Craig Halyard
1989 Track and Field

In the annals of the rich track and field tradition at Ridgewood High School, Craig Halyard remains a notch above the rest.  A graduate of the class of 1989, Craig is the finest long jumper and triple jumper in RHS history and one of the best jumpers ever in the state of New Jersey.  More than two decades after graduation, he remains the best triple jumper in Bergen County history.  In fact, several records he set in state and regional competitions still stand.  He earned first team all-Bergen County honors a jaw-dropping eleven times for both the long and triple jumps in both indoor and outdoor track.  His list of accomplishments is topped off by his still standing Indoor New Jersey State record (set over 22 years ago) in the triple jump of 49’61/4”. He was named the New Jersey State indoor triple jumper of the 20th Century by the Newark Star Ledger.

While his first love may have been basketball, he was drawn to track and field to emulate the career of fellow New Jersey jumper and Olympian Carl Lewis.  A trip to the Penn Relays when he was a freshman and where he ran on the 4x100 meter relay team further convinced him that this was his sport.  Still, it wasn’t until Coach Dick Van Yperen (Mr. Van) persuaded him to try the triple jump that he found the perfect event.  In his very first competitive triple jump as a sophomore, he was the instant county leader.  By the end of the indoor season, he was fourth in the Eastern States Championships, setting a New Jersey sophomore class record. That same year he was named first-team all-county in the indoor triple jump, a feat he repeated for the next two years.  He made the first-team all-county team in the outdoor triple jump his junior and senior years.   He was the Outdoor Eastern States champion in 1988 and the Eastern States Champion in 1989 with a record-setting triple jump that still endures.  

In fact 1989 was a remarkable year for Craig.  His accomplishments competing against the top high school athletes in the country in the triple jump that year include a third place in the Penn Relays Invitational; second place, Arcadia (CA) Invitational track meet; fifth place, Golden West Invitational, and fifth place, Keebler Invitational.  

While he was best known as a triple jumper, he was equally proficient in the high school long jump.   He was named first-team all-county in the long jump for both indoor and outdoor seasons in both 1988 and 1989.  He was the NNJIL Group 4 champion for the outdoor long jump in 1989.  Competing during the indoor season, he won the Dartmouth Invitational long jump in 1989, the same year he finished in fourth place in the same event in the National Scholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships.  In 1988, he finished second at the Eastern States Indoor Track and Field Championships.  He also won Brown Invitational, setting still another meet record. 

A three-time varsity letter winner in both indoor and outdoor track, he also found time to earn two varsity letters in soccer before giving up the sport to focus on jumping.  Two of his all-county honors were for his roles on both indoor and outdoor 4x400 meter relays, the outdoor race setting a then Bergen County record in 1988.  But it was success at still another track event that he remembers most.  Shortly before the 1989 Dartmouth Invitational, Mr. Van suggested he try the hurdles.  While he won both the long jump and triple jumps at the Dartmouth event, setting meet records in both, he is more proud of finishing third in the hurdles, competing against some of the nation’s top hurdlers.

When it came time to choose a college, Craig joined two of his RHS track teammates, including fellow nationally ranked triple jumper and RHS Hall of Fame inductee Jen McDermott, in going to Georgetown where he continued his winning ways focusing solely on the triple jump.  A four-year varsity letter winner in both indoor and outdoor track and field and co-captain of the squads his senior year, he was Big East champion in the indoor triple jump (1990), Big East outdoor  triple jump champ (1991 and 1993), and IC4A Champion in the outdoor triple jump (1992).  He placed ninth at the NCAA National Championship in the outdoor triple jump in 1992.   Competing on the USATF circuit, he was fourth at the USA Junior National Championships in the outdoor triple jump and was named an alternate on the US Junior Track and Field team.

Much of the credit for his success he owes to Mr. Van whom he says was the best coach he ever had at any level.  Besides describing him as a great motivator, Craig says he was greatly influenced by the life lessons the coach instilled in his athletes.

