Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 21

i i i ii i Boys track B2 Girls track B3 Baseball B4 Softball B5 Players of the week B6 Lacrosse B7 Golf B7 Tennis B7 Asbury fm Press. SECTION Kathyrn Bucco (right) and St John Vianney break into the Gannett New Jersey Softball Top 20 at No. 18. B6 Middletown South, CBA, TR East, TR North and TR South are ranked in the Gannett New Jersey Top 20 Baseball Poll. B6 SATURDAY APRIL 24, 1999 him JO 1 "1 I .1.1 IMIilllMIIIIII, II-1 1 III RBC replaces football coach Lou Montanaro Is not rehired; former Caseys quarterback Frank Edgerly will take over the team.

I i' r-V vv If I i By JOE ZEDALIS STAFF WRITER LOU MONTANARO, the football coach at Red Bank Catholic High School for 23 seasons, was told Thursday he would not be rehired. Frank Edgerly, a Red Bank Catholic graduate and former player under Montanaro, was named as the school's new coach, athletic director Joe Montano said. "The administration felt this was the best time to make a change and go in another direction," Montano said. "We've offered Louie another position as an assistant athletic director 1 1 i If and I hope he ft i i w-f ri mi i in iinn i ii -Mi fun" -nt 1 11 iniiia jl will consider taking it" Edgerly was introduced to the team as its new coach Thursday afternooa "Coach TIM MC CARTHYStaff PhotO(rapher Toms River South's Greg Archer has lost just one set to a Shore Conference opponent in his high school career. Lou Montanaro Grade: Senior High school career record: 69-4 Title: 1998 Ocean County Tournament No.

1 singles champion USGA Middle States ranking: No. 3, 18-and-under bracket National ranking: No. 79 TR South's Greg Archer challenges opponents and teammates to give their ail By DEBBIE WALDEYER STAFF WRITER GREG ARCHER'S tall. Six-foot-three and molded to be a tennis player. The senior right-hander at Toms River South has traveled the country including stops in Louisville, Kalamazoo, and Palm Springs, Calif.

to play the sport. "Over the last four years I've seen about as much as someone can see, as far as the U.S. players are concerned," said Archer, who has committed to play for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tennis team. "I've seen the top players in the country." Archer himself has been ranked among the best players in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware since he was 11 years old. He's been ranked nationally since he was 14 years old, hitting No.

44 as a 16-year-old. Now 17, Archer is third in the tri-state rankings of the U.S. Tennis Association's Middle States Section. Archer expects to be U.S. Open and the players who reach the quarterfinals get an invite to the U.S.

Open Junior Tournament. Archer fell in the first round to Nathan Zeder, out of Florida and currently a player for the University of Illinois, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. "That was a pivotal match because I was ranked 48 when he was ranked 52, so we were pretty even," Archer said. "I came out slow in the beginning, which is weird for me, I'm usually good about preparing for matches. And he broke me in the third set." You'll never see that here.

Through Thursday's match with Freehold Township, Archer has never lost a match (58-0) to a Shore Conference opponent from the No. 1 singles spot he's occupied for four years. He's at 69-4 and counting for his high school record. What makes him so tough? "You have to give it your all because he's so skilled. He doesn't give up many games," See Archer, Page B6 around No.

50 when the national rankings are released. His last national ranking put him as the 79th best player in the 18-and-under age group. He's had his ups. In the National Clay Court Championships in Louisville, last July, he won his first three matches and extended the No. 3 seed to three sets before losing.

He entered the backdraw and beat two higher-ranked players. A Georgian ended Archer's run, but not before he broke into the top 24 out of 196 players from around the country. "I was No. 48 in the country after that tournament," Archer said. "My last win there was my best moment.

I was cramping in the third set but feeling great because all the guys I beat were ranked ahead of me. Laying in the hotel room afterward with those cramps I never felt better." And he's had his downs. He flew out to Kalamazoo for the Boys 18 Nationals in early August. The winner of the 196 draw gets an invitation into the Men's Mont shook my hand, gave me hug, introduced me as the coach and left," Edgerly said. Montanaro was second to Brick High School's Warren Wolf in tenure at one schooL Montanaro informed his team of his dismissal though a written release.

"I wanted to be your football coach, I did not retire," Montanaro said. "To the current group of Red Bank Catholic players, it was a pleasure to be your coach. God bless you all." Montanaro finished his career with a 114-99-5 record. The Caseys were S6 in 1998 and qualified for the NJSIAA playoffs, losing in the first round. "Lou Montanaro is a great guy, he's been great to the kids and very loyal to Red Bank Catholic," Montano said.

"The administration wanted to look for the future and we felt now was the time to do that." Edgerly is a 1990 graduate of Red Bank Catholic and 1994 Rutgers University graduate. He teaches history at Red Bank Catholic. "For now it's a bittersweet situation," Edgerly said. "When I started coaching, I made it my goal to become a head coach one day. To coach at the school I went to and had great success, is great "But at the same time, I'm replacing a man who, next to my own father, is the greatest influence on my life.

For that reason this situation is hard. If it wasn't, I think I'd need to check myself out" Edgerly, a former quarterback, anticipates a more open style of play. "I believe in the ball-control running game, but at the same time you will see more than eight passes per game," he said. "There will be a lot of formations and window dressing." "Frank is a young guy, who I believe is going to be an outstanding coach," Montano said. "He works hard." Boys lacrosse leads a quiet existence In the Shore Conference the Interest In starting boys teams Is still limited.

4 Shore Summer Lacrosse League and is planning to expand the league with a division of high school girls. The league consisted of 240 male high school, college and post-college players last summer. The Manasquan High School team has drawn athletes from the football (including Don Klein, a lineman who has a football scholarship with Temple University), soccer, ice hockey and basketball teams, but Dowd has mixed hopes about boys lacrosse growing within the Shore Conference. "A problem is that there's See Boys, Page B7 said Stewart, a Colts Neck resident and senior at Christian Brothers Academy. "I liked it, actually, and there was talk of making it a varsity sport, and I figured I might as well try it.

I wasn't playing another sport." Stewart is now hooked. "I love it," he said. "I've put a lot of time into it. I'm our team captain now and I think I'm going to play at the college club level at Virginia Tech." But high school boys lacrosse St. Joseph's-Metu-chen coach Larry Walsh calls the sport "a great outlet for a kid who wants to play a contact sport and is aggressive" is taking its time putting down roots in the Shore Conference.

The Mike Dowd-coached Manasquan team has been in existence for 10 years, and is off to a 5-0 start this season, the best for the team since starting 7-0 in 1994. But the Warriors had no company at the Shore until CBA launched its varsity last season. This in contrast to girls lacrosse, which has boomed since 13 programs began play last season. Six more schools added girls lacrosse this season. Dowd, who played college lacrosse at Nathaniel Hawthorne, operates the Jersey By BOB JORDAN STAFF WRITER JASON STEWART admits he hardly expected to make a serious commitment to lacrosse when his school began to offer it as an after-school intramural sport.

"It was fun, but it was wild with people not knowing anything about it, and there was a lot more bodychecks than you normally see in a match," PETER ACKERMANStaff Photographer Manasquan's Bruce Campbell is pushed by Mike Polgentini of St. Joseph's as he tries for a shot. 4.