Morris County girls soccer coach Steve Racine adds 600th win to historic resume

MORRISTOWN — When the Morris County Girls Soccer Coaches' Association celebrated Steve Racine's retirement after the 2018 season, few in the room thought he'd stay off the sideline for long.

A father of three and grandfather of two, Racine had stepped away for three years to finish his PhD dissertation, and again to watch younger daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, play soccer.

But really, Racine never completely stepped away from a nearly 40-year coaching career that stands among the best in the nation. While "retired," he volunteered as an assistant, first with former Morris Catholic superstar Vanessa Lewis Benfatti at Mount Olive during the COVID season, and then at Morris Knolls for four seasons.

Racine became the head coach at Kinnelon for the third time this fall, after players in his history class asked him to come back again.

Racine earned his 600th career victory when the Colts outlasted Villa Walsh, 3-2 in overtime on Sept. 26.

"It was the ugliest win ever. By far. I told the girls, 'No team wants to be the headline when the other team got a milestone,'" said Racine, 70, who is in his 21st year teaching history at Kinnelon High School and running a stained-glass business .

"It's a lot more meaningful to the people around me than it is to me. When I hit 600, then there's 601, so there's another day, another practice, another game. It means over the years I've been effective and had players who bought in. I've been able to adjust to how kids are different and how things are different, and reflect on how I am as a coach and get better at it. Being able to do this is a blessing."

Racine started the fall with a 593-136-42 all-time record over 37 years at Morris Catholic and Kinnelon. His teams have won 12 NJSIAA titles , 16 sectional crowns, eight Morris County Tournament championships, and the division 22 times.

Racine has the fourth-most victories of any girls soccer coach, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations . He ranks second in New Jersey, behind Paul Heenehan 's 742-88-40 at Ramapo from 1978 through 2016.

More: How has coaching at high school level changed? Some of South Jersey's finest talk about it

In 2019, Steve Racine was named New Jersey's High School Coach of Significance by United Soccer Coaches for his impact within the school and community.

"I didn't have any inkling he was stepping away for good. I thought he'd be at the helm (at Kinnelon) and No. 600 would have been in the bank already," said Sparta Middle School assistant principal Mike Petrucelli, a former Kinnelon girls soccer coach who worked alongside Racine for a year and was watching at Villa Walsh with his two young sons on Thursday.

"It's huge. You don't really see that number anywhere, let alone in a sport like soccer."

How Steve Racine built a soccer legacy at Kinnelon

Racine started playing soccer and ice hockey in Vernon, Connecticut, before his family relocated to Denville when he was in sixth grade. About the same time, a group of dads started a town league. Racine was also part of the first seventh-grade homeroom team to beat the eighth-graders, and then defend their title a year later.

Racine attended Morris Catholic, which did not have a soccer team. Rev. Anthony McLaughlin and athletic director John Newman allowed the boys to start a club. If the students beat the faculty – including former Seton Hall University All-America Tom Hornish – it could become a varsity team.

Racine recalled the final score was 0-0, but Morris Catholic launched boys soccer in 1976, the year after he graduated.

He went on to Southern Connecticut but injured his ankle and never played. Instead, he started coaching while on crutches as a college freshman.

"Right from the start as a coach, my teams had success," Racine said. "I've always been able to get people to do things, usually the right thing and not the wrong thing. I've been able to tap into what people wanted to do, and helped them get there."

Soccer coaching in the family

But Racine's methods were not universally accepted, particularly by those on the outside. Benfatti likened Racine to a stern parent, who disciplines his children "from a place of care and love and wanting the best out of them." Benfatti, a record-setting sprinter and center back at Morris Catholic who earned a scholarship to the University of Michigan, was the key speaker as the coaches honored Racine.

"Coach Racine has been a father, a friend, a therapist, a teacher, and a mentor. He's been a true coach," said Benfatti, who coached Mount Olive soccer for four seasons and track and field for 18.

"He was everything to everyone, exactly when they needed it. ... He loved all of us enough to make us tough enough, because he knew the real world wasn't going to take it easy on us."

Racine got a chance to coach his own daughters in high school as well. Sarah transferred from Morris Catholic to Kinnelon for her senior season when Rebecca was a freshman.

After every game, Steve Racine would talk about two things to improve and two things they each did well, and that was it. When he watched his daughters play for other teams, they'd wave at one another beforehand. Otherwise, Racine would stay quiet.

Both girls went on to play for their mother, Christa Racine , at Drew University, where Rebecca is a midfielder playing her extra COVID year while starting graduate school. Sarah Racine graduated from Rutgers Law School and is a clerk at a Secaucus firm.

Rebecca Racine stopped by to greet her father with a quick hug before the milestone match, then headed off to Drew's practice.

"He understands the game and he understands people," said former Kinnelon athletic director Scott Rosenberg, who was a volunteer assistant for Racine for more than a decade. "He understands athletes. That's one of his gifts. He inspires kids, and he always has his foot on the gas."

Asked when he might actually retire, Racine recalled hiring Wally Mueller to coach the Morris Catholic boys soccer team in 1991, when he was 68 years old. Mueller coached until age 81 , winning 10 NJSIAA Non-Public B titles, including seven in a row from 1999 to 2005. His Crusaders teams also won four Morris County Tournament championships and 10 Northern Hills Conference titles in 15 years.

"I don't have a shelf life," Racine said. "As long as I feel I'm effective, the kids feel I'm effective, and the community feels I'm effective, I'll probably do it."

Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today .

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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morris County girls soccer coach Steve Racine adds 600th win to historic resume