RHS, was also a great place according to Craig. He remembers fondly the travel opportunities and the support he received and says he could not have had a better high school experience.
After Georgetown, Craig went on to receive an MBA from Columbia University and has spent his career in fixed income sales and trading on Wall Street.  He is currently with Scotia Bank.  He and his wife Kelli, a publicist for CBS News, are the parents of two young sons, Scottie and Alex, and live in Scarsdale, NY.

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Tom Flatt
Golf 1991

Tom Flatt joins a long line of Ridgewood High School Hall of Fame Inductees who have stayed connected to their sport well after their days at RHS and throughout their life.  Tom graduated from RHS in 1991 as one of the greatest golfers to ever walk the fairways for the Maroons.  He earned numerous honors while at Ridgewood and earned a full athletic scholarship for golf at St. John’s University where he played four years for the storied “Johnnies” golf program.  After graduating from St. John’s, Tom began a career in the golf business as a PGA golf professional.  He has worked as a Professional at some of the finest golf and country clubs in northern New Jersey including; the Ridgewood Country Club, Arcola Country Club and is currently the Head PGA Golf Professional at Apple Ridge Country Club in Mahwah.  He joins his fellow Ridgewood High School Class of 1991 classmates Linda Zabielski and Jodi Hartwig in the RHS Hall of Fame.

While at Ridgewood High School Tom was a rare four year starter and four year Varsity letter winner for the Maroon “Duffers”, captaining the team in both the 1990 and 1991 seasons.  He earned 2nd Team All-NNJIL honors in 1988, 1st Team All-NNJIL honors in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and 1st Team All-Bergen County accolades in 1989, 1990, and 1991 as well.  In 1990 he won the Dan Luciano County Golf Championship and the Group IV Individual State Championship.  In 1991 he won the NNJIL Individual Championship as well as the Bergen County Golf  League Individual Championship.  In his Ridgewood High School career, Flatt only lost a total of 5 head to head matches and was selected a National High School All-American.

Flatt moved on to St. John’s University where he was a 4 year letter winner and Captain of the 1994 and 1995 teams.  He made the Academic All-Big East Team 3 times and was 1st Team All-Big East his Senior year when he also won the Met Intercollegiate Qualifier.  He remains in the game of golf as not only the Head Professional at Apple Ridge Country Club but as one of the most respected and sought out teachers of the game of golf in the North Jersey area.  He has built a great reputation as someone who can work with and teach players of all levels of ability in a very understated and professional manner.  As many other Ridgewood High School Hall of Fame members have done before him he continues to be involved in the sport he played at Ridgewood and gives back to that sport, especially in mentoring and working with some of the best young golfers in the State of New Jersey.  Tom enters the RHS Hall of Fame as the first golfer to be so honored, but he joins a long list of inductees who have made “their sport” something central to their adult lives.  His achievement on the golf course both at the high school and college levels and his continued efforts and involvement with the sport he loves makes him another great addition to the Ridgewood High School Athletic Hall of Fame. 

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Tricia Pappalardo 
1995 Soccer

Tricia Pappalardo is regarded by her Ridgewood High School Coach Jeff Yearing as one of the best all around soccer players ever to come through the Maroons program. In his 26 year tenure as head coach of the program he noted it was rare to see a high school player with the technical ability and tactical knowledge to play with such expertise at any position needed during competition. He also noted her desire to succeed as a player and as a team was contagious. She truly was a leader by example!

Succeed she did along with her RHS teammates for four varsity seasons contributing to varsity teams 1991 through 1994 that accumulated a total record of 80 wins 8 losses and 1 tie. Her career included 4 NNJIL league championships while remaining undefeated in league play for all 4 of her varsity seasons. 
While playing for the Maroon and White, Tricia was a part of 2 Bergen County tournament titles. In 1993 RHS defeated arch rival Ramapo High School 3-2 on the same field and on the same day that the Ridgewood boys won their county championship match, giving the two soccer programs their only county double title in school history. Tricia’s 1994 squad tied Ramapo 0-0 in the county final giving Ridgewood its second consecutive Bergen County title which was shared with Ramapo’s Green Raiders as co champions and allowed Ridgewood to claim its only triple crown (league, county and state titles) in program history. Tricia’s 1991 squad also made it to the Bergen County finals losing a heart breaking 2-1 decision in the final 20 seconds of regulation to Northern Highlands. 

