By: John E. Powers
WEST AMWELL The timing was simply coincidence.
When longtime South Hunterdon Regional High School field hockey coach Thyra Zengel stepped down as head coach last week, she became the second member of her family to resign in a span of few days.
Her father, Sam Jefferis, who had coached the Eagles football team for 40 years, also stepped down, but Zengel said the two hadn’t really spoken about their decisions.
She said the main reason for her decision was she wanted to become more involved with her three daughters’ activities. Zengel also said she and her former assistant coach, Sharon Kilmer, who also resigned, will start a field hockey program in the community for elementary school children in the fall.
"For me, it was basically my own family," said Zengel, who runs a preschool program in West Amwell. "My kids are getting older (ages 11, 9 and 6), and they are getting into things that would interfere with my life as a coach. I would rather put my energies into that, basically."
She said she may return to the high school level in the future.
"I’m not leaving it (coaching) altogether," she said. "I’m in the middle of coaching my kids’ softball teams, and I’ll be doing some youth field hockey in the fall. I won’t be coaching out of coaching all together, but I’ll be out of coaching at the high school level for awhile."
For the time being, she leaves an outstanding coaching record at South Hunterdon where she graduated in 1988. She leaves with a 169-60-11 record in her 12 years as head coach.
Her teams never had a losing season and have always qualified for the state sectional tournament. The Eagles won three Skyland Conference divisional titles and four Hunterdon-Warren Tournament titles.
In 2002, the Eagles won the North Jersey, Section I-II championship led by Caitlin Meehan and then were beaten in the state group title by Shore Regional.
That year’s senior class was made up of 50 students. Of those, about half were girls and about half of those youngsters were on the team.
"I think for South Hunterdon, there is no other option except for cheerleading and cross country, and cross country probably never has more than three (runners)," said Zengel, who graduated from James Madison University. "Cheerleading has been a bigger draw, but there is really no other (athletic) option for the girls. I think for whatever reason, the majority of the kids whose parents grew up here were athletes and fell into it (field hockey)."
