“Dan, someone told me that wrestling practices have begun. Not sure if this is true or not but have we even approved a wrestling coach at this point? You know I have my concerns and I’m not gonna rub or stand anyone as the head coach”.
He also wrote to a staff member directly to influence the coach decision:
“Hey Keith, I am sending this email as the former President of RJW and as a resident of Ridgewood.This email in no way reflects my role on the BOE or the feeling of any of the other board members.Keith, we lose so many high level wrestlers every year, my son included, to private schools because we don’t have faith in the program.I’m not going to get into the other issues, this is simply about what the program has to offer wrestlers. We’ve had several great guest coaches in the RJW program and two have coaching experience and have expressed interest in running the HS program.The kids that come out of RJW have the skills, but what about the kids that come out for the first time in 9th grade?The current program does not have the ability to really teach these kids the skills needed to succeed. You need someone with a life time of experience as the head coach. As the AD, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t want the best for every program.Unless I’m missing something, we are not offering the best program possible for wrestling.I would like to submit two resumes for consideration, following this email.These are two guys that our kids know, respect and trust.I can promise you, if nothing changes we are going to continue to lose top quality kids that would rather go to RHS if the program had more to offer. We all strive to be the best a tour jobs and I think and it would be worth looking into this and at least giving this some real thought.”
During Watson’s tenure Ridgewood High School Wrestling has experienced the most success in its programs history. In the past 10 seasons Ridgewood has qualified for the team state tournament 7 years and finished top 10 in Bergen County in the past 4 seasons in a row. The program has won the last 4 District VI team titles in a row, the only ones in the school history. In his tenure Ridgewood High School wrestling has produced 30 District Champions, 1 County Champion, 2 Region Champions, 7 State Qualifiers, and 2 State Medal Winners. Coach Watson focuses on producing young men within the community that are committed to their families with good character and who are good teammates.
Mr Kaufman is a terrible elected official. So full of his on importance. He is a disgrace
Ha ha ha, of course now on Facebook Mr. kaufmann supporters are jumping in. You can’t get anything completely honest on Facebook, at least you can’t get everything completely honest on Facebook, because there are people who fear retribution. In an anonymous forum like the blog, people can be honest. And that’s what’s happening here. People who are afraid the board of Ed might go after them are going to say what they really feel. People who are afraid of the coaches are going to say what they really feel. Many people are going to completely shy away from saying what they really feel, or what they have really experienced, when it’s on Facebook. Their neighbors might get mad at them. Their children’s classmates parents might get mad at them. On the blog, the truth will come out.Long live the blog
I wrestled under Torre for 4 years (Class of 2016) and can honestly say in Ridgewood there is no one better suited to lead that team. Please do not buy into whatever political game Kaufman is pulling here. Torre creates great men and great wrestlers. But end of the day it’s on the athlete to improve, in any sport, but especially wrestling. Firing Torre wouldn’t only hurt these future athletes development in the program.
Torre is an exceptional leader and coach. My son flourished under his guidance.
I wrestled on the Ridgewood team for 4 years (Class of 2017) and there is no one better for the job than coach Watson. Torre helps build anyone who joins the wrestling team into better athletes and people. He has a devotion that is unmatched to the program and anyone who has been through it knows that.
Torte Watson is the epitome of a good coach and mentor. My son wrestled under him for four years and coach Watson kept the promise that he made at the introductory dinner. He said his goal was to make the boys better men. I watched my son thrive under his guidance from the 120 pound weakling to become captain of the team. He is a fine and decent man and I am grateful to him for what he has done for my son and countless other young men that have had the benefit of being under coach Watson ‘s guide
Who the f$%k is Chris Kaufman
You all must be bored out of your mind! Stop making an elephant out of a fly. It’s incredible how many Karen’s thus town has.
If it wasn’t for Coach Watson I would not be the man that I am today. He wasn’t just a coach to me and my fellow teammates he was a mentor and for some a father figure. The things coach Watson does on and off the field for his players is more than some of the parents in Ridgewood do for their own kids. Coach Watson taught me the skills on the football field that i needed to go onto the next level but also taught me how to be a respectful young man. Watson deserves nothing but the best and needs to be recognized for all the mentoring that he gives to all his players and students. Thanks coach.
This is not making an elephant out of a fly. This is serious business. Kaufmann stuck his nose where it shouldn’t go. And he needs to be removed from office. Now.
I guess I’m the only one willing to use my real name.