Tricia’s 1992 and 1994 squads won NJSIAA North 1 Group 4 state sectional championships while the 1993 team made it to the Sec 1 Group 4 final losing a heart breaking match to Vernon in a major upset that gave the Maroons their only loss for the season and a finishing mark of 20-1. In the 1994 state sectional final which was decided on penalty kicks, Pappalardo took the winning strike as the 5th and final shooter before sudden death. 

From 1991 to 1994 The Ridgewood Teams that Tricia was a part of never finished out of the top 10 rankings for the state of New Jersey and made it up to the NSCAA national ranking of #7 in 1993 while also achieving NSCAA national rankings of #17 in 92 and #13 in 94.In 1993 the team finished as the #1 team in Bergen county.

Coach Yearing commented “that depending on the competition for the day he would decide to use Tricia as a striker, central or outside midfielder or defensively as a central back or an outside marking back. At times she may have played 2 or 3 different positions in a match if it was required. On many occasions we would discuss the situation and decide together what was required of her play that day. In the 1994 county semi final against a stubborn Midland Park squad, Tricia and her team mates asked to move her forward releasing her from her defensive duties of holding a great Midland Park striker in check.Yearing recounts “At halftime I asked the team if that is what they wanted .They agreed, and Tricia responded by scoring two goals .The team backed her up by holding the Panthers scoreless in the second half and Ridgewood was on its way to another title. I believe she also would have gone in the goal if she thought it was needed to win a match that day!”

Having been an important part of the Maroons varsity basketball program lettering her last three seasons as part of Coach Rebecca Knucks-Gattoni’s championship hoop squads, there is no doubt that Tricia would have carried out that assignment with all star ability.

In her four varsity seasons at RHS Tricia scored 35 goals and added 15 assists for a total of 85 points that places her 19th on Ridgewood’s all time list for points. Her 35 goals is 17th all time, an amazing mark for a player that spent half of her career in defensive roles.

In 1992, her sophomore season, Tricia was selected 2nd team all NNJIL which was significant since selection was made from a 12 team field at that time in the leagues alignment.

In 1993 Tricia achieved recognition as a 1st team All NNJIL Back,2nd team All Bergen County Back,2nd team All Suburban  Back and All State for the North 1 region by the New Jersey Girls Soccer Coaches Association (NJGSCA).
In 1994 Tricia played out of the shadow of some of her former and now “RHS Hall of Fame” team mates Wendy Hartwig and Aimee McGuire, and really amazed the New Jersey soccer world with her ambition and desire to play, lead and achieve. She was named a team Co Capt. with Univ. of Delaware bound Erika Bauer.

That season it all came together for Tricia scoring 10 goals and adding 3 assists, she was named: 1st team All NNJIL Back,1st team All Bergen County Back,1st team All suburban Back,1st Team All Area Back by the Paterson Herald News,1st team All State All Regions by the New Jersey Girls Soccer Coaches Association(NJGSCA) making her one of the top 20 players in the state,1st team All Groups as a back by the Newark Star Ledger, All East and a member of the NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) All American team as a back. Further she was recognized by the NJGSCA and the NSCAA as the New Jersey Player of the Year. She was selected for and participated in the NJGSCA senior showcase match that year for the North 1 team.

Tricia was recruited by the University of Alabama and played for the Crimson Tide for four varsity seasons primarily as a marking back. She notes that she played in all 20 of Alabama’s matches as a freshman while lettering in all four of her varsity campaigns. While playing in the SEC for four seasons Tricia had the responsibility of marking (defending) some of the best women’s soccer talent to walk on the collegiate pitch during that era of the American women’s game. In her final season at Alabama the Tide made it to the NCAA tournament representing the University as the first Alabama soccer team to do so. 

In 2000 the Bergen Record named Tricia to its All Century Team for the 1900’s. 

