Stepping aside

Schalick’s John Romano stepping down as Cougars’ girls tennis coach to enjoy the experiences of being a dad

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE – John Romano learned a long time ago to be good at something you have to pour everything you have into it. He knows no other way.

Romano admitted he didn’t know a lot about tennis when former athletic director Mike Clark asked him to take over the Schalick girls tennis program and everything he did, at the beginning at least, he learned from books and videos. 

He was a soccer guy, he told them, but Clark said he’d seen him coach, knew how he was with people and he’d pick it up.

So the new tennis coach immersed himself in the subject and after feeling his way the first couple years turned the Cougars into a program that could be counted on to be in the hunt every year.

But the time has come to step away, to go to full bore with family as his children, ages 4 and 8, are starting to discover organized sports before the window for those experiences closes. So, after 17 years the soccer guy is putting that original racquet he bought at Dick’s to learn the game aside and pausing the high coaching side of his career.

Starting next fall the Cougars will have a new girls tennis coach, assistant coach Brandi Petrunis. It had been a decision Romano had been contemplated for a while. He told his team Friday.

“It’s been a lot of fun, I’ve really enjoyed it, I love the kids,” he said. “When I told them on Friday you get teary-eyed and that’s one of the things I’m going to miss.

“I’ve never looked it at as wins and losses. I think where you have your most success when a kid comes back and says you ‘I remember a time …’ and you see the effect you had on them. You realize you have a lot of those moments every year. That’s the stuff I’ll take with me.”

In 17 seasons at the Cougars helm, the 41-year-old health/PE teacher compiled a 219-93 record with seven Tri-County Diamond Division titles (all since 2014) and two sectional crowns, most recently in 2023 when they lost to New Providence in the state semifinals. They were 23-3 that year. This year’s team went 10-8 and lost in the South Jersey Group I quarterfinals, its earliest exit since 2015.

“Had a pretty crummy season (the first year), only won a few games, and I said to myself if I’m going to do this I’ve got to dive in, and I did,” he said. “I started right then and there, came up with a whole slew of rules and expectations for the girls and just what the expectation was.

“I distinctly recall in the next season we had a match at Salem and I gave the girls a heck of a speech. I said this is the point where you guys decide where (you’re going to go). At the time we were competitive with Salem and I said we’re going to need this match in order to get there. I remember one of the kids looking over like I would run through a wall right now for you. We’re not going back.

“It was fun learning with the girls along the way and then it became a thing. We just had a trivia contest and one of the winter pep rallies. They asked a question like what is the winningest program in Schalick history and the kid buzzed in and said ‘girls tennis.’ I graduated from Schalick in 2002 and I know it’s either girls track or boys soccer, but for these kids the past 14 seasons that has been the norm, girls tennis is going to be one of the best programs in Group I year in and year out. That’s what we built up.”

And the experience has changed the soccer guy, too.

“I’m a tennis guy now,” he said.

Photo: Schalick girls tennis coach John Romano celebrates winning the 2023 South Jersey Group I title with his family.