Paul Schwartz / NorthJersey.com
A chance meeting led to a remarkable reunion story between a Hall of Fame coach and the program he led for nearly 40 years.
Howie Schuman taught and coached track and cross-country at Saddle Brook High School from 1971 to 2007 before leaving the school after his son David was fired as the Falcons Brook head football coach.
He spent the next 17 years at Holy Angels before being unceremoniously fired by email following a 2023-2024 season that saw him lose his beloved wife Fran Andolino to cancer, and miss time recovering from serious back surgery.
It appeared his illustrious coaching career of nearly 60 years was over. A career that included dozens of league, county and state sectional championships at both Bergen County schools across indoor and outdoor track and cross-country, including 11 state group titles. A career that made him a North Jersey legend.
“I thought I was done with coaching,” said Schuman.
But coaching wasn’t done with him.
Fran’s grandson, Hanover Park freshman Giancarlo Andolino, had a cross-country meet at Greystone Central Park in Morris Plains, a few minutes away from Schuman’s home in Florham Park, and his parents couldn’t get to the weekday afternoon meet.
So Schuman, 83, decided to go support his grandson.
One of the first people he saw at the meet was former Falcon superstar Diana Lana, whose son, Montville senior Alex Pelov is one of the top distance runners in the state. Then he saw Saddle Brook coach Ed Ciccone, there to watch his son, another Montville senior, Matt.
“It was a regular Saddle Brook reunion,” said Schuman, “we’re all talking and the race was going to start so as we left, Ed says to me, “I’ll see you in the winter. And I said ‘no, you won’t’ and told him a quick version of the story of how I left Holy Angels.”
“Ed started to leave and then he turned around and said ‘I have an assistant opening for track — you interested?”
There’s a Yiddish word called “beshert” which roughly translated means “preordained or destiny.”
The picture of the meeting between Schuman and Ciccone now belongs in any dictionary that definition.
“The second he told me about it I knew I was going to ask him to coach,” said Ciccone “I hoped he’d say yes.”
“I thought it would be interesting and I told him I’d call him back,” said Schuman, who reached out to his three children, all of whom competed for him at Saddle Brook, and are all still involved in coaching or athletic administration. “They all thought I should do it. So I called him right back and told him I could do it.”
Last week, Schuman returned to coach at the school where the track was named for him in an emotional 2014 ceremony, the only time after his departure that he had been back.
It’s like he was never away.
“The kids greeted him with a standing ovation on his first meeting with them last month,” said Ciccone, who had applied to become Schuman’s assistant just before he left the school 17 years ago and ended up as the head coach instead. “I told them about our new coach and one kid asked me who he was. I told him you pass by his picture every day when you go on the track. They thought that was amazing.”
“I haven’t had this level of excitement coaching since the day I took over in 2007,” said Ciccone. “I can’t wait for the season to start.”
For now, Schuman is coaching the throwers, but nothing is off the table, according to Ciccone.
“I sent him a sampler platter of things he can decide to coach,” said Ciccone. “I know what he means to the sport and what he means to the school. Whatever he can do for us makes us better.”
Schuman, who was hoping for one more year at Holy Angels to finish his career with standouts like recent Boston College signee Gina Certo and North Jersey’s best 4-x-400 relay team, now will return to the place he began his New Jersey career.
And Holy Angels might not be done with him either. A Change.org petition to honor Schuman was started by Holy Angels alumni, calling about the administration to honor his legacy at the school in a timely manner, including but not limited to naming the Holy Angels track or having an appreciation dinner in his honor. To date the petition has nearly 700 signatures and a response was received last month which stated that plans are in the works to honor Coach Schuman’s service to AHA.
“I’m really going to enjoy this year, doing my best to help the kids and enjoying them helping me,” said Schuman, who says he’ll take the job one year at a time. “It’s a miracle that this happened. I almost didn’t go to Giancarlos’ meet. It’s like Fran is still watching over me.”
“It’s a perfect way to finish the circle. Back in Saddle Brook.”