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Mike Henderson
1961 Football, Basketball, Track and Field

Mike Henderson graduated from Ridgewood High School in the spring of 1961 honored not only as the outstanding Athlete of his class with the 1961 “Excellence in Athletics Award” but also as one of the pre-eminent “Three Sport Athletes” in Ridgewood High School history.  His accomplishments which were news worthy and outstanding in their own right in 1961and beyond are even more significant and extraordinary when compared to today’s era of one sport “specialists.”  Perhaps the most impressive aspect of his athletic achievements is the fact that he was so successful in all three of his chosen sports; football, basketball, and track and field.  Many athletes have a dominant or primary sport followed by other sports that they may have also played but Mike Henderson excelled in all three of his chosen sports.  He was also the epitome of a true “student athlete” who achieved in the class room as well as on the fields, courts and cinders for the Maroons.  Upon graduation from Ridgewood High School Henderson went on to the Ivy League at Brown University and from there to New York Medical College for a degree in medicine and then on to a long career as a Radiologist before retiring recently.

A two time varsity letter winner on the gridiron for the Maroons, Henderson was a First Team All-Suburban and Second Team All-State tight end for the 1960 State Champion squad.  In basketball he earned two more varsity letters averaging 12 points a game for the NNJIL Champion RHS hoopers his senior year, shooting 81% from the free throw line and was chosen for the All-Bergen County team.  When the spring rolled around and the weather got warm Henderson really showed what he could do as a competitor.  A three time varsity letter winner and two time Captain of the Ridgewood High School Track and Field team, Henderson won NNJIL Championships in the 440 yd. dash his Junior year and NNJIL Championships in the 100 and 220 yd. dashes his Senior year including running a blistering 9.8 seconds in the 100 yd. dash at Glen Rock High School. He finished 5th in the New Jersey State Championships in the 100 yd. dash and second in the State in the 220 yd. dash.  He also finished 5th in the 220 yd. dash in the Mid-Atlantic Championships. Cementing his legacy as one of the best all-around athletes in Ridgewood High School history Henderson won the first ever Bergen County Decathlon Championship in the spring of 1961.

He went on to compete in track at Brown University where he captained the undefeated 1964-1965 indoor and outdoor track and field teams while setting the Brown school record in the 440 yd. dash (48.1)   Henderson finished 2nd in the New England Championships and 3rd in the prestigious Heptagonal Championships in the 440 yd. dash.  Mike Henderson enters the Ridgewood High School Athletic Hall of Fame having competed in an era where competition was fierce and deep.  His records, accomplishments and his legacy have stood the test of time.  A truly special three sport student athlete, Henderson rightfully takes his place in the Hall of Fame as another contributor to Ridgewood High School’s Tradition of Excellence. 

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Kandie Latham 
1975 Track and Field

Kandie was a kid before her time, what we call  a pioneer,  but she helped establish  traditions  that continue today.  She came out to the 2nd RHS track team in 1973 and the 1st RHS cross country team in 1974  when there were few girls’ high school Teams in North Jersey; Title 9 existed only as a law just written, and girls track wasn’t on people’s minds as a sport to be taken seriously.    When Kandie graduated in 1975 there was a dawning of girl’s high school sports in North Jersey, Kandie had helped The Ridgewood Girls establish a national record and had a state championship medal in her pocket and Ridgewood had a recognized track and field program. 

Kandie’s running career had many examples of those early frustrations.  For a woman to even come out for a sport in 1973 was a challenge over peer group influence.  When she started track Kandie quickly established herself as the fastest kid on the team.  But what to do with it.  There was no league champs, or country champs to develop your embryonic skills. Seasons were quickly over and you waited 6 or 8 months for the next year’s seasons to evolve.  

