Longtime MHS assistant takes charge of girls’ program
By: John E. Powers
Erin Delaney has been a teacher at Manville’s Alexander Batcho Intermediate School for seven years. She has coached basketball, boys’ soccer and assisted four different varsity coaches along the way. She has been a head junior varsity boys’ soccer coach and the girls’ junior varsity basketball coach.
Delaney, a special education teacher, was named a Governor’s Teacher of the Year at ABIS in 2004. She certainly has earned her new role, her first as a varsity head coach of the Manville High School girls’ soccer team.
The 29-year-old Delaney got her first opportunity to serve as a head coach in game conditions Friday when Manville opened the season at home against Mount St. Mary Academy of Watchung. That game was also the Mustangs’ first as members of the Skyland Conference Valley Division.
Delaney replaces Mike Shambach, who is now coach of the MHS boys’ team.
Delaney, a 1995 Hillsborough High School graduate, was born in Dover, Delaware, and spent 10 years there before moving to Maryland for a year. The family then moved to Hillsborough.
She played soccer for 16 years, starting when she was six in Delaware through her time with an intramural team at High Point University in High Point, N.C.
"I’ve had a lot of coaches over that time," she said.
She also has a wide range of experience on the field. She has played keeper, fullback, sweeper and stopper and was on Hillsborough High School’s team that earned a share of the Group 3 title in 1992.
"It’s great," Delaney said when asked of her feelings about becoming a head coach. "You know, I have great feelings for these girls. I love them and they have responded to me very well."
Delaney has coached under former Manville girls’ basketball coaches Paul Lenihan and Ryan Shapiro in 2002 and 2003 and has served as Kyle Rehrig’s assistant for the past three seasons. She helped former boys’ soccer coach Jim Chiariello last year on the varsity level and also was the head coach of the boys’ junior varsity team.
"The majority of the girls are basketball players, so I know them," said Delaney, who has earned an advanced red belt in Tae Kwon Do. "They know my face and maybe they feel more comfortable knowing I’ve been in the district and that I’m not coming and going. I really like working for Mr. Brunn (the principal at Alexander Batcho School)."
Delaney is the fourth head girls’ soccer coach since 1999. She follows Shambach, who coached the girls for a year; Corinne Mastrapasqua, who was head coach the two previous years; and Nestor Cortina, who directed the program between 1999 and 2002.
"I know a lot about defense, but my goal is going to be to improve the offense," Delaney said. "I think we’re OK on defense, but all preseason long we’ve been concentrating on crossing the ball, getting the ball in the air and finishing."
Delaney, who sits right next to Rehrig on the bench during the winter, said she isn’t a particularly animated coach.
"I can yell and I can get loud, but it’s not my style," she said. "You can see from my body language when I’m mad. I’ll let them know when that time is and they’ll get the point."
So far, the team chemistry has been good, something that Delaney said has been common among the teams she’s been with at Manville.
"The girls are excited and pumped and so optimistic," she said. "They share about the same type of enthusiasm I have for soccer."

