The shocking announcement was delivered over the loudspeakers in Toms River on Sunday morning, stunning those in attendance at the Group 3 indoor track state championship relays.
A moment of silence followed.
Beloved Clearview High School coach Thomas Hengel, a South Jersey Hall-of-Famer, and his wife, Lisa, died on Saturday night when their SUV crashed into a home in their Gloucester County neighborhood. The car was engulfed in flames after the crash, police said.
The news soon spread across the high school track world.
“This is a very sad day,” Delsea coach Ronn Flaim said. “As the day went on and word started to spread of what happened, I think people were more in shock than anything. I know that’s how I felt.”
Authorities said Hengel’s 2020 Hyundai Palisade SUV was traveling north on Banff Drive in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township when it quickly accelerated for an unknown reason, struck a curb, traveled across two front yards and crashed into a house.
The Hengels lived next door to the home their vehicle struck, property records show.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Grant Shivers, a longtime South Jersey coach and former Woodbury athletic director. “I saw it on the news and we were just so shocked. It was just unbelievable to think that that was him.”
An SUV lost control and crashed into 9 Banff Drive in Mullica Hill on Saturday night causing the home to catch fire, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. 2 people were killed in the crashJoe Warner | For NJ Advance Media
Hengel, 72, was a coach at Clearview for 42 years before retiring in 2023. He coached more than 100 seasons between track and field, cross country, baseball and basketball.
Former Clearview Athletic Director Michael Vicente first met Hengel in the early 1990s.
Vicente was a young teacher then. He said Hengel took him under his wing and set him on the right path. Vicente saw Hengel as a trusted mentor and said their relationship stayed that way, even when Vicente became Hengel’s boss, until they both recently retired.
“No question, he shaped me into the person I have become,” Vicente said. ”We became good friends and had an amazing career together. Tom was the most efficient, hard-working, knowledgeable and prepared coach I have ever come across. The time he put into his coaching and athletes was beyond extraordinary. Tom’s and Lisa’s absence will be deeply felt for years.”
Hengel was recognized by the South Jersey Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 as the Coach of the Year for his contributions to track and cross country. He was later inducted into the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, honoring his career success since his first season in 1981.
Hengel led the cross country team to eight total titles, including Gloucester County, Tri-County Conference and South Jersey, Group 3 crowns. In 2022, Hengel was named the NJ.com Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year after he won his first group state championship.
“I’ve known Tom for years,” said Mark Jarvis, the cross country coach at Cherokee and president of the South Jersey Track Coaches Association. “I had so much respect for him as a coach, in the way he handled his team and himself at meets. He was always a coach willing to step up and help out. He’s going to be greatly missed in the South Jersey community.”
“Tom was very much respected by the community as an incredible coach who was very highly respected,” Haddonfield girls track coach Jason Russo added. “It’s a terribly tragic loss.”
When Abigail Waddington earned All-State honors at Clearview in 2022, she told NJ.com that Hengel made her much more than a better runner — and has kept those same thoughts today.
“Coach Hengel was the epitome of tough love,” Waddington said. “He wanted discipline, dedication, and grit from all of his athletes, but he also cared so deeply about them as people. It’s hard for me to put into words what it was like to be coached by him and how much he meant to me.”
“I am so grateful to have been coached by such a caring, funny, and determined man who never gave up on me. I truly believe that running saved my life and that wouldn’t have happened without Coach Hengel. We fought a lot because we’re both very stubborn people who care deeply about each other and this sport, but throughout it all, his guidance and approval meant so much more to me than I could ever put into words.”
Hengel will be remembered not only for his work as an educator, coach and voice in South Jersey, but for the person that he was.
“He was a great coach and will be sorely missed,” Flaim said. ”Tom was always all about the good of South Jersey and Tri-County Conference track as a whole, not just his team. His teams were always well prepared and competed hard. He was so well respected throughout South Jersey.”
