The empty bleachers at the Secaucus gymnasium and the upcoming start of the junior varsity contest made for a calm and low key postgame celebration in honor of John Sterling’s 600th victory.
But that’s ok. Because for the veteran Secaucus coach the milestone was about the girls holding the balloons spelling out “600” and the poster rather than the man on the receiving end of them.
“I’ve always been a believer that the 600 wins, those are the girls’ wins. That’s the credit to their athletic ability and their toughness,” Sterling said. “The 160 losses, those are mine. I take the blame for those.”
Many of those former players at Secaucus and before that, Bogata and Wood-Ridge surely feel differently about how the credit should be divided.
Despite coaching exclusively at small public schools, Sterling’s teams have never been afraid to challenge themselves outside of their league and against some of the best competition the area has to offer.
Now in his 14th year at Secaucus, his teams have been a model of consistency, never winning less than 18 games in a season and posting a stellar 272-62 record. Under Sterling, the Patriots won the Hudson County Tournament in 2014 and 2017, and have made the state sectional finals six times.
“Over the years, we’ve taken a lot of pride in saying we’re not just a good small school team, we’re a good team in general,” Sterling said. “We can get on the floor and, for a lot of years, play with schools that are much bigger than us. We’ve held our own against some really good schools.”
Whatever Sterling’s teams may have lacked in size, depth or experience, they always made up for it with aggressiveness on defense, playing up-tempo and sharing the ball. Monday was just the latest example of that.
Freshman Mia Cruz and Sophomore Daniela Peschetti scored seven and six points respectively in the first quarter to give the Patriots (4-0) an early 20-10 lead. Nurisha Ferati’s 3-pointer right before the second quarter buzzer gave Secaucus an 11-point lead into halftime and the Patriots followed the intermission with a 9-0 run with Peschetti taking a long rebound coast to coast for the easy layup to put the game out of reach at 37-17.
Peschetti, one of just a handful of Secaucus players with any varsity experience, finished with a team-best 12 points to go with six rebounds and three steals. Ferati had 11 points with seven rebounds, Cruz added nine points with four assists, and Lyndsey Ross had seven points and six assists.
Carley Martin and Gianna Alberti scored 12 points apiece and Francesca Castagnetti had eight for Lyndhurst (2-3), which trimmed the deficit down to eight late in the fourth quarter.
“I’m really just happy for the girls that they get this opportunity for whatever games we get to play,” Sterling said. “I love being in the gym. I’m so happy to come to practice every day and work for three hours with the girls. I couldn’t be happier that we’re back into the swing of things.”
Sterling, who admitted he was “bored to death” during the summer when he and his team were unable to do their annual trip to basketball team camp in South Carolina, their usual summer leagues or countless open gyms.
This time away from the team and the classroom where he remains a match teacher at Bogota High School showed that even though he turns 62 next month, Sterling has no intentions of stepping away.
“I couldn’t wait for school to start back up and I certainly couldn’t wait for basketball to start up,” Sterling said. “I’m going to do this for as long as I’m healthy enough and for as long as (athletic director) Charlie Voorhees and the administration at Secaucus wants me to stay here and the girls keep working hard for me.
“If you get really good effort from the players, it’s just a pleasure. It’s not work, it’s fun. And I hope to do it for a long time.
