Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School Girls Soccer Coach Mary Beth Coleman (center) celebrates her team’s 2013 Group II State Championship with, from left, Assistant Coaches Donna Dini and Jeff Herkimer.
Press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School
The New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association has named Mary Beth Coleman of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School as 2013-14 Girls Soccer Coach of the Year.
Each year, the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association and the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association choose one coach from each sport to represent the state of New Jersey for the prestigious “Coach of the Year” awards. Coleman will be honored on March 29, 2015 at a Hall of Fame Luncheon to be held at the Pines Manor in Edison, New Jersey.
A member of the RFH class of ’88, Coleman has been the RFH Head Girls Soccer Coach for the past nine years and has been with the program for 13 years. She led her team to its first Group II State Championship in 2008, and repeated the feat in 2013. In addition to capturing a second State Championship, the 2013 team ended the season with a record of 16-7.
“I am honored to be selected for this award by the NJSCA,” said Coleman. “Our accomplishment last season was extremely exciting, and it could have not have happened without all of the efforts from my players and Assistant Coaches Donna Dini and Jeff Herkimer.”
“This is a reflection of everybody’s hard work all year long and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Coleman graduated in 1992 from Villanova University where she played women’s basketball. She received her teaching degree from Kean University in 1995, and is a Health and Physical Education teacher at RFH.
“Coach Coleman did an incredible job with last year’s team,” said Chris Lanzalotto, RFH Director of Athletics and Student Activities. “She had just one returning senior and had to overcome several major injuries to her players in her quest to win the Group II Championship.”
Ever the competitor, Coleman will not be content to rest on her laurels after what she described as “a GREAT last year.”
“In addition to winning the Girls Soccer Group II Championship, I got married in August and led the girls’ basketball team at Forrestdale School in Rumson to a League Championship,” she said. “I am not sure I can ever top the 2013-14 school year, but I will continue to try!”
