Hard-working Jesse

Woodstown boys sweep Triton to give Stemberger milestone coaching win in Wolverines’ tennis program

THURSDAY TENNIS
Woodstown 5, Triton 0
Schalick 4, Glassboro 1

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

RUNNEMEDE — The Woodstown boys tennis team swept their head coach into the history books Thursday.

The Wolverines beat Triton 5-0, dropping only one set all day, to give head coach Jesse Stemberger his 300th combined career coaching win in 17 seasons at the helm of the program. Thursday’s win was his 50th with the Woodstown boys program.

It was the Wolverines’ third win in as many days. Stemberger is 250-93 in 17 seasons with the girls, 50-27 in five seasons with the boys.

“It means I’ve been doing it a long time,” he said of the milestone. “When I look at it and I look at all the kids I’ve coached over the years I feel good for them because everybody has a part and I think everybody takes pride in having played for Woodstown tennis in the last 17 years. So, I feel good for them more than I feel good for myself.

“I don’t really think of it as much of an accomplish at the moment but maybe in a couple years I’ll sit back and say yeah that’s pretty cool.”

Stemberger scored his first win on Sept. 10, 2008, a 5-0 girls sweep of Penns Grove; he still has the ball on his shelf. He also got No. 100 against Penns Grove and No. 200 against Overbrook. His first win with the boys came against Wildwood. Of the milestone wins, only No. 100 came at home.

The No. 2 doubles team of Luke Shaw and Mason Shimp got the day started. No. 2 singles John Farrell secured the second point and the victory was clinched by the No. 1 doubles team of Ben Stengel and Nick DiTeodoro (Stemberger’s nephew).

Drew Stengel made it 4-0 at No. 1 singles and Joseph Kurpis completed the sweep when he won a 10-8 tiebreaker at No. 3 singles.

Stemberger is the third Woodstown head coach to reach the 300-win milestone this academic year, joining Darren Huck (boys soccer) and Adam Hyland (wrestling).

“I like it because we’re all friends,” Stemberger said. “We’re the old guard over there. We’re the three longest-tenured. We’re the old guys now. We’ve all been through a lot. We’ve had the same athletic directors, the same administrators, so we’re like the grumpy old men now.

“It’s fun. All three of us have really dedicated a lot of time to this and ultimately it comes down to what we want to do for the kids. They’re the real beneficiaries of this. They’re the ones you care about, they’re the ones you want to see be appreciative of what they’ve got.”

WOODSTOWN 5, TRITON 0
Drew Stengel (WO) def. Tristan Malone, 6-1, 6-4
John Farrell (WO) def. Cole Durham, 6-2, 6-0
Joseph Kurpis (WO) def. Tirth Patel, 6-1, 0-6, 10-8
Ben Stengel-Nicholas DiTeodoro (WO) def. Brennan Zabala-Sean Gorski, 6-1, 6-1
Luke Shaw-Mason Shimp (WO) def. Shrey Modi-Tomas Ledesma, 6-1, 6-0
Records: Woodstown 3-0, Triton 0-1.

SCHALICK 4, GLASSBORO 1
George Gould (S) def. Carter Eli, 6-1, 6-1
Conor O’Toole (S) def. Kelechi Ufomba, 6-0, 6-1
Kaden Barnes (S) def. Andrew Miller, 6-1, 6-0
David Santana-Anthony McGrath (S) def. Jeffrey Guzman-Jesus Lopez, 6-2, 6-1
James Pence-Nico Tsoulcalis (G) won by forfeit
Records: Schalick 2-1, Glassboro 0-3.