I’m not here to justify, explain or engage in any way. I do however want to clarify something and hopefully stop all this fighting. The one, personal unrelated to board business, email in the blog article was from over a year ago. Why is it being brought out a year later? It’s an obvious political strategy and nothing more. This blog article was in no way to protect or defend anyone but simply try to create negative attention in advance of the next election. If anything, it opens the door for potential attacks on someone, not me, which I do not condone. Also, I only sent one email and the other quoted comment was something said at a board meeting. Why the writer of the blog article couldn’t transcribe “rubber stamp” accurately I can’t answer. What I can say is the word “fired” is never used nor the name of anyone. Every coaching position is voted on yearly. Someone can’t be fired from a position they haven’t been approved for yet. The notion that I abused some sort of power is ridiculous. I would never use my position to influence anything. I clearly stated that this is coming from a parent and former president of Ridgewood Junior wrestling and nothing more. The email was sent from my personal email and as a parent in the community which is still my right as a taxpayer. While trying to pose as an unbiased news source, the blog will only allow certain comments to be posted and it’s usually the same person posting over and over. I have received several messages from people trying to post in defense or support of various things, now and in the past, and their posts are never approved. Again, this is 100% a political agenda and nothing more. While I can’t talk about board business, if anyone wants to message me privately and discuss this year old email, I will be happy to explain my position. I will not engage on this post and this will be my only comment. My main focus right now is getting our kids back in school full day every day and addressing the social and emotional health issues the last two years has caused our children.
Thank you to those that know me and have come to my defense and for those that see this for what it is, a political strategy. It’s actually shameful because this is a school board election, a volunteer position.
This arrogant board member, Kaufman did not even read the comments above where MULTIPLE people have used their read names, before declaring “I am the only one who’s going to use real name here”.
How arrogant and disrespectful to others who did use their namea above.
“This arrogant board member, Kaufman did not even read the comments above where MULTIPLE people have used their read names, before declaring “I am the only one who’s going to use real name here”.
How arrogant and disrespectful to others who did use their namea above.” Says Anonymous- so funny, fool
As Chris says at the board meetings, “I am going to put forward my view, but it’s not up for the discussion”.
He assumes here too that he can just come and say the last word, and no one should expect any follow up questions.
Does he genuinely believe no one should ask him questions and his word is final authority?
I had the priviledge to wrestle under Coach Watson for 4 years. He was a phenomenal coach. He made me a better athlete, but more importantly he made me a better person. He not only builds teams, he makes his teams family. To say the current program doesn’t have the ability to develop first time wrestlers is far from the truth. Take it from someone that started wrestling in 9th grade at RHS knowing nothing about wrestling, and being able to compete with some of the best in the state by Senior year. This is a high school program Chris, not the NCAAs.
So Kaufman thinks that an email sent from his personal account somehow relieves him of any responsibility to his elected position as a member of the Board? What? This guy is delusional.
Kaufman has to go. Now.
I miss Vince Loncto.
So this guy coached for a number of years, probably a few hundred wrestlers and only a handful had positive comments? Almost as many negative comments about him in here as well. Looks like a political agenda story that may ultimately embarrass the coach. Where there is smoke there usually is fire. More to this one sided story for sure.
UNETHICAL
PERSONAL INTEREST
SELF SERVING
This person has no place serving the “PUBLIC.” This email is very telling, shows it’s all about him and what benefits him personally. VOTER BEWARE of Kaufman and all he endorses. #backdoordeals
As someone who was very involved in Ridgewood Junior wrestling and who had a son who was a highly successful wrestler for RHS, I can say that “beloved” is not a term I would use to describe coach. He believes screaming and berating his kids is the best way to improve their performance, he has no wrestling experience or knowledge, and the success he has enjoyed lies partly with the fact that Ridgewood wrestles small schools in the area that can barely field a full roster, while coach is handed a bevy of experience pd and talented kids every year from the Junior program, which is the envy of North Jersey.
Chris has also been involved at both levels and has insight into coach’s shortcomings.
“the success he has enjoyed lies partly with the fact that Ridgewood wrestles small schools in the area that can barely field a full roster, while coach is handed a bevy of experience pd and talented kids every year from the Junior program, which is the envy of North Jersey.”
Ridgewood (1700 students) does wrestle some smaller schools (they have to) but they mostly wrestle the larger one like Hackensack (1900), Passaic County Tech (3300), Passaic (3200), Clifton (2800), Bridgewater/Raritan (2900), Kennedy (2500), etc. Look at the pre-covid schedules and get your facts straight.
Without a doubt, the high school team benefits from the fact that RJW encourages kids to attend summer camps and private lessons at Apex, Olympic, Red Nose, etc. RJW is a great program, the best sports program in the Village in my opinion, but many/most of the starters on the HS team privately train year-round outside of RJW.
The coach has shortcomings. But it is not the place of a BOE member to have a coach replaced by his buddies (who have no experience in a school setting). And I question the logic and ego of a man who would send his son to BC to be a benchwarmer when they kid could have actually wrestled at RHS. College scholarships are virtually non-existent for wrestling. D1 schools (85 of them) get 9 .9 full scholarships to split over the entire team. Unless you are at the very top of the wrestling rankings, you are getting nothing for college wrestling so why not enjoy high school wrestling while you can?