Then to a larger example of frustration for the athletes of the era, Kandie’s college career was cut short by lack of support and lack of interest.  Kandie went to Villanova to study nursing and ran for them for her Frosh year.  She participated in the AIAW national championship.  The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was the organization that over saw college women’s athletics prior to Title 9 implementation and prior to the NCAA taking an interest in college women’s sports. But college sports at the time were not sympathetic to a woman who wanted to excel.  Kandie’s class schedule made practice difficult and the Villanova men’s coach would not let the women on the track during the men’s practice time.  He was afraid the girls would be distracting to his boys!  So after one year of college running Kandie quit and focused on her nursing studies.  A New Jersey champion finding no support at a school with a famous men’s program:   But that was the athletic landscape for women in 1975.  
A closer look at Kandie’s Ridgewood career will give a better idea of her tremendous contribution.  RHS was a 3 year high school at that time so Kandie’s first experience was her sophomore year and as a “fast kid” she ran a lot of sprint races for the team, but in those days the schedule consisted of  a few local dual meets and a couple of Saturday relay meets.  Not exactly a program that was going to develop a state level talent.  But her work ethic and attitude helped create a track and field athletic team.   Kandie was on a relay team at the Long Branch Relays (a long established meet that had added a few girls events) that won Ridgewood’s first medals of any kind.   The entire team exploded with excitement at the accomplishment of one of their relays.   

Kandie’s junior year her coaches recognized that she had some talent in the middle distances and convinced her to run the 880 yard run in a 2 mile relay event at The Red Bank Catholic Relays.  At the time Penn Relays had no high school women’s events and the Red Bank Relays were offered as alternative to Penn.  Ridgewood had a trio of great 880 girls (Jane Green, Cindy Hansen, and Nancy Reed) and needed a 4th for the relay.  The coaches convinced Kandie to “move up” to the 2 lap event for just this one race.  Kandie joined this group for several weeks of focused training under distance coach Bob Stickles and in her first 880 yard race Kandie lead off the team with a time that would have scored in the State Championship later in the season.  She handed off a lead and the rest of the team ran equally well and Ridgewood established a new National High School Record.  In those days there were no real governing bodies but a publication called Women’s Track and Field World kept track of High School marks and Ridgewood High School Girl’s Track and Field received its first national recognition.   Kandie went back to her signature event and placed 6th  in the New Jersey State Championship in the 440 yard dash.  Kandie’s junior year accomplishment was a remarkable   National relay record and 6th in New Jersey in her event.

In the fall of 1974 Ridgewood started a girls’ cross country team and Kandie again put on her pioneer shoes and took her speed to the distance event.  She and her friend, Jean Leach,  quickly established themselves as the best distance runners at Ridgewood.  An unfortunate ankle sprain at Garret Mountain kept Kandie from running in the State Meet.  But Ridgewood had established itself with a cross country program that soon gained area wide recognition.  Kandie and Jean lead with an attitude of excellence that still permeates Ridgewood’s distance program.

She and Jean then  went out for Winter Track at Ridgewood High School their senior year.  They were the first and only girls on a team that had been all boys up to this point.  Kandie raced on the old 168th Armory board track (the place where anyone who fell had a load of splinters to remove!).  Training with the boys was challenging but gave Kandie a background of endurance that enabled a great spring season to unfold.   With new found endurance this “fast kid” was able to move up to the 880 yard run and make it her event.  Losing only once her entire senior spring she toed the line at Rutgers Stadium cinder track  in the 2nd State Championship meet for high school girls.  She won the gold with a  new meet record and left a legacy of excellence that Ridgewood runners still feel today. 

Kandie has had a very successful career in the health care industry.    She has two daughters who have excelled in sport and her husband Mike is a successful lacrosse coach.  She lives in Glen Rock,  ironically only a few blocks from her high school coaches.   Her life from athlete to mother of athletes and wife of a coach has spanned a history of girls’ sports that has been quite remarkable. 

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Leigh Jester 
2003 Lacrosse, Soccer

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Tom Dusel 
1962 Football

An exceptional blocker and feared tackler Tom Dusel, at 195 pounds, was a coach’s dream as a two-way player which was  the norm for outstanding players of that era. Tom played Offensive Guard and on Defense either defensive end or linebacker. He played football for coach Roger Sweeney 1959-1962, and was named Ridgewood High School’s outstanding athlete for the Class of 1962 in his senior year.

Recognition among his peers came quickly to Tom. In 1959 he was named to the Ridgewood News All suburban 1st team and in  1960  he was named a 1st team guard on the All NNJIL and All Bergen County  teams as well as 1st team All Suburban .He was also named  to the New York Daly News Bergen/Passaic All Star team as the only junior on the squad representing the top 60 high school football players in the Metropolitan area for the 1960 season. Tom would repeat the feat again as a senior for the 1961 season. Also in 1961 Tom was again awarded  1st team All NNJIL ,1st team All Suburban and  1st team All Bergen  County laurels as a senior. He was also named All State (all groups) second team that same year.

