North Penn’s Macnamara signs with Delaware

TOWAMENCIN >> It felt a like a majority of the big plays the North Penn football team had this fall somehow involved RJ Macnamara.

From bruising touchdown runs to crushing blocks as a fullback to crunching tackles, sacks and forced turnovers on defense, the senior’s jersey number seemed to hover around all of them. That ability to just be there all the time helped bring Macnamara to the varsity roster as a freshman and college coaches to come calling a few years later.

Wednesday morning, Macnamara made his next stop official, signing his National Letter of Intent to continue his career at the University of Delaware flanked by family, friends, teammates and coaches at North Penn.

“When I went on my visit to Delaware it just had the feel I was looking for,” Macnamara said. “It was the campus I was looking for and meeting the coaches, it was the type of people I wanted to be around and have for the next four or five years.”

Macnamara’s senior season was one full of highlights and stellar plays but also one he played with a heavy heart. His father Ray passed away after a battle with cancer on May 25 and North Penn’s season opener was the first game Ray Macnamara ever missed during his son’s football career.

RJ’s teammates and the North Penn community embraced him and his family — mom Jane, sister Grace, a freshman kicker on the football team and older sister Kelly, a sophomore lacrosse player at IUP and former Knights kicker. The team presented Jane Macnamara the game ball after the season opening win against Neshaminy and for the rest of the season, RJ put everything he had into the season to thank the community for its support.

Macnamara is also an excellent lacrosse player and played both sports growing up. It was his call-up to varsity as a freshman, where he took over a starting role my midseason that year, that sold him on football.

“When it comes to that, it’s all about size and speed, it doesn’t matter what your attitude is about, you have to have the ability,” Knights coach Dick Beck said. “He came with the framework, he has a pretty tough older sister, so she got him ready for that. He had a great group of friends on the team and when he was a freshmen, those older guys brought him along.”

Macnamara, who also considered Monmouth and Temple, committed to Delaware in July. He joins La Salle linebacker Dillon Trainer in the Blue Hens’ recruiting class and the two grew up playing together, meeting as lacrosse teammates.

Trainer’s older brother Liam will be a junior at Delaware next season, as will former North Penn defensive back Justis Henley. Archbishop Wood alumni Matt Palmer and Tommy Walsh are also heading into their junior seasons on the defensive side of the ball.

“Knowing Dillon was going there was cool, I knew if I decided to go there I’d have a friend in my class,” Macnamara said. “Justis was already there and he’s loving it. It was the ideal picture for me.”

Macnamara’s college future is planned for the defensive side of the ball. Delaware’s coaches envision the 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior filling their “Cat” position, a hybrid outside linebacker/end spot that will put pressure on the quarterback.

Despite pledging to Delaware before the season, Macnamara still played his senior year like he had plenty to prove.

“Going out this season and playing even though I was already committed, I wanted to show I was really good enough to go to the next level,” Macnamara said. “I remember when Ricky (Johns) was here my freshman year, other teams would try to use that against him and say he wasn’t good enough to go to West Virginia. I wanted to prove I was good enough to go to Delaware.”

North Penn went 8-4 this past fall, making the second round of the District 1-6A playoffs but did so with a roster heavy on underclassmen in several spots. Macnamara saw how the seniors led his freshman year and wanted to be that kind of leader with his underclassmen this fall.

RJ Macnamara won’t be the guy around every big play at North Penn next fall but there’s a good bet someone who watched and learned from him coming back to the Knights will be.

“He wanted to turn into that leader everybody looked to, and did an outstanding job of doing that,” Beck said. “In big games, he’s usually making some kind of play or if we needed a pep talk in the locker room, he was always ready to step up.”