On September 12th at his home courts, Ramapo’s Coach Marchese celebrated the 700th win of his tennis coaching career with his team. With a score of 5-0, the girls dominated Pascack Hills in “almost a two-hour match,” explains junior Arielle Gomberg, a varsity tennis player and student at Ramapo.
Securing the 700th win as a tennis coach places him into a select club that very few in New Jersey state history have reached (NorthJerseySports.com). However, instead of focusing on the big win, Coach Marchese offers a sentiment to his team and their parents, some of whom have played for him in the past, “Not only do I get to see the girls play, but the parents come down and we get to go over old times back when they were on the team … It’s really been a huge family teaching here at Ramapo.”
Coach Marchese’s coaching career began nearly 50 years ago with the freshman & JV soccer teams as well as the ice hockey team. When the position of the girls and boys tennis coach became available 10 years later, he eagerly took that opportunity. Though he’d been coaching the boys at Mahwah and Indian Hills for a few years in between his time at Ramapo, “With the girls, it’s been 40 straight years.”
As a very close-knit team, the girls made it their mission to fight through every match, knowing how important this game was for their coach. “We all played our hearts out,” Arielle says. “We support each other through the ups and downs on the court and off the court.” With the parents, the team organized the celebration with matching t-shirts and balloons.
When asked about how he felt after the win, Coach Marchese responded, “Pretty much in awe, you know, it’s just sometimes for me it’s kind of uncomfortable with all that recognition.” After the game, he saw one of the girls walking down the path to the courts with the “700” balloons and was surprised that anyone even knew about it.
“I’d rather just go into the sunset and that be it. Not have to do all these celebrations, so I hope there’s no more coming,” he says with a laugh. “It’s just nice to be recognized with this for all those years and the parents are dear friends, it’s always nice to get everybody together.”
