by Alyssa Mata

On February 18, 2016, Coach Coleman was announced as the new head coach of Woodbridge High School’s football team. After playing football throughout high school and college, Coach Coleman still wanted to be a part of the game. He played nine years as an inside linebacker through high school and at Kean University, and has been coaching football for 14 years; five at Snyder High School, four at Plainfield High School, one at Bishop Ahr, and four at WHS. The Barron Perspective sat down with Coach Coleman earlier this season to discuss his approach to the season.

BP: Who’s the most influential person in your life?
CC: My father.

BP: Who inspired you to become a football coach?
CC: Honestly speaking, no one really inspired me to be a football coach. I inspired myself because I love the game and I love being around the game. I think the closest thing to playing the game is coaching the game. I don’t think when I was playing I was saying, “Man, I’m going to coach one day.”  Playing ran out and coaching was the closest thing I can get to playing. After that, goes to who inspired me which was my father who told me to work hard at anything I do. So I started going to clinic and working hard and doing the things I needed to do to become a good head coach, [and] a good coach period.

BP: Did you try other sports when you were a kid?
CC: I played basketball in high school, we won the state championship in high school; I played for three years.

BP: Did you try coaching other sports?
CC: I coached my brothers little league baseball, but no I don’t coach any other sports. I don’t love other sports, I love this sport.

BP: Our school saying is “Be Great Everyday” do you have a motivational quote that you say before each game?
CC: I don’t have a motivational quote but my quote is to strive for excellence.

BP: As a new coach, how have you built a connection with the boys?
CC: I think it’s still me kind of feeling out the in-betweens on having a connection and being their head coach. So I think I just try to be myself and coach the way I normally coach, and hopefully they will understand that I have their best interest at heart and that would be the connection.

BP: What is your key to a successful season?
CC: Focus, attention to detail, working hard, striving for perfection, settle for excellence.

BP: What qualities do you look for in a captain?
CC: I think it depends on the player for that team so the qualities you want to look for is consistency, hard work, and being able to relate to the team.

BP: Why do you have so many captains?
CC: I think each captain that I have brings a certain type of tool towards the team. Marquan is more of a vocal leader; Nick is a leader that works hard, a man of few words but works really hard; Leone is a leader on the line, he’s a three-year starter from the center position, he can control the line; Da’Avian is a vocal leader that has a lot of emotion. The last two, Keshaun and Quaasim, have been here for three years, their play speaks for itself and they lead to making great plays.

BP: What are your goals for this season?
CC: First thing is to beat Colonia, which we have done already; win the division, but the division is up in the air now that we lost one division game; and to make the play-offs.