Barnegat Coach To Be Inducted In New Jersey Coaches Hall Of Fame
BARNEGAT, NJ — Susan Rogers will make history on Sunday as she becomes the first Barnegat High School coach to be inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Hall of Fame.
Rogers began coaching tennis at Barnegat High School when the school opened in 2004. Four years later, she also founded the varsity girls golf team.
Rogers said many of the girls she instructed through the years had never picked up a tennis racket, yet through coaching and practice they learned to love the sport even after they graduated from high school.
“It’s a lifetime sport and something they can always do. Once the girls come out, they seem to just enjoy it and enjoy being part of the team,” Rogers told Patch.
With Rogers as their head coach, the school’s girls tennis team were Shore Conference B-South division champions in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Rogers works at the high school as a learning specialist for the child study team. She graduated from James Caldwell High School in Essex County, where she played softball and served as a manager of the girls basketball team.
Rogers said managing the basketball team in high school was a pivotal moment in her athletic career, where she learned how to organize practices and lead a team from her coach Barbara Cordasco.
“She would write everything out and she had a goal for the practice, and I still do that,” Rogers said.
Rogers studied at Kean College of New Jersey, where she played softball. After graduation, she started her coaching career in 1984 at Cedar Grove High School where she led the girls JV basketball and softball teams.
When she arrived to coach at Barnegat High School, Rogers already had about 20 years of coaching experience.
In 1987, Rogers joined the Pinelands Regional district as head coach of girls varsity softball and she coached the junior varsity girls field hockey in 1988.
Rogers led the varsity girls tennis team in 1989 and four years later, she began coaching the varsity boys tennis team. She coached both teams through 2003, before joining the Barnegat High School staff in 2004.
The girls tennis season Rogers coached in August through the fall was unlike any other season she coached at Barnegat High School. To reduce contact between players, tennis balls had to be painted specific colors and players could only pick up their team's balls.
"This school year, what we were all looking for is normalcy and the tennis season gave (the players) normalcy...they were all just relieved," Rogers said.
Though the girls tennis team's season was shortened with half as many matches as usual, the girls golf team's season was cut entirely after one week due to the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.
"We graduated four seniors who had no matches. We had a season of five days and I said 'We’ll be back just in time' and then it didn’t happen," Rogers said, adding that she is excited for the upcoming season.
Throughout her career, Rogers found that coaching went hand in hand with her role as a teacher. Through both teaching and coaching, Rogers found her greatest achievement is having the chance to positively impact the lives of her students.
“It’s about touching the lives of the teenagers and seeing some of my former players as coaches who continued to play tennis or golf,” Rogers said.
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This article originally appeared on the Barnegat-Manahawkin Patch
