HNT Girls Soccer: Monroe's Kathleen Dillon is Coach of the Year

Four years ago the Monroe girls soccer team made a leap from the Greater Middlesex Conference White Division. This resulted in a transformation period for coach Kathleen Dillon and her program.

Fresh faces were thrusted into the lineup early in their high school careers to learn the new environment they were placed in. Monroe was coming off of a White Division title, but its first year in the Red Division made winning a distant memory.

For the past three years Dillon has been rebuilding her team and helping the players adapt to the intensity of high school soccer. It was all worth it this past season. Dillon finally pushed her team to take the next step, a giant one to say the least, when Monroe won the GMC Red Division.

2015 Home News Tribune All-Area Teams and final Top 10

For her efforts, Dillon is the Home News Tribune Girls Soccer Coach of the Year.

“We did well in the White Division,” Dillon explained “We always tied for the division or we would come in second. It was always us or Sayreville or sometimes even North Brunswick. It wasn’t like we totally dominated. I understood why because we were a large school but I didn’t believe we were ready.

“We came to the Red Division intimated by teams like East Brunswick and Piscataway and ended the first year with three wins. It was hard coming from expecting to win a good percentage of your games to losing. It was tough to keep our morale up as a team at times. I’m a firm believer of team spirit, they wanted it this year. Half of it is mental and knowing we were capable of doing something”

Tradition stems deep in the locker room at Monroe. Dillon has several tactics to keep her team enthused and inspired throughout the laborious parts of the schedule. Dillon had a system in tact that consisted of horses racing towards the finish line. Each time the Falcons defeated an opponent the horse would move on to its next task on the board. This was a fun way to keep her team’s heads in the game.

“I approach every season positively, we try to set goals for ourselves,” Dillon said. “This year we set the bar higher. When rankings typically came out Monroe was always out of the loop. We would have Blue Division teams ranked ahead of us. I used that to our advantage.

“I labeled our team as the Dark Horse. I would put horses on a board in the locker room and there would be a finish line. Every time we beat a team our horse would pass them. We would play the Kentucky Derby song while doing it. It was something to get them mentally ready.”

HNT Girls Soccer: Monroe's Erin Seppi is Player of the Year

It certainly worked. After a strong march through the season, Monroe reached a point where fate was in its own hands. In the way was a lively East Brunswick team, a group that has been a powerhouse under the reign of Kevin Brady. But no one could stop the Falcons on that night and proceeded in taking home its first ever Red Division title with a 2-0 victory over the Bears.

Before the game Dillon had another trick. She led the girls in to the gymnasium and had them stare at the banners that decorated the wall. The girls clutched arms and visualized the 2015 season being printed on the banner.

The girls were invested in the performance of the team, not just individual numbers. Dillon penciled in a well-rounded group of players before every game. They played for each other and it showed on the field. Not one player was relied upon to carry the team, instead there was a new girl jumping into the spotlight on a daily basis.

“We have traditions that we do for certain games,” Dillon said. “For East Brunswick, I give them Bear claws. I tell them we are going to have Bear for breakfast, we are going to have Bear for Dinner.

“When we went in to the gymnasium I just had them sit there and stare. I told them, ‘See the banner up there, it doesn’t say Red Division champions anywhere. We have White Division champs but no Red Divisions.' This team was all about making history.”

That is why Dillon’s group formed a theme for this year. They created a shirt that read “team chemistry” and had a molecule shaped as a soccer ball in the middle. The names of the 12 seniors could be found connecting the molecule. The bottom of the shirt read P [2] + R2 + I + D3 = E, with each letter adding up to excellence.

Dillon was fortunate enough to have a group of girls that were always on the same page. They all grew up playing soccer together and wanted to leave one last mark on their high school careers. Behind Dillon’s mentoring Monroe was able to find a place on the girls soccer banner hanging in the gym.

“Coach Dillon is the type of coach who will do anything and everything to get her players to succeed,” Monroe team captain Erin Seppi said. “Every practice she comes out with an attitude that we are here to win. She deserves the Coach of the Year more than anyone. I’m going to miss her, she was a great mentor and she inspired the team."

Staff Writer Steven Macri: smacri@njpressmedia.com