WOOD-RIDGE — Everything recently came together for both Erin Englehardt Meccia and Wood-Ridge High School athletics.
Meccia, a former soccer player at the University of Virginia and University of Oregon and former freshman coach at Immaculate Heart Academy (IHA), was thinking that it was time to get back into the soccer arena.
She had tore her ACL while playing for the New Jersey Lions club team and decided to take a couple of years off from playing and coaching soccer.
“For two years I wasn’t playing and coaching and I really missed it,” said Meccia, who takes over for Joe Soto, who coached the team the last two years. “I’ve been looking to get back in. It’s my passion.”
Meccia, who recently was married, said that her father-in-law, Dennis Meccia, saw an ad for the head coaching job for the Wood-Ridge High School girl soccer team.
“It just definitely seemed everything came together,” said Meccia. “I was very excited about the position. I was pretty confident with my resume, but you never know what the administration is looking for.”
The new Wood-Ridge head coach will be leading the Lady Blue Devils into its third year of its existence where it has made great strides the first two years after separating from Hasbrouck Heights where it was a co-op program.
