Eight Decades at The Pingry School Bugliari Soccer – The Beginning From... wing-tip shoes he taught in. The first day of practice he introduced Miller as ‘a former player who was going to help with the coaching.’ We looked at him – he was dressed in what amounted to ratty gym clothes, to be kind about it − and we were saying to ourselves, ‘Who is this guy?’ We found out fast. “Mr. West just turned the practice over to Miller, who began by saying: ‘Gentlemen, we’re going to spend time getting in shape’ − this The New Coach to a bunch of guys who had done almost nothing before the season in In some ways, soccer was an afterthought in Pingry athletics from terms of running. He had us take a lap around the entire field, and the start of interscholastic athletics through the 1950s. As Troupe when the last player struggled in, Miller said, ‘That wasn’t fast enough. Noonan wrote in The Greatest Respect: Pingry at 150 Years, football Do it again.’ We ran that under Reese Williams and Mr. Les was “the straw that stirred the second lap a lot harder sports drink.” than the first. That T When Miller started coaching in 1959, everything changed. His goal established the tone for was not a winning season – that was a given – it was excellence, as the season. Miller drove measured in championships. His vision was that Pingry would become us incessantly, often not only the leading New Jersey prep school team, it would dominate taking the lead and Union County public schools. setting the pace.” But for Pingry as it entered the 1960s, such aspirations were, well, In the Fall 1994 unimaginable. Pingry was a small school whose students came largely issue of The Pingry Review, Mr. West demonstrating from affluent suburban homes – and who were expected to meet the “Soccer at Pingry,” Miller recalled proper technique – in his suit! most demanding academic standards. A “good season” was one in his first years as Pingry’s young which a team won more games than it lost, or even “tried hard” coach. “I was excited to try my hand at coaching on my own, to try my against tough opponents while winding up with a losing record. personal theories about training and fitness as they related to soccer.” Peter Wiley ’60 remembers Coach Frank West, who had guided His first players remember those “personal theories” well: at almost Pingry soccer for almost a quarter-century, as a deeply caring man every practice, Miller would have some often bizarre new drill for the with an abiding love for the game of soccer. “But none of us had come team, like dribbling the ball through traffic cones at full speed. Early even close to experiencing anything like Miller’s intensity, energy, and on, Miller began starting practices with what he told the team was the enthusiasm. He was like a big kid. Under Coach West we had practiced, “Hungarian National Team’s Warm-Up Drill,” Miller’s invention for but he didn’t really coach us. Miller coached us incessantly – in a a series of punishing leg-strengthening exercises that began with different game. For the first time, Miller had us learning and playing hopping, then cariocas at full speed, then lunges − until players’ thigh tactical soccer – a short passing game completely unlike toe-kicking muscles were on fire. He’d have players cool down with jumping jacks, the ball downfield and scrambling in front of the net.” and then start all over again. The October 2, 1959, Pingry Record noted: “With the addition of That was the foundation on which Pingry soccer under Miller was Mr. Miller Bugliari to the coaching staff, a special emphasis has been built: the highest possible expectations, superb conditioning, relentless put on conditioning.” Gordy Sulcer ’61, a junior on Miller’s first team, defense, a total enthusiasm for soccer, and the unswerving commitment remembers what “special emphasis” really meant. “We were used to to a team-based short passing game. Mr. West conducting practice in the same grey pin-striped suit and 84 Eight Decades at The Pingry School The 1960s: The Championship Quest And the challenge Pingry teams faced wasn’t just from the “Blended into my memories of coaching in the 1960s descendants of America’s earlier immigrants. Through the 1960s, local are recollections of the intensity and nervousness high school soccer teams were fueled by a steady influx of players that go with that responsibility.” whose families had recently arrived in New Jersey. If you look at the Miller, 1994 All-County and All-State teams in the 1960s, you see names like Kelley, The Challenge Fiorillo, Porchetta, Russo, Periera, Schiesswohl, Jurczak, Barroquiero, The year before Miller’s arrival, Pingry’s schedule reflected its prep Tsimanides, Dziadosz, Theofilos, and Majkut. These players were school identity, with opponents like Poly Prep, Rutgers Prep, skilled