ll always remember his work ethic and the standards he held the coaching staff to. I still use his practice plan schedules.”
McElreavy coached the University of New Haven (Conn.) from 1983-85 before taking over Columbia and going 2-28 from 1986-88. However, the Lions snapped their epic 44-game losing streak during his third and final campaign. McElreavy went on to assistant’s jobs at Toledo and UMass and was the offensive coordinator at the University of Richmond (Va.) from 1995-99.
In 2000, McElreavy returned to the Upper Valley to care for his ailing father. He owned and operated the Miss Bellows Falls diner from 2005-10 and later sold cars and real estate. He left Newport football because he was taking a real estate job near Manchester, where he thought his work life would be better.
“He knows his Xs and Os, he’s organized and his team was totally disciplined,” Newport athletic director Jeff Miller told the Concord Monitor at the time, noting that the Tigers won the officials’ sportsmanship award in addition to twice reaching the NHIAA Division III finals.
“On the first day of practice, he made the kids do 100 pushups, and he got right down and did them, too. He did more than most of the kids on the team. That opened their eyes.”
McElreavy couldn’t sell his Charlestown house when he switched jobs, however, so he commuted 136 miles round-trip and his work days sometimes stretched from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. He totaled more than 51,000 miles on his car in a year and, after last football season, dropped real estate for an overnight shift at the White River Junction Veterans Administration hospital.
There, McElreavy toiled in the laundry, wrestling with 50-pound bags of soiled bed linens, scrubs, gowns and towels.
“It was a government job, but you worked your butt off,” he said. “I got in some good weightlifting.”
For 15 years, McElreavy called and wrote college football coaches seeking a way back to that level.
“I could have papered my walls with the rejection letters,” he said. “And there were a lot of unreturned phone calls. That seems to be the paradigm today.”
It’s not too surprising that Coastal Carolina, which not long ago ascended to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and the Sun Belt Conference, was the team to take a chance on McElreavy. The Chanticleers’ head coach is Joe Moglia, a Dartmouth assistant from 1981-83, who made it big in business before experiencing his own difficulties getting back into the college game.
McElreavy knew Moglia from the old days, and they reconnected a few years back. The head coach offered an unpaid internship as an offensive analyst earlier this year, and McElreavy, using savings from his laundry job, jumped at the chance. He’s living in the house of one of his former real estate clients, a 5-minute drive from the Chanticleers’ offices in Conway, S.C., near Myrtle Beach.
“I analyze and break down practice film looking at who’s doing things the right and wrong way,” said McElreavy, who attends each practice but doesn’t coach on the field. “I give the offensive coordinator and head coach feedback.”
Once the season starts with a Sept. 1 game at South Carolina, McElreavy said he will be counted upon to help analyze how best to attack opposing defenses. For now, when he has a free hour or two, he’s walking 5-6 miles a day as rehabilitation following April 17 hip surgery.
There are no guarantees that McElreavy will be kept around after the season or that the experience will lead to a job elsewhere. But the man clearly isn’t afraid of hard work and likes to stamp out potential regrets. McElreavy said he feels like he’s “back home” in college football.
“If I hadn’t gone for it, I could spend the rest of my life bitching and would have only myself to blame that I didn’t step outside my comfort zone,” he said.
“If it doesn’t work, I can look at myself and say, ‘Mac, you gave it your best shot,’ and go on to something else.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.