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CN Boys Soccer: Ricky Steeb of Montgomery is Coach of the Year

Lauren Knego
@laurenknego

Ricky Steeb has experienced a lot of highs and lows as head coach of the Montgomery High School boys soccer team, and this season definitely ranks in the high category.

Steeb, in his eighth season with the Cougars, helped guide his team to a 13-2-3 record, the first Skyland Conference Raritan Division title in 11 years and the first Somerset County Tournament title in school history.

For his efforts, Steeb is the 2015 Courier News Boys Soccer Coach of the Year.

“He is the man,” senior defender Zach Epstein said. “He showed me what it meant to be part of a team, so I worked with him and then he brought in the other great coaches to augment that all and I think really just the passion he brings to it. You can see it on the sideline in the film when he’s jumping up and down and punching the air like he’s Rocky Balboa when we score but also just the work he puts in off the field. He’s going through film, he arranged for all our games to be filmed so we can do film sessions, he’s going to games an hour away just to scout this team we’re playing next week, he writes up scouting reports, he runs us through the film, all these things and so he really put in so much work over the past few years.”

CN Boys Soccer: Montgomery's Zach Epstein is Player of the Year

Four years ago Montgomery slogged through a 0-17-2 season that dealt the team’s mentality a blow. Steeb said the Cougars weren’t getting blown out, they either couldn’t close out close games or lost in overtime. The next season when Steeb asked his players what the goals were, they responded with, ‘Win one game,’ or ‘Score one goal.’

“There was a lot to build off of and I had a lot of guys returning, we were very young that year,” said Steeb, who had four freshmen on that team. “It’s amazing how an experience can in way crush a team but instead of continuing to fail we used it as motivation and we grew from that and every season we’ve improved. It’s like anything else, just a lot of hard work and determination and really take it one game at a time and day by day.”

Courier News Boys Soccer All-Area Teams

That mantra helped the team immensely as the next year Montgomery improved to 11-4-3, then 13-5-1 last year. This season the last four years of hard work and dedication came to fruitition as the Cougars dominated in the Skyland Conference.

Montgomery posted five shutouts, allowed only 16 goals and won four one-goal games en route to the county and conference championships.

“One thing I think different this year was we learned how to win tight games, it didn’t matter if we were trailing, we just found a way to win and I think that was a huge reason why we were so successful, we were very motivated,” Steeb said. “We play in a very talented Skyland Conference and we were in every game, we barely trailed this season in our games and we were able to win a conference title and that gave us the confidence and the will to win the county.”

Steeb points to the SCT semifinal matchup against Gill St. Bernard’s as one of the biggest games of the season for the Cougars. Last season, Montgomery was the No. 1 seed in the county tournament for the first time in program history and lost to Gill in penalty kicks at home after battling back from a 2-0 deficit. This season, the Cougars went and played at Gill in the semifinals and beat the Knights 4-0 to earn a berth in the final for the first time since 2004.

“They have a loaded team and to beat them 4-0 at their place was a huge statement for us,” Steeb said. “That was probably one of the biggest moments for us and it helped us to the final and to tie Pingry.”

Steeb is looking to build a tradition at Montgomery, and with the success achieved this season and the legacy of a winning mentality left behind by a strong group of seniors, the future looks bright for the Cougars.

“We’re trying to build a tradition and I feel that this is the first step in that, bringing home two championships,” Steeb said. “We have a lot of young talent coming back and I think they realize all the hard work and dedication that it took to be this successful and I feel that they’re going to learn from our accomplishments and our mistakes and I hope with that, with more hard work and some other guys stepping up next year we’ll be competing every game.”

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com