Jim Giglio speaks to the Steinert freshman girls’ basketball team during a game against Hamilton West at Reynolds Middle School on Jan. 9, 2015. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
For most high school coaches, serving as a program’s freshman coach is usually a stepping stone to coaching at higher levels.
For Steinert’s Jim Giglio, it’s something entirely different.
“It’s a dream job,” said Giglio, who is known as “Jules” throughout Mercer County. “I just love seeing these kids come in as freshmen and develop as they get older. It’s the best part of my job.”
It is a job he has done very well for a long time in two different sports, while maintaining his famous slicked-back Pat Riley haircut throughout. Giglio has coached the Spartans freshmen boys’ soccer team for the past 27 years—the fifth longest streak of any freshman coach in New Jersey, according to former Steinert athletic director John Costantino, who did the research. Giglio is currently in his 10th season as the freshmen girls’ basketball coach and served as the JV girls coach for eight seasons.
What makes his basketball job unique is that Giglio went back to it after a successful, 9-year run as varsity coach. He lead the Spartans to a Mercer County Tournament title during his varsity tenure, but when his daughters Evie and Ella were born, Giglio did not want the time constraints of varsity coaching to interfere with helping to raise them.
He did not want to leave the profession either. Thus, he and Bryan Rogers traded positions prior to the 2005-06 season. That may have been the one season Giglio was slightly ill at ease while coaching.
“The first year was very hard; I had to distance myself,” Giglio said. “Me and Bryan talked a lot. Whenever he wanted to ask a question, he asked me. I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries because I wanted it to be Bryan’s team. And he did a great job.”
Giglio made occasional appearances at some varsity contests, but for the most part, he let Rogers do his thing.
“For the first year it was weird,” he said. “It takes a year for the adjustment period, but it was great to stay in the program.”
Rogers, who took Giglio’s place as pitching coach on the varsity baseball team during the 2000s, said that Giglio could not have been better at letting him make the team his own.
“With that being said, we share similar philosophies on what it requires to be successful,” Rogers said. “He gave me the freedom to implement some different things to the program, and I always knew if I had any questions I could go to him. The first couple years, he was at a lot of the games to provide help and insight. He had a lot of experience so it was very beneficial, not only for each game but for my development.”
The greatest thing about Giglio is his ego—or lack thereof. He has none. He simply loves to coach, and he loves Steinert athletics; he knows what he does gets everything started in the programs he coaches.
“Having Jules at the freshman level for so many years gives the soccer program some consistency, and it ensures that every new preseason begins seamlessly and efficiently,” varsity soccer coach Todd Jacobs said. “It means so much to the senior soccer players when their first coach at Steinert is there to see them play.”
Jacobs’ point is well taken. Some coaches last about five years before moving on to what they feel is a better situation, often at a different school or a different sport. But Giglio becomes tight with Steinert athletes as freshmen and his constant presence provides a nice sense of security as their careers advance.
And since he is the first coach many Steinert athletes have, he needs to set a good tone and has to learn who he is dealing with so he can report his findings to the JV and varsity coaches.
“Jules has to get to know the players’ personalities, playing styles and position preferences very quickly,” Jacobs said. “He does a nice job of providing and creating opportunities for the players to experience success in their freshman season.”
Rogers feels there is a big difference between coaching the freshman and varsity teams. Coaching younger players often involves a great deal of patience, as they might not be familiar with how a high school practice is run.
“Who would have thought of patience and Jules in the same sentence?” Rogers joked. “But Jules makes the experience fun, teaches and prepares the girls so they can progress through the program and be successful. You need a good foundation at the freshman level to have a successful program. Jules understands and embraces that concept.”
Giglio also understands that being a freshman coach is not about winning, but about developing players. It would be frustrating if it were about winning, since any great player he might have is quickly promoted.
He never got the chance to coach Arielle Collins or Dana Jeter, two of the top girls’ basketball scorers in school history, because they were fast tracked to varsity. On the flip side of that are girls Lisa Neylan, who Giglio thought would never amount to much when she was a freshman, only to watch her go on to become a varsity standout and earn Division III All-America status in college.
The one soccer player he will never forget losing went on to a career with the U.S. National Team and Major League Soccer.
“I had Eddie Gaven for two scrimmages, and I lost him,” Giglio said. “The other coaches were like ‘Wow, how is this kid on the freshman team?’ and he went right up to varsity. Eddie Gaven is by far the best player I’ve ever seen. You saw him and said, ‘He’s got it.’”
Eddie Gavens are few and far between, though. Most freshmen must have their skills sharpened while also learning how to play the same system that the varsity coaches run.
Giglio enjoys it so much that he never wanted to coach varsity soccer despite several openings at that level over the past 27 years. He took the varsity basketball job because he was needed, but he always felt more at home with the freshmen.
“I didn’t ever want to move up in soccer,” he said. “I think the freshman team is the stepping stone, the building block. You want to start the foundation. I just love that. Freshman is not all about winning, it’s about teaching the game and developing the skills and it’s about having fun, too.”
Which means Giglio must walk a fine line. He needs to keep the players serious enough to want to improve and have a chance to blossom as a varsity player, but he also understands that some kids may never play again after their freshman year.
An example of the latter was girls’ basketball player Ryan Larkin, whose only season of high school sports was under Giglio before she moved on to focus on athletic training.
“She knew she wasn’t a great player, she was out there to have fun,” Giglio said. “So, she missed a lay-up and she’s running down the court, and she’s laughing. “I said ‘Ry, why are you laughing?’ and she said ‘G, I’m having fun.’ And after that I couldn’t stop laughing. For some kids, it’s all about having fun. If they scored two points that makes their career. Some kids go out their freshman year and never come back. They remember that year as a fun time, having fun at practice, no real stress.”
Giglio is the first to admit, however, that sometimes he gets caught up in what the scoreboard says.
“I want everybody to play, and granted when the game is tight I’m going to play my best players,” he said “But I always want everybody to be happy. At the freshman level there’s no stress. You don’t care about wins and losses, it’s development of players. But there are times I think I’m a varsity coach again and people will say I’m crazy on the sidelines still, which I still am. I have the passion and the fire. I still hate losing, just like any other coach.”
He has kept track of his soccer wins—he’s at 265 and admits he would like to hit 300. He has not kept track of his basketball wins but figures he has over 100. He will never put his win total before the hardcore responsibility of the job — preparing players to move on.
“The players learn early the dedication and behavior that is expected in the program,” Jacobs said. “It is so important that the players are physically fit when they come to the JV and varsity practice and Jules has a well balanced approach. In addition to teaching them the fundamentals of soccer, he takes them running through the park, swimming in the pool and develops their soccer brains with classroom sessions.”
Rogers joked that Giglio chased him out of the varsity job because “he started asking for incentive clauses in his contract,” but quickly assures that is as far from the truth as it gets.
“It’s not about him,” Rogers said. “He wants to see the girls and this program be successful, bottom line. If you are getting into coaching for ego purposes, you are doing it for the wrong reason. He has been very dedicated to the girls’ basketball program and has worked extremely hard teaching, listening and guiding the hundreds—or thousands…he is old—of girls he has coached. He finds enjoyment when Steinert athletes have success.”
Because of his efforts in shaping them when they first come to Steinert, Giglio has had a lot of enjoyment in the past 27 years.
“It’s about fun,” he said. “I’ll remember all the great times with these kids. I hope to do it another 10 years.”
,
