Harrington fills new role at PDS

Former Panther trainer now head girls’ soccer coach

By: Justin Feil
   Despite being the new head girls’ soccer coach, Ted Harrington is not a new face around Princeton Day School.
   For the past five years, Harrington was a good friend to any Panther player suffering an ache or pain as the PDS athletic trainer. He’ll be even closer to the athletes from the girls’ soccer team as their new coach, replacing two-year head coach Rick McCready.
   "I’ve been at all of their home games for the past five years," said Harrington, who has moved from the training room to the athletic administrative offices as PDS’ new assistant athletic director. "Some of these girls I’ve known since seventh grade and some of them I met when they were in ninth. It was a change for them. I’m a change, but not an unknown quantity."
   Nine players return from last year’s squad that went 9-7-2. With a good mix of new player faces to add in, Harrington doesn’t see much reason to change a lot to have another successful season.
   "I’m not into too much change," he said. "Rick did a good job last year. I knew him well off the field and I’ve picked his brain about some of his philosophies.
   "We’ve been trying to figure out what system to use. That’s been a lot of what we’ve done up to now. I think we have something in place that the girls will buy into and help them showcase their talents best."
   Harrington was able to prove himself a solid athlete in two sports, soccer and wrestling, as a student at North Plainfield before going on to study athletic training at Kean University. He’ll call on his experience as well as coaching experience with the Hunterdon United Soccer Club and North Plainfield Soccer Club. Coaching a girls’ team will be a bit new, but not something unfamiliar either.
   "This is my first official coaching experience with girls," he explained, "but I’ve worked with them for a while before. I run the strength and conditioning program. I have a lot of experience working with girls in a competitive environment outside of rehab. Some of it is finding a way to motivate them."
   Harrington’s philosophy is simple. He won’t quantify his idea of success with wins or losses, but instead looks for effort from his team. Everything else will fall into place, he hopes.
   "I want to see the girls go out and see that they’ve worked hard to get what they’ve accomplished," Harrington said. "I do want to win more than we lose — I’m a very competitive person by nature — but winning and losing isn’t what it’s all about. It’s about striving to win.
   "I won’t expect more than they can give me, but I won’t expect less. Kids will make physical mistakes, and unfortunately mental ones. But if they make the mistakes out of hustle, it’s easier to accept. If it’s out of laziness, it’s harder to take."
   PDS, which opened its season Thursday, hosts Colonia at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Harrington is just happy to get back into something that’s been a lifelong interest.
   "I played soccer since maybe I was in third grade," he said. "I played at a lot of different levels. I coached at the club level. It’s something that’s always interested me. With the athletic training, unfortunately I didn’t have enough time. I’m glad I’ve got this chance now."