New MHS coach likes old style
By: Bob Nuse
Even as a player, it was evident that Bob Schwartz was destined to be a coach.
"I was mainly a midfielder," Schwartz said of his playing days in college and high school. "My senior year I played in the back, but until that point I had spent a majority of the time as a defensive midfielder. I was the type of guy that liked to keep the team organized and on the same page. I knew what all the other players were supposed to do and what players they were supposed to be marking.
"My junior year in college I was a captain, probably because I talked a lot and was always pretty vocal on the field."
From his playing days in college, Schwartz went straight into coaching. After graduating from American University, he spent three years as the head coach at The Hun School before spending the last four years as the freshman coach at Montgomery High.
Now, with the departure of Shaun McMulkin, Schwartz has been elevated to the head coaching position of the Montgomery varsity. Having been involved with the program for four years already, it’s a move up that he is quite excited about.
"Montgomery has such quality kids," said Schwartz, who coached All-American Paul Johnson while he was at Hun. "They have a great work ethic and they’re just a lot of fun to coach. The chemistry with the teams has been fantastic all the years I’ve coached.
"Certain kids seem to already be the established leaders and I think that’s helpful. A lot of them come in from the middle school knowing each other. They know what to expect from each other, so it has been great from that sense."
Schwartz also feels like the four years he coached at the freshmen level have helped him grow as a coach as well. Since he basically went right from playing into coaching at the varsity level, he never had a chance to learn the ins and outs of building a program.
"Coming right out of college and into being a head coach, I never had that mentorship to learn from someone else," he said. "As a player, I learned a lot. As a coach, it was great to work under Shaun and learn how he would run a whole program and not just coach a team.
"He was very good at running a program from the varsity right down to the JV and the freshmen levels. I learned that it was important to make kids feel like they were part of something bigger than just the team. That was a really good experience for me."
Now that he’s the one running the program, Schwartz hopes to carry on a lot of those same philosophies that he learned under McMulkin.
"The program is strong all the way through," Schwartz said. "The JV team has lost one game in five years. They have one loss and a couple of ties, that’s all. They’ve been very successful with Coach (Tim) Sullivan and he’s still there and we want to maintain and develop the way it has been.
"The great thing about the way the program is run is that these kids come to the varsity level ready to step in and play. It’s fun for me as a coach to have that in place already. Ricky Steeb, who played at McCorristin has come in as the freshman coach replacing me and I think he’ll do a great job."
Schwartz enjoyed his own level of success as a player, first in high school and then at American. He nearly continued his playing career after college. But when a teaching position became available in the Hun Middle School in the middle of the year, Schwartz was off and running with his teaching career.
"I played a little after college, but I pretty much went right into teaching and coaching," said Schwartz, who teaches math in the Montgomery Middle School. "I had a tryout with the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers, which was an A-League team which was like the minor leagues of Major League Soccer. I also had a tryout with the Hershey Wildcats, but they never offered me a contract. They offered me a spot on the roster, but for no money. So I went back and finished school and then that winter got the opportunity to go to Hun. I was thrilled with that and then started coaching that fall."
And now he’s not only the head coach at Montgomery, but also the first head coach since the move to Group IV this year. That’s one area where he has more experience than most in the school.
"Lenape Regional is a Group IV school and now we’re a Group IV school," Schwartz said of his alma mater. "I think it’s an asset to have my high school experience with a large school. It gives me an idea of what to expect. It is definitely a different level of competition. The kids are usually bigger and the schools are all big with a large number of players to choose from."
And most of those players in the program this year are players Schwartz is familiar with from his four seasons at the freshman level.
"I have coached a majority of these kids," he said. "Some of them skipped from the freshman level right to JV or varsity and there are a handful of those who I did not get a chance to coach. I think that was an advantage I had when I applied for the position. I was in the system and I knew the kids."
And now, they’ll get to know him as their new head coach and leader of the MHS boys’ program.