Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 42

PAGE ASBURY PARK PRESS SATURDAY, DEC It 2004 COACHES OF THE YEAR Jv O.J ft) ma W. 1 iv GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY GYMNASTICS GIRLS SOCCER FIELD HOCKEY JOE GOMULKA MONSIGNOR DONOVAN MAUREEN SUTPHIN RED BANK CATHOLIC CHRISTINE SHERMAN MIDDLETOWN NORTH DONNA DENOBLE OCEAN STAFF REPORT Monsignor Donovan coach Joe Gomulka had his hands full this fall. Thanks to a bumper crop of freshmen to add to standout Leah Bro-gan, Gomulka found himself with one of the state's best foursomes. Gomulka also had to develop the rest of the Griffins' pack without the aid of an assistant coach. For bringing the Griffins to the cusp of an overall state title after the program's first ever wins at Ocean County, Shore Conference, and state Non-Public Gomulka is this year's Asbury Park Press Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year.

"I think the biggest adjustment is knowing what you're getting and adjusting your training style," said Gomulka. Gomulka knew what he was getting because freshmen Amanda Cavallo, Brianna Crowe and Molly Kempton have run together for years in youth programs, and were already accomplished competitors the moment they walked through the doors at Donovan. Not that that fact made Gomulka's task of bringing the team together any easier. "After the season was over I had to take a look and everything we did was off the girls up front, obviously that's something to think about for the future," said Gomulka. Tara Watson came up big for the Griffins all season in 'the No.

5 spot. The junior pared her Holmdel Park time to a personal best of 20:55 to finish 11th in a dominating team showing at Non-Public A. The future is going to stay bright for the Griffins with the core returning and Brogan and Maggie Taverna the only seniors graduating. With a dual meet winning streak now at 38 including six straight Class South banners Gomulka must learn a bit from the other dominant Catholic school cross country power in the Shore, Christian Brothers Academy. Once tradition has been established, the challenge lies in fending off all challenges and keeping the wins coming.

Scott Clayton STAFF REPORT As Jenna Lippi moved across midfield and unleashed the shot at the Lacey goalie, time stood still for Middletown North coach Christine Sherman. "The girls on the bench looked at me, and I looked at them. We froze for a second, then we erupted," said Sherman, the Asbury Park Press Girls Soccer Coach of the Year as she explained their feelings following the shot that won the Shore Conference Tournament championship game, 1-0, in overtime this year. "Coaches go their entire career and never get to experience a feeling like that," said Sherman. In her third year as the head coach for the Lions she led them to the Class A North championship and then the SCT title, places Middle-town North hadn't been in more than a decade.

"I think we started to come together in the summer," said Sherman. "The girls played in a tournament at Brick Memorial and I don't think they were close to winning a game, but they decided they would just work hard and try to overcome." Sherman has done the same thing in her career. She was a starter for Red Bank Regional, where she blew out one knee as a freshman and the other during her senior year. By the time she showed up at the University of Maryland, her playing days were over but she knew she wanted to coach. "My father (Rich Sherman) was the boys basketball coach at Raritan.

When I grew up, high school athletics were always a part of life," said Sherman. When she graduated from Maryland she landed at Keansburg for a year before coming to Middletown North in 1999 where she took over as the freshman soccer coach. She spent two years as the junior varsity coach before taking over as the Lions head coach three years ago. "We were a .500 team the first two years. Last year we got off to 6-0 and then folded.

But I think that helped us this year. We understood what it would take to continue to win." JoeAdelizzi STAFF REPORT When Maureen Sutphin's high school gymnastics career at Red Bank Catholic came to a close in 1979, she had been a part of a four-year undefeated run, including postseason competitions. So its safe to say that this year's Asbury Park Press Gymnastics Coach of the Year is not easily impressed. Since becoming head coach of the Caseys four years ago the golden years of the program have continued. After back to back titles in her first two years of coaching and a third-place showing in 2003, Sutphin has been a perennial coach of the year candidate, but may have outdone herself this year when her team of three freshmen and a sophomore finished a narrow second in the state team competition.

The Caseys battled toe to toe with the Cougars of Colts Neck this season, splitting their four meetings. With Colts Neck claiming Shore Conference and Central Jersey crowns, the Caseys got the better of their rivals at the states, and in an October dual. "We knew we had (2004 gymnast of the year) Beate Jones coming back," said Sutphin. "I knew Julia Carpenter (whose sister Christina was on the 2001-02 championship teams) and the freshmen were coming in. Being as young as they are and seeing what they were doing I thought we'd be competitive.

"The hardest thing for us with club gymnasts is changing their routines to fit with high school rules, because there is a completely different set of guidelines." Red Bank Catholic also practices without the use of a spring floor, setting them back a bit in the floor exercise, an event Jones still managed to finished second on in the states. "Having a 14-and-0 record was great, but we still didn't have a perfect meet all season," said Sutphin. Scott Clayton STAFF REPORT She relied on a core group of underclassmen starters and despite their youth delivered another successful season. "When my coaching staff and I met over the summer, we knew we had a very young team coming back this season," said Donna DeNo-ble, who has been the coach at Ocean for the past 12 seasons. "We wanted to make some changes and we had some kids change positions." The experiment could not have worked out any better for DeNoble, the Asbury Park Press Field Hockey Coach of the Year.

