Ridgewood Girls Soccer: New Coach Looks to Continue Recent Success

RIDGEWOOD, NJ – It is a new era for the Ridgewood girls soccer program as Marissa Madison takes over head coaching duties from Pete Kay.

Madison replaces Kay who led Ridgewood to an outstanding 37-3-2 record over the last two years, which included consecutive trips to the Group 4 state final, albeit with losses in both appearances. Ridgewood is Madison’s first head coaching job, but she has a plethora of experience across a variety of levels, most recently as the girls first-year coach in Ridgewood. The neophyte was also an assistant and first-year coach at Wayne Valley prior to her time within the Maroons’ program.

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Taking over after a successful run can be a daunting task as Ridgewood has been of the most successful programs in the state under Kay’s leadership. However, Madison is confident that the 2024 Ridgewood Maroons can have every bit of success as the prior iterations of the team. Early on in her tenure at the helm for Ridgewood, the first-year head coach is preaching a team-oriented approach in hopes of building a strong foundation for the program.

“Success is measured in many ways,” Madison said. “One of the goals this summer was to make everyone feel like they were a part of something bigger than themselves, not just individual soccer players but part of a community and family. I have told the girls many times this summer that they should not play for me, or their parents, or their friends in the crowd watching – they should want to play for each other and want to be better for each other.”

Optimism and all, Madison knows that in year one it may be difficult to have immediate results and that the norm the program has experienced the last few years of making a deep postseason run might not come to fruition right at the start.

“As the new head coach of the program of course I expect there to be some learning curve,” Madison admitted. “The girls are learning me and vice versa and I have some big shoes to fill from previous coaches in the program.

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“But I have to say the returning seniors have done an excellent job stepping up and being leaders for the entire program,” the first-year head coach added. “I am very thankful for the willingness to embrace change. It really has been a team effort to make sure that all the girls in the program feel a smooth transition bringing in a new coaching staff.”

As Madison alluded to, her and her coaching staff have fairly large shoes to fill and so do the returning Ridgewood players. The Maroons lost a lot of talent from last year’s team, most notably Bella Winn who is now playing across the country at UCLA. Despite that, Ridgewood has a host of seniors who should be able to mitigate the losses and produce this year for the Bergen County side. Lucia Mastellone, Anna Mchugh, and Jackie Williams are some of the more experienced members of the team returning and should be heavily relied upon by Madison and her staff.

“We did have some amazing players graduate this past year and we wish them all the best,” Madison noted. “But like I mentioned before, this year is all about building a community where every single player has a role to play. The success of the team does not ride on one girl’s shoulders. Together, the entire team carries that burden.”

With tryouts starting Monday, Madison is more than excited for the season to start and is ready to get the season started with three weeks before Ridgewood’s opener on September 9 against rival Ramapo.

“I am excited to see what the future holds,” Madison said. “I cannot predict the future, but if the girls continue to embrace small changes and truly work together the sky is the limit this year.”

Read More Ridgewood Sports News

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• A Leap of Faith: How a Simple Email and a Passion for Football Led Ridgewood to Glory

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