In Tom’s  junior year, he helped the Maroons to be named a Group 4 Co-State Champion.
In his senior year Tom served as Co Capt of the 6-2 Maroon football team and had the then rarity of earning 3 varsity letters in the sport at a time when most sophomores in a 3 year high school did not see varsity competition until their junior season.

As a well rounded athlete and  fierce competitor, the gridiron wasn’t the only playing field where Tom excelled. He played baseball for three years earning three varsity letters and was team co-captain in his junior and senior years. He also earned two varsity letters in three years of varsity basketball. In the spring of 1962 Tom and team mate Bob Frame were named co recipients of  Ridgewood High School’s highest athletic recognition “The RHS Award For Excellence in Athletics” now called the “Dave Vanderbush Award“. 

Tom continued his football career at the US Military Academy at West Point playing guard and linebacker for three years before moving to center in his final campaign. He  played every down on offense, including long snaps. His favorite collegiate memory was beating arch rival  Navy and Roger Staubach. In West Point’s system of rotating captains Tom led the team in a victory over Rutgers and was awarded the game ball.

Upon graduation from West Point Tom was commissioned and trained as an artillery officer. He took his Airborne and Rangers training at Ft.Benning Ga.He was assigned initially to Ft Carson Co. as a generals aide and while there shared a house with some Army dentists leading to an interest in th.e field.

In November 1968 Tom was assigned to the 1st division in Vietnam as an artillery liaison officer to an infantry battalion. He was responsible for all artillery support (105mm,155mm Howitzers) for the combat infantry companies within the battalion. The four companies in Tom’s battalion were spread out over a large area of operations and were seeing significant enemy contact.

Tom’s second half of his one year tour was to be spent as a battery commander, but he didn’t get a chance to fulfill that part of his duty assignment. In March of 1969 while under heavy enemy fire (Tom describes it as “All hell broke loose”) an enemy mortar round landed very close to him.

Seriously wounded he was helicoptered out to a field medical unit, then on to hospitals in Vietnam and Japan for the next month. From there it was back to Fort Dix in New Jersey for recuperation.Tom and his wife Addie then lived with his parents in Ridgewood until he was healthy enough to resume active duty.

At Christmas time in 1967 Tom had met an old Ridgewood High School acquaintance, Addie Hamel, while on leave skiing in Colorado. As Tom describes it ‘Things fell into place” and they were Married in June of 1968 before Tom went to Southeast Asia.

After recuperating, Tom was reassigned to the recruiting Command at Presido,San Francisco where he remained until the end of his military career in 1970.

Taking advantage of his time in San Francisco to also pursue his ambitions to go to dental school ,Tom was able to complete pre requisite courses for dental school at night and in September of 1970 started dental school at The University of the Pacific in San Francisco.

Graduating in 1974 Tom bought a practice in San Jose and their family made Saratoga California home for 25 years. Daughter Kimberly was born in 1973 and son Clayton was born in 1975.Tom eventually moved his practice twice  and finished his career practicing in Sunnyvale California.

After retirement , Tom and Addie moved to Monterey California, but with grandchildren being born and the children living in Colorado, Tom and Addie decided to split time between homes in Castle Pines Colorado and Scottsdale Arizona to be closer to their family also noting “as avid skiers, hikers and golfers these locations work well for us”.
A great example of American exceptionalism as an athlete, patriot and family man, we take great pleasure in inducting Tom Dusel into the Ridgewood High School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2012.

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Roger Sweeney - Coach 
Head Football Coach 1959-1975

Growing up in the town of Ewing, New Jersey, Roger Sweeney attended and graduated from Trenton Central High School with the class of 1948. An outstanding athlete, Roger played both varsity football and baseball for the Red and Black. A two way player in high school football, Roger was a down lineman playing a guard position on the offensive side of the ball and an inside linebacker on defense. A steady infielder playing third base and shortstop on the baseball team, Roger hit for an average over .300 in each of his high school seasons.

