By: Greg Mattura – Record Sports Department
Kevin Standford, the longest-tenured coach at tiny Hawthorne Christian Academy, has stepped down after 16 seasons leading the boys’ basketball team.
Standford, 40, resigned as coach of his alma mater because the Pompton Lakes resident wants to spend more time with his family, including his daughters, Olivia, 6, and Sienna, 4.
“I have two little girls who are growing up really, really fast,” Standford said Thursday, “and I feel like I can always come back to coaching, but I’m not going to get those years back with my daughters. So I really felt the need, felt convicted, that as a husband and a father, I needed to be home more.”
Hawthorne Christian Academy, with fewer than 150 students in grades nine through 12, is the smallest high school in the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference. And there are fewer than 60 boys in the high school.
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Standford’s coaching highlights for the Defenders include reaching the Passaic County tournament semifinals in 2012 and 2014 and winning division titles during those years.
Moreover, Standford has enjoyed watching the school’s athletic program expand dramatically since he graduated in 1995. Since then, the Defenders joined the NJSIAA, built a new gym, and became members of a league.
“The biggest highlight for me is seeing the growth,” said Standford, who will continue as a longtime health and physical education teacher at the school. “When I went to the Academy, we really didn’t play any public schools. We had a gym that wasn’t even big enough to host high school games.”
“He’s the utmost professional, really put Hawthorne Christian as a school and his student-athletes first,” said athletic director Tyler Van Dyk, who expects to hire a new coach by the end of the school year. “And then that commitment to the school and his student-athletes, then the result came from that.
“He did not cut any corners, was willing to do things the right way, and he went about things with integrity.”
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