Marty Berman remembers his Seton Hall Prep’s first Essex County Tournament final in 2001, a game the Pirates lost 3-1 to St. Benedict’s.
Now 23 years later, and with nine ECT titles since 2009 and a record nine straight appearances in the final with a record-tying four straight titles, the longtime SHP coach sees a different-looking field as nationally-ranked St. Benedict’s – which rejoined the NJSIAA last winter, and then became members of the Super Essex Conference, is back in ECT soccer for the first time since 2001.
The 50th ECT field, which was assembled this past Monday night, has a strong upper tier of teams entered beginning with the top-seeded Grey Bees, No. 2 Montclair, 3-West Orange, 4-Montclair Kimberley Academy, 5-East Side and 6-SHP.
There are 32 teams that have entered the 2024 ECT. Preliminary rounds are underway. The first round (Oct. 17) and quarterfinals (Oct. 19) are at the higher-seeded team’s home field. The semifinals are scheduled for 5 and 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Millburn and the final will be 4 p.m. or following the 2 p.m. girls championship, Saturday, Oct. 26, at Livingston.
The No. 6 seed is an unusual position to start out from for the Pirates, who are not accustomed to being seeded below the top two or three seeds, at least since the program took off with the past two decades of supreme success in the tournament.
“When I took over as head coach in 1986, we had our struggles and I wondered if we’d ever win the ECT, and it was certainly our ambition to do so, but we didn’t reach a final until 2001 against St. Benedict’s, or win our first championship until eight years after that,” Berman recalled. “It’s hard to believe it’s now the 50th ECT because I remember covering it as a reporter (with The Star-Ledger) back in 1978, including the final that season between East Side and Vailsburg.
“I graduated high school (Columbia) in 1970 so I never had the opportunity to play in the ECT (which started in 1974), but it’s always been a great tournament to be around, either all the years covering it, or in the past four decades coaching in it.
“We’ve seen a lot of great players and terrific coaches be a part of the ECT and we’re hoping for another exciting tournament in its 50th year!”
Along with the few veteran coaches in the county who are still active, such as Berman, Livingston’s Roger Rubinetti, Verona’s Jack Weber, who was best known as the longtime coach at Montclair, and West Orange’s Doug Nevins, who played for Berman at SHP, there are the memories of one of the greatest coaches in Essex and statewide in the late Gene Chyzowych, who won 757 games in 50 years as Columbia’s head coach for a Cougars team that has captured a record 13 ECT titles, but none since sharing back-to-back championships with Weber’s Mounties in 1997 and ’98.
St. Benedict’s, which had a run in the late 1980s and early ‘90s under former coach Rick Jacobs, won five ECT titles during a 6-year span from 1987-1992. |