She routinely went with five sophomores (midfielder Nora Bosnians, goalie Erin Conway and forwards Katie Trebino, Becky Rant and Corinne Rac-zek) and one freshman (midfielder Jenna Gala-tro) in her starting lineup. "We wanted to be a more offensive team this year and it was a little bit of a struggle for the players at first," DeNoble said. "But they got better as the season went along and what we may have lacked in experience we certainly had in talent." Her young players propelled the team to a 17-3 record and to the Class A North division title. For DeNoble, it was the eighth time that she's won a division title (six times in A-North, two times in B-North). Prior to this season, the last time DeNoble's team won a division title was 2001, when her team won Class North and Central Jersey Group in.

Her squad also accomplished that same feat in 1997 with a Class A North division title and the Central Jersey Group in championship. This year her team excelled in the postseason again. The Spartans made it into the semifinals of the Shore Conference Tournament and lost to eventual tournament champion. Shore, 1-0. Ocean also advanced to the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III semifinals but lost to Manasquan, 4-3.

"I would say that we were a very balanced team and we had a lot of depth," said DeNoble. Sherlon Christie BOYS SOCCER BOYS CROSS COUNTRY GIRLS TENNIS GARRY LINSTRA JIM SCHLENTZ COLTS NECK ELLEN KELLY RUMSON-FAIR HAVEN a i iir (0 STAFF REPORT Following a 3-1 loss to St. Rose in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals, Wall boys soccer coach Garry Lins-tra knew that the Crimson Knights' season still had plenty of promise remaining. Plus, losing to the Purple Roses may have been a good omen in a weird way. "I should schedule (St.

Rose) more often because it always seems like right after we play them, we go on a long winning streak," Linstra said. "We still had the state tournament, so we just had to regroup." Wall followed the loss to St. Rose with a six-game winning streak that culminated in a 4-1 victory over Scotch Plains-Fan-wood in the Group championship on the turf at Linstra's alma mater, The College of New Jersey. Wall was the only Shore Conference team to capture an overall title, its first since 1981, and Linstra helped get them there in only his third season at the helm. For helping steer Wall to its best season in more than 20 years, Linstra has been selected as the 2004 Asbury Park Press Coach of the Year.

Wall knocked defending Group HI champion Ocean City out of the playoffs in the Group semifinals by winning a penalty-kick shootout, 9-8. Linstra then gave the team final re- STAFF REPORT Colts Neck has found itself in the cross country headlines on a frequent basis the past two years, but much, of that has to do with standout sophomore Craig Forys. Dig a little deeper and you can see the results of a team that had its best season since the school opened in 1999. The Cougars ended the season with a lOth-place finish in the Meet of Champions, after placing high in every meet throughout the season. Colts Neck earned the de facto Monmouth County public school title with a second-place finish in the county meet, finished third in the Shore Conference, captured a Central Jersey Group HI title and was third in Group m.

For leading the way to the Cougars' best season in school history, Jim Schlentz is the choice for Asbury Park Press Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year. "It was our deepest team," said Schlentz. "We were able to rest kids for dual meets. As a result of that, we were able to get more people active as far as varsity goes." Schlentz also dealt very well with the potential challenge of coaching both a top-flight runner and a developing team. The improvement of both Forys and the rest of the varsity five Zach Tedoff, Joe Schauer, Bren- STAFF REPORT Ellen Kelly knew she had to fill big shoes when Bob Abbot "Mr.

Tennis" as Kelly called him left as head coach of the Rumson-Fair Haven girls tennis team. "Bob's a friend and a tennis mentor," said Kelly. "I was happy to follow in his footsteps." Kelly took a successful program and made it more successful, as the Rumson Bulldogs went 15-5 this season and won the Central Jersey Group sectional title. For her efforts Kelly was named the Girls Tennis Coach of the Year. "It was a fantastic year," said Kelly.

"This graduating class of seniors hadn't been to states in their time here. That was really special for them." Kelly, a mother of two boys and a tennis player herself, said that this coaching experience was something new for her. "I call them my girly-girls," Kelly said. "We'd go bowling together as a team, have pasta parties. It was sorority kind of fun." Kelly also reworked the team.

"I kept a smaller team," Kelly said. "And we practiced differently. We worked hard, like they had before, but in a different way." Kelly also saw better production from her players. Ashley Furman moved from singles to doubles and "she was smiling all the time," said. Furman paired with Alexis Hitchner at second doubles.

Tri-sha Koenig and Liz Browndorf held down the first doubles position. Beth McDonald had a good season at No. 1 singles, and was selected to second team All-Shore. Two sophomores who played doubles last year Ann Koenig and Paige Bissett stepped up at the No. 2 and 3 singles positions, respectively.

At the end of the season, the Bulldogs were one of three teams in the Shore left in the NJSIAA tournament (joining Manasquan and Marlboro). The Bulldogs eventually bowed to Governor Livingston, 3Vi-l'i. minder of the trophy-packed past at Wall when he gathered them in the school hallway before the Scotch Plains game. The players took one last look at the hardware brought home by the Crimson Knights' teams that won four straight Group ffl titles from 1978 to 1981 before going on to add one of their own. His team scored on four of its five shots against perennial state power Scotch Plains to run away with the victory and finish 18-3-3.

That was the second of their two titles this season as they also won Class North for their fifth straight division championship. Scott Stump den Krewer and Ian Price each week as the season progressed was proof that Schlentz did the job well. "They're all in awe of Craig," said Schlentz. "We're a very, very tight-knit team. He's no more important than anyone." Colts Neck's challenge for the future, as it is for the second-place Monmouth County team every year, is not to repeat the finish, but to bring the Cougars to the level of Christian Brothers Academy.

"We have our plans," said Schlentz. "This year (second place) was the goal, but whatever you do, you have to think about that next rung." Scott Clayton Debkie Waldeyer.