‘I honestly did not know that I meant so much to them. I looked up to some of my coaches but never like they apparently did to me.’
Former Pompton Lakes head boy’s basketball coach
POMPTON LAKES – When he thinks back to his time at Pompton Lakes High School, Tim Nagle struggles to put into words how it felt to be a member of the school.
“The feeling that you get from walking into Pompton Lakes High School is something that can not be written, you just feel it,” said Nagle. “When I started teaching there I was walking into a building full of tradition. I just wanted to do my best to keep the tradition going.”
In addition to being the boy’s basketball coach from 1971-1981, Nagle was an English teacher and an administrator until he retired in July of 2002 after 31 years of service to Pompton Lakes High School.
“When I retired in 2002 I did so with tears in my eyes because I knew how lucky I had been to have been in the district for 31 years,” said Nagle.
Last month a group of Nagle’s former players proved to Nagle that he did more then keep the tradition going, he taught his former players and students how to be better people.
“He was not only a coach to us. He molded us all into something special. Everyone loved him. Even people that did not play sports thought of him as the coolest teacher,” recalled Jeff Hunt.
Earlier this year Hunt got together with a group of Nagle’s former players and decided to show their appreciation to the coach by holding an impromptu reunion in honor of the coach.
“We started reaching out to players and 18 guys were able to come together,” said Hunt. “Players from the local area, Florida, Virginia and even California changed their plans so they could come.”
Don Lees was one of the players that made the cross-country flight to honor his beloved coach.
“I traveled 3,000 miles [across the country] had two layovers and some delays at the airport. It took me about seven and a half hours to get there but it was well worth it,” said Lees. “It was easy to decide to do that for coach.”
The fact that former players were not only willing to honor him but to spend so much time getting to the reunion hit home with Nagle.
“How can you thank someone properly for doing something like that?” said Nagle.
Hunt teamed up with Nagle’s wife and daughter to help bring the coach to what was described as a simple back yard barbeque.
“We met up with Jeff and his wife at one of my grandson’s soccer games and he invited me to a barbeque. I told him he had to talk with my wife because she runs the family, little did I know that she had been in on the plan all along,” said Nagle.
As soon as Nagle walked into Hunt’s backyard a few weeks later he knew something was up when he heard the song Rock Around the Clock being played.
“I always made sure Rock Around the Clock was the song that we warmed up to and the kids hated it because they wanted Lynyrd Skynyrd,” laughed Nagle.
Joining the former players at reunion was Jack Moran, the man that Nagle credits with making him the coach that he was.
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