Ridgewood athletes Sophie Montgomery, Saskia Keppler and Libby DeVita benefited this spring from the tutelage of jumps coach Steve Opremcak, who has been chosen to lead the girls cross-country team this upcoming season.
JULY 10, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The fate of the Ridgewood High School boys and girls cross-country programs is now in the hands of two men in vastly different stages of their coaching careers but who envision their teams following a similar upward path.
For new girls coach Steve Opremcak, the position is the continuation of an already distinguished cross-country head coaching career. In Patrick Ryan, the newly appointed boys coach, Ridgewood is confident it has found a promising up-and-comer in the coaching ranks.
The appointments, approved by the district Board of Education late last month, signal the start to a new era for the tradition-rich boys and girls cross-country teams that achieved tremendous success under long-time coaches Jacob Brown and Mike Glynn.
“It’s a little intimidating, but I feel very honored,” said Opremcak, who was one of Brown’s assistants for the past six seasons during the cross-country and spring track seasons and served as the head coach at Indian Hills from 1998 to 2007.
The intimidation to which Opremcak referred is due not only to Brown’s role as the founder of the girls cross-country and track programs at Ridgewood but also his teams’ unparalleled success in the sport.
Since their inaugural season in 1974, Brown’s cross-country squads amassed a 243-15 record in dual meets, which included a 22-year undefeated stretch from 1984 through 2005. RHS also claimed 35 league championships, 29 county group titles, 28 Bergen Meet of Champions (BMOC) crowns, 22 state-sectional triumphs and two State Meet of Champions (SMOC) victories under Brown’s leadership.