Football: Britton’s fresh ideas help separate Springfield from crowd

After a decade spent waiting in the wings, the changes made by Chris Britton this summer were anything but sweeping. A math teacher by trade — and an admitted worrier by hobby — Britton’s assumption of the head coaching job at Springfield was no radical coup, no comprehensive culture change. It was more subtle, more calculated, more concise.

“Good isn’t good enough,’ Britton said Thursday, recounting the oft-repeated mantra on which he has based his team’s entire season of preparation. “I read them the outlook from last year, about how we come up short every big game, how we beat the teams we should but anybody with an above average record, we seem to fall short.

“We’ve had plenty of good teams, but did we want to be the same or to be different? It comes to a point where you can’t be happy with being good.’

That whisper of a new idea, a slight breeze of fresh air for a program that had cycled through intermittent periods of success under four coaches in the last decade, hardly differentiated itself from the gale force of new ideas gusting about the tumultuous training-camp atmosphere. But three months later, it has nudged the Cougars on course, one win at a time, through a special season that has already comprised a first Central League title in 20 years and contains the promise of much more over the next month.

While Britton preps his team for what he hopes will be an extended playoff run through the District One Class AAA field, the rookie head coach stands in stark contrast not just to the man on the opposite sideline Friday night — longtime Interboro coach Steve Lennox — but to the pair of Delco teams that earned berths in the Class AAAA playoff field.

On the eve of the playoffs, Britton is espousing another idea that is neither original nor radical.

“I think the biggest thing we want to stress is we’ve been here before,’ Britton said. “It shouldn’t be a new event for us. It should be like anything else we’re working for all season, just like any other game.’

It’s simple and commonsense. But the simple act of voicing those kinds of ideas has served Springfield well all season.

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