August 6, 2003
New OCHS coaches hired - and an unnecessary controversy
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
The Ocean City Board of Education (BOE) confirmed most of the coaches last week for the 2003-04 high
school sports season.
Gary Degenhardt will return for his 13th season as head football coach, though his staff changed slightly.
Chris Clark, John Oberg and Chris Armstrong are back but Mike Cappelletti replaces Alex Brigden.
Cappelletti was an outstanding linebacker at Lower Cape May who also scored seven touchdowns his
senior year before heading off to The College of New Jersey. Paul Baruffi returns as a freshman football
coach and will be joined by Mike Williscroft, a former varsity assistant, who replaces Wayne Colman.
Trish LeFever, whose field hockey team will be entering its “Six Pack Season” (in search of a sixth state
title), has assistants Kristie Fenton and Jen Dean both returning. Tom Miller and assistant Bill Pesda are
back in girls soccer and Shannon McPherson joins the staff as a freshmen coach. Another freshman
coach may be added. Mike Pellegrino is back as head soccer coach with Paul McLaughlin as freshmen
coach. A varsity assistant is still to be confirmed.
Wendy Nickles and her assistant, John Kloos, are back in girls tennis. Bill Moreland returns as head boys
cross country coach. No vote was taken on Curt Nath to return as head swimming coach for a second
year. That decision will be made at a future meeting, though Rich Coppola was approved as swimming
assistant. Bill Nickles will be back for his 27th season as head wrestling coach but Tony Galante will not
return as an assistant. Galante’s son, Mike, will spend his senior year Blair Academy, considered by
some the best wrestling school in the country, and Dad wants to be available to follow his progress. It is
probable that former Raider star Pat Lynch will be recommended as Nickles’ assistant at a future meeting.
John Bruno is back as boys basketball coach with Mel Bennett, who missed most of last season following
an automobile accident, returning as his assistant. McLaughlin returns as freshmen coach. Baruffi will
coach the girls basketball team again with Trish Hopson, who filled in effectively for Bennett with the boys
last year, becoming his assistant, replacing Kim Gray. Williscroft is the girls freshmen coach. Moreland
returns as indoor track coach with Erika Dice as his assistant.
Craig Mensinger will be back as baseball coach with Greg McLaughlin as the freshmen coach. An
assistant coaching job in baseball will be filled soon. Moreland heads up the girls track team again with
Dice and Kevin Greene as assistants. Kim Gray is back as softball coach with Paul McLaughlin as
assistant. Christie Pontari, who has been field hockey coach at the Intermediate School, will coach the
freshmen softball team.
Pat Dougherty and Skip Angelo will again serve as co-coaches of the golf team and Dianne Hickey is
back at the head of the lacrosse team. Hickey will be assisted by Dean with McPherson and Sue Sanford
sharing freshmen coaching duties. George McNally returns as head coach in boys tennis with Pesda
replacing Pellegrino as his assistant.
Baruffi and Bruce Welch were confirmed as assistant boys track coaches but no nomination was made for
the head coaching position to succeed Wayne Colman. That nomination is expected to go to Armstrong,
a former school record holder in the pole vault.
That pretty much covers every sport, except for girls cross country. Leo Chase resigned from that position
in the spring after three undefeated seasons. Hopson was recommended for the job but, after some public
discussion described elsewhere in this week’s Gazette by Ann Richardson, her nomination was defeated.
Hopson is a good choice for the position. She is a former Division I athlete (women’s basketball at
UMass), has run a varsity program (girl’s basketball at Oakcrest) and filled in admirably and historically
last winter by coaching the boys junior varsity basketball team. What she lacks in direct cross country
coaching experience (she did run cross country and track at OCHS for seven combined seasons) she
more than makes up in leadership skills and her ability to relate to and inspire student-athletes. That is,
after all, what makes a coach successful, even more than specific experiences within the sport.
Some of those who spoke out were in support of Greene for the position. He does have experience in
running and has been an asset to the track programs but he is not a certified teacher. New Jersey code
requires that a qualified candidate who is a certified teacher must be selected over a candidate without
certification. The theory behind this regulation is that teachers make better coaches, a pretty logical
assumption since coaches are teachers.
If Hopson is recommended again next month by the school administration (that decision will officially be
made within the next two weeks after interviews are conducted again) the BOE has no other responsible
choice than to approve her. Cross country practice begins on Sept. 1 and the season starts on Sept. 17,
both prior to the BOE meeting in September.
There was some debate about the word “qualified” in the discussion at the recent BOE meeting. Hopson
does not have experience as a cross country coach but there are dozens and dozens of very successful
coaches at Ocean City and other schools who had little or no experience when they started.
More important, that same New Jersey code states that a candidate is considered to be qualified unless
the BOE supplies a list of qualifications for the position prior to the start of the selection process. No such
list of qualifications seems to exist for this position or any other OCHS coaching job.
In summary, Trish Hopson is an Ocean City High School graduate, a talented athlete and a dedicated
coach who has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to motivate and educate young people. She is exactly
the type of teacher and coach OCHS needs in the face of its aging faculty and athletic department. What
she doesn’t already know about training a cross country team she will learn quickly. This entire
controversy is unnecessary and unseemly.
She should be Ocean City’s next girls cross country coach.
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