Vanderbeek hired as co-head football coach at Somerville H.S.

SOMERVILLE – The images Jeff Vanderbeek carries of Somerville High School athletics aren't just a memory, not just from the days he played pick-up football near his father's laundromat on Gaston Avenue, but of something he's confident can happen again.

It was a time of marching bands trailed by neighborhood kids, Friday nights of big crowds and Pioneers winning key football games, with an athletic program powered by three-sport athletes.

The former owner of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League has returned to where he gained his athletic footing as a boy playing touch football near the Gaston Avenue Laundry, the business his late father Gus ran from 1959 to the time of his death in 2013.

By an 8-1 vote on Tuesday night, the board of education appointed Vanderbeek as co-head football coach for $1 a year. Vanderbeek will serve on the sidelines with Chris Casamento, whose team will begin the 2015 season determined to snap the state's second longest losing streak of 22 games.

Board member Dianne Durland cast the sole dissenting vote without making a comment.

This isn't the first time Vanderbeek has the Somerville school system. He previously donated funds for the installation of artificial turf at the high school.

While most in attendance supported the idea, one resident doesn't believe that having co-coaches — even one with a known name — is the best solution for a struggling program.

"It's a recipe for disaster," Branchburg resident Greg Pierson said.

Pierson said the coaching position has been "a revolving door" and that Casamento should be given a chance to rebuild the program.

"I think it's a mistake," Pierson said, adding that Vanderbeek's appointment "is the handwriting on the wall" for Casamento.

Pierson also wondered how the coaching relationship will work.

"Those are all good questions," Superintendent of Schools Timothy Purnell said, adding that a question-and-answer session on the program will be conducted 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of Somerville High School. The meeting is open to parents and football players.

Earlier Tuesday in an email, Purnell wrote: "Mr Vanderbeek's record speaks for itself. He instills direction, drive and motivation in his players and we are looking forward to him doing the same for our athletes in Somerville, providing excellence on the playing field and in the classroom.''

High school principal Gerard T. Foley echoed those feelings.

"Mr. Vanderbeek has already contributed so much to our district that we are confident in his future input to enhance our school community and our programs,'' wrote Foley in an email. "His prominence in the field of athletics will serve as an inspiration to our student athletes and we are excited that he will be part of our team.''

'Sign me up'

"If everybody is pulling on the same oar we're going to win, it's just a matter of time, just a matter of time," said the 57-year-old Vanderbeek, now working as a consultant for several North Jersey businesses. "I do believe it can be done. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe it. I love challenges.

"You say we can't do it? Sign me up," he added.

Why would a man responsible for the building of the Prudential Center in Newark and owner of a Stanley Cup-winning hockey team want to be a high school football coach?

"I love coaching, it's always been a passion of mine and still is," Vanderbeek said. "I've been involved in football whether it's Little League or the Junior Skyland Conference League that (brother) Keith and I started with Billy Ard (former New York Giants lineman and longtime Watchung resident). But I'll be out there with a whistle in my mouth being a football coach."

Vanderbeek said he approached a couple of school districts about the possibility of coming aboard, but said he decided on Somerville because of Purnell, Foley, assistant principal Scott Hade and high school athletic director Kyle Franey and Casamento.

"I had other opportunities, but I was so impressed with the administration, people like Dr. Purnell, Mr. Foley, Scott Hade, Chris, Kyle. When Dr. Purnell says 'all in' it's not corny stuff; if it was I wasn't going to be part of it, but I was so impressed, so impressed," said Vanderbeek.

"To be able to work with somebody who has been an administrator of a professional championship team was a no-brainer," said Franey.

Lesson from his dad

Vanderbeek, an outstanding back at Bridgewater-Raritan East and William and Mary, said giving back to youth and community, is something his father suggested to him years ago — to be part of his long-term life goal.

"My dad instilled something in me as an 18-year-old, something that made more sense to me and resonated in me as I got older," said Vanderbeek. "He said the first third of your life should be when you learn, the second third should be to earn and the third of your life — and my dad said 'God willing you'll be fortunate enough to make it' — is to return and have enough time to give back.

"You return not just to your hometown, but society, kids, underprivileged adults, whatever you choose to do," Vanderbeek added. "I was lucky enough to have that opportunity, I kind of started that in Newark. I saw that as a start to give back to New Jersey and along the way we did a lot with the kids of Newark."

The talk of funding a new outdoor field house at Somerville High or facilities off the Somerville High campus is something he hasn't committed to, but Vanderbeek said as time goes along there are things that 'will be looked at.' "

No school in Somerset County has won more than Somerville's seven sectional titles, 12 final appearances and 21 playoff berths, but it hasn't won a title since 1994 when it won the Central Group II championship. Somerville went 0-10 in Casamento's first season last fall and 0-10 in Skip Fuller's second and final year as coach in 2013. Somerville has gone 2-28 in the last three seasons.

For Vanderbeek, the objective is to make a team, whose laundry he used to help his father do, get back to being a winner and at some point win a sectional title.

He returns to a place he lived until 1969 when the family left their East Spring Street home a few blocks from Brooks Field to live on Northern Drive in Bridgewater. Gus Vanderbeek, a 1948 graduate of Somerville High, and member of its Athletic Hall of Fame, has his name as part of the Brooks Field facility.

"I can't wait," said Vanderbeek.

Staff Writer Harry Frezza: 732-565-7363; hfrezza@mycentraljersey.com

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6603; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com