How Anthony Sacca became the QB of St. Joe’s Prep’s defense: ‘He’s an unbelievable athlete’

Anthony Sacca vividly remembers the first varsity football game he played in a St. Joe’s Prep uniform.

Then a freshman safety, Sacca’s name was called midway through the first quarter against Catholic League rival La Salle College High School in 2021. He stayed on the field till the final minute, but the Hawks wouldn’t be walking away with a win.

“At first, I didn’t understand the magnitude of what happened,” Sacca said of the team’s 28-21 loss to the Explorers. “Before that, they hadn’t lost to them in seven years. There were a lot of tears shed in that locker room, a lot of tears shed on the field after that game.”

Three years later, he gets it.

The senior captain, who’s committed to Notre Dame and the son of former NFL and Penn State quarterback Tony Sacca, felt accountable for its recent 35-34, four-overtime loss to La Salle. It was the first time the Hawks lost to La Salle since that 2021 game.

Sacca transitioned to linebacker his junior year, and coach Tim Roken refers to him as “the quarterback of our defense.”

He takes the blame if someone isn’t lined up correctly or messes up, but he also knows that he sets the tone for the rest of the defense, which is why he’s putting the Oct. 5 matchup behind him. Sacca and the Hawks have a chance at redemption on Saturday at Wissahickon High School.

“It was definitely a tough loss. Nobody wants to lose the way that we lost,” said Sacca, who has recorded 3½ sacks, 47 total tackles, and a forced fumble this season. “It sucked for about two hours after the game. But you got to go to bed, wake up the next morning, and reset.

“We watch the film, then we close the notebook. … There’s always heightened emotions around this game because it’s a rivalry game, but I feel like we’ve done a really good job at getting prepared.”

He’s been doing his part. Since Sacca was a kid, he remembers spending most of his downtime watching film and drawing plays, and those habits haven’t changed. The Delran native played quarterback throughout his entire youth football career, which started at age 6. He played other sports as well, including basketball and baseball. But nothing really compared to his love for football, and he thanked his dad for that.

» READ MORE: He’s ‘light-years better than I was’: St. Joe’s Prep’s Anthony Sacca is carving out his own name on the gridiron

“I kind of always wanted to be like my dad,” he added. “I remember hearing all these great stories from my aunts, uncles, and grandparents talking about how awesome my dad was in high school. That’s something that I really wanted to chase. We both really bonded over football, like every Saturday and Sunday, waking up watching college and NFL football together right before I would head over to Summer Hill [Sports Complex] and go play in some games.

“I became a student of the game and saw football in a different limelight, especially when you have a dad who’s played in the NFL, it definitely helps.”

Tony Sacca was a standout at Delran High School, where he was later inducted into the school’s hall of fame. He was a four-year starter at Penn State and was drafted in the second round by the formerly named Phoenix Cardinals, now Arizona, in 1992, and spent one season in the NFL. He then played two seasons with the Barcelona Dragons of the World League of American Football.

Once his professional career came to a close, he moved back to the Delran area and was involved in the high school coaching scene for many years, including stops at Pennsauken, Willingboro, and Burlington City, where he currently works as a physical education teacher.

“I don’t coach anymore because it’s really just following my son around at this point,” Tony Sacca said. “That’s where my focus is. … For me, it’s the greatest thing that could ever happen to have your son have similar success like you did, and hopefully a lot more than I did.”

For the most part, Tony Sacca took a hands-off approach when it came to coaching his son on the field. Though, he did coach a season of his son’s sixth-grade team, and some nights Anthony left those practices walking home.

“I would get [ticked] off that he yelled at me at practice,” Anthony Sacca said. “We had typical run-ins you would have with a 12-year-old and their father. It was a learning experience, growing experience, and for the most part, we had a good time.”

» READ MORE: La Salle’s Gavin Sidwar has remarkable poise. He’ll need it to beat rival St. Joe’s Prep for postseason play

After that year, he joined the Pennsauken Youth Athletic Activities. Tony Sacca is friendly with Derek McCord, who played quarterback at Rutgers and lives in Mount Laurel. His son, Prep grad Kyle, now a quarterback at Syracuse, competed in the league and McCord said it would prepare Anthony “to go play big-time high school football.”

Through the McCord family, the Saccas also became familiar with St. Joe’s Prep, and decided to send Anthony there, but Roken saw Anthony’s immediate potential on the defensive side of the field and didn’t have an opportunity for him at quarterback.

“He’s an unbelievable athlete,” Roken said. “Just being coachable, going out, correcting the mistakes that he made the day before, and getting better each and every single week. At some point, the conversation became what is best for our defense and what is best for him and his future — he was being recruited as a linebacker.”

Anthony was glad to make the switch. Playing quarterback, he said, was a lot of pressure and took the fun out of the game at times. It was “the biggest relief of my life.”

He also felt more confident on defense, and eventually as he transformed from a 6-foot-4, 185-pound freshman to a 6-6, 240-pound senior, Sacca grew out of the safety position and had moved up to linebacker.

“Midway through my junior year, I kind of started hitting my stride,” Anthony Sacca said. “I would take on the role of getting the defense lined up. Not just worrying about myself, but worrying about the guys around me.”

College coaches took notice of Sacca early on. His first scholarship offer came from Temple his freshman year, but of his 18-plus Division I offers, Sacca narrowed those options to Duke, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame, to which he announced his commitment in March.

And Penn State did offer him a scholarship. But the Fighting Irish seemed to be the best landing spot, Anthony Sacca said, considering coach Marcus Freeman’s defensive mind and his relationship with former Temple coach Al Golden, who’s the defensive coordinator of the Fighting Irish.

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“If you ask middle-school Anthony Sacca if he had an offer from Penn State, would he go there? He would say ‘Yes,’” Sacca said. “Then if you asked him as a sophomore in high school, he probably say, ‘I’d have to think about it.‘ My dad never put pressure on me to go to Penn State. He was completely hands off — he’s like, ‘Go where you want to go.’”

The stakes are high on Saturday, the winner will continue its postseason play for a PIAA Class 6A championship and face either Imhotep Charter or Lincoln in the District 12 title game. But Anthony Sacca is ready for the moment. Roken, his Prep teammates, and most importantly his dad have helped prepare him for it.

“The goal is just stay together one more week,” Anthony Sacca said. “This could possibly be our last week together. Playing for our seniors is a big message. … We write our own chapter. We want to go out the right way.”