Before moving on to college Roger did a year of post graduate work at Pennington Preparatory School in Pennington, New Jersey in 1948-49 where he was also a member of their varsity football and baseball teams. He was a center linebacker on the football team and starting shortstop on the baseball team, again having a .300 plus batting average at the end of his prep playing experience.

Roger enrolled at Trenton State College (Now The College of New Jersey) in the fall of 1949.After his sophomore year in 1951 Roger was called to active duty for two years as a member of the United States Air Force National Guard.

In 1949 through 1951 Roger started on both the varsity football and baseball teams at Trenten State.In football he was playing at the onset of the new thinking towards platooning players.On some occasions he would play on both sides of the ball as a down offensive lineman and interior linebacker, but when platooning was in effect he stayed on the defensive side specializing as a defensive interior linebacker.

In baseball Roger was the starting right fielder on his college team and stayed in that position for the duration of his collegiate career.

Upon returning from the service Roger also returned to Trenton State to continue his education and varsity athletic career playing both football and baseball again.

Roger was a lifetime .300 hitter at the collegiate level hitting .320 his junior year and .345 his senior season.He recalls one outstanding 6 for 6 day at East Stoudsburg University adding “days like that can do wonders for your batting average”.

Roger was the winner of the prestigious “Emonds Award” from Trenton State in 1954 designating him as the outstanding athlete for his class. 

Upon graduation from Trenton State in the spring of that same year, Roger took a position for the fall as an elementary school physical education teacher in Wanaque,New Jersey. It was a job he would hold until his arrival at Ridgewood High school in the fall of 1957.Upon arriving at RHS, Roger began his teaching career in the health and physical education department  as well as becoming an asst. varsity football coach under the tutelage of legendary Head Football Coach Frank Mozeleski (RHS HOF inductee class of 2006).Roger remained in his assistants position until the fall of 1959 when he was appointed the new Head Football Coach at Ridgewood High School

“So many memories,” Roger Sweeney said mentally recapping his 17- year career (1959 to 1975) as a winning football coach, the hand-picked successor to the late legendary Frank Mozeleski. Among his fondest are of his first sophomore team (6-0) led by Eddy Collins and Butch Heatherington, and in 1966, snapping highly regarded Fair Lawn’s 19-game winning streak sparked by the passing of Cliff Hendry to George Lewis on a memorable Thanksgiving Day. It was one of four instances when Sweeney’s  Maroons stunned highly favored opponents, ending  long winning streaks. 

Quarterback Jeff Lockhart succinctly summed up Sweeney’s philosophy while accepting the Jack Stroker Award from the Junior Football Association a couple of decades ago. “It’s been great playing football here because Mr. Sweeney makes playing football fun,” Lockhart said. It should still be fun at the high school level.

Roger, who taught at Ridgewood High School for 34 years, truly cared for his kids.  Caring was his inspiration to his football players. But he refused to take credit for motivating them. “The players psyched themselves,” he would say.  “It boils down to being able to execute what you have to do.” He told them “they had to do on the practice field what they were going to do on Saturday.”

Lockhart, who became a doctor, shared quarterback duties on the 1972  squad  that lost only to Hackensack in eight outings, 14-13, and captured the school’s first NNJIL title. The 1960 team  featured All-County guard, Tom Dusel, and end Mike Henderson and earned Ridgewood’s first Group 4 state crown. In 1969 in its first foray into rugged Hudson County football, Ridgewood snipped North Bergen’s 21-game skein. 

A cerebral coach, Roger at first walked in Mozeleski’s shadow. Then he carved his own niche in the annals of Bergen County football compiling a 91-56-4 record, including a 39-14 stretch 1970-75.He eschewed going for the nine wins he needed for membership in Bergen County’s prestigious Century Club. His son Peter was coming up and Roger didn’t think the boy  needed his father for a coach. Roger taught him to placekick and Peter entered the school’s  record book in that specialty under Dave Vanderbush.

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Linda Zabielski 
1991 Basketball

 

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Patty Capasso 
1980 Gymnastics