soccer players with deep roots in the rich heritage of countries Bordentown, Haverford, George School, Staten Island Academy, and like Ireland, Italy, Germany, Poland, Greece, and Argentina. The Riverdale. Pingry would often measure the success of its season against instinctive sense of and love for the game was in their blood. Blair Academy. But winning repeated prep school championships would Tmean beating boarding schools like Peddie, Hun, and Lawrenceville, whose teams were stocked with postgraduates, often All-County and “In my three years on the varsity soccer team, we worked harder than All-State players from the previous year, as well as with foreign students any other sports team at Pingry. The incessant running and relentless who had grown up playing soccer. conditioning was the ‘Red Badge of Courage’ that you earned as a Pingry soccer player. Accomplishing that goal against the large Group III and IV Union “Two other things really set Miller apart. We realized immediately County public schools was an even more daunting challenge. And it that he was a really skilled, experienced player who could defend wasn’t just the disparity in the size of the schools Pingry competed more tenaciously, control the ball better, and kick more accurately against. Pingry was located in one of the richest areas of the country and harder than any of us. He modeled for us the kind of player we in terms of high-level soccer. needed to become. In the mid-1800s, the Clark Thread Company from “And he was ‘Italian’ – he epitomized all the allure and deep Scotland opened plants in Kearny and Newark, importing traditions of the European game.” Les Buck ’64 hundreds of workers and their families to serve in the factories. The ensuing decades witnessed the opening of the silk mills in Paterson and the rapid growth of industrialized areas throughout Hudson, Union, and Out of gritty dirt fields like Farcher’s Grove in Union, the Gunnell Essex Counties. By the late 1920s and 1930s, soccer Oval in Kearny, Schutzenpark in North Bergen, Hinchcliff Stadium in clubs representing the huge influx of working-class Paterson, Passaic Sportfreunde Field in Wayne, and the famous old immigrant families had spread throughout New Jersey’s fields on Delancey Street and the Ironbound Stadium in Newark came industrial cities and neighborhoods: Scots and Irish not only the gifted, superbly skilled players like the United States in Kearny, Harrison, and Paterson; Portuguese and National Team stars of the 1990s and mid-2000s such as Tony Meola, Ukrainians in Newark’s Ironbound district; Germans John Harkes, Tab Ramos, Greg Berhalter, and Claudio Reyna, but and Italians in Union; Hungarians in New Brunswick; also the All-County high school players from Thomas Jefferson in and Spaniards in Bayonne. These clubs evolved into Elizabeth and from Linden, Union, and Edison Tech. They played semi-pro soccer leagues such as The American Soccer League, a different game than Pingry kids and defined the extraordinary level The German American League, The Schaefer League, and the of excellence Miller had to help Pingry players achieve in order to Italian American League, whose players stunned the soccer world win county championships. by beating England in the 1950 World Cup. 88 The Life & Times of Miller A. Bugliari the same opportunity? Miller and his fellow coaches got approval initially for a four-team post-season tournament, but Miller realized “This Is Why We Don’t Lose” that too narrow a field might still leave good Pingry teams out of Bob Dwyer ’65 remembers a story that has been repeated in different consideration, so he fought and won the battle to expand the versions so many times it has become an indelible part of the Pingry tournament to eight teams. Soccer legend. “We beat BMI 4-0, but didn’t play particularly well, so Coach made us run laps afterwards. An astounded BMI player asked Building the Sport me: ‘You just killed us. What do you guys have to do if you lose?’ I replied: ‘This is why we don’t lose.’” Miller’s leadership then expanded to embrace the entire state. Bob Dwyer ’65 He was instrumental in helping create the New Jersey Soccer Coaches Association in 1968 and headed up their committee charged with formally ranking the Top 20 teams in New Jersey each week and guiding the selection of players to All-State and All-Group teams. Becoming Champions Looking back, Miller recalls, “In the early 1960s, high school Like a long-distance runner relentlessly, inexorably picking off soccer was still largely an ethnic thing limited to a few schools. competitors ahead of him to cross the finish line in first place, I believed soccer had a much greater potential value throughout Miller’s teams worked their way through the prep school competition New Jersey as a competitive sport.