Well-groomed grad takes over boys’ hoops
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
When Jason Carter draws on his past, he feels about as prepared as he can be for his first stint as a head coach.
”I’m extremely excited,” said Carter, the new head coach of the Princeton High boys’ basketball team. “This is a career opportunity for me. It’s like a dream come true to play in the program and then be able to come back and give something to the community as the coach. When I was playing and I was a captain, I always felt like coaching was something that I wanted to do. Now, it’s 10 years later and I’m doing it.
”I had some great head coaches that I worked with that have helped me out. I think it makes me that much more prepared for the job. I’ve coached with Peter Stanton and he’s amazing with strategy and planning and his whole philosophy about coaching. And Greg Hand is so articulate and meticulous with his practice planning. Those are two great mentors for me.”
Carter, a Princeton High graduate, takes over for Dave Kosa. He has been an assistant in the basketball program for two years.
Princeton also has a new head coach for the girls’ program in Steffanie Shoop, a Hillsborough High graduate who played her college basketball at Providence. Shoop takes over for Nikki Inzano.
Carter also spent four seasons as an assistant to Hand with the girls’ soccer program and five years as an assistant to Stanton with the boys’ lacrosse program.
Not only has he learned from the coaches that he had worked with the last four years, Carter also feels like he has taken something away from each coach who he played for as well. In addition to his PHS career where he played football, basketball and lacrosse, he also played football and soccer at Rowan University.
”I played for some great coaches who have really helped me to become what I am as a coach,” Carter said. “I played (basketball) for Doug Snyder. I played football for Dave Dudeck, who is over now doing great things at Hun. And I also played football for Keith Wadsworth and lacrosse for Pete Stanton. Those were some of my coaches at Princeton who really helped me.
”In college, I played (football) for K.C. Keeler, who went on to win a national championship at Delaware. I’ve worked camps at Princeton with (lacrosse coach) Bill Tierney, who has won six national championships. You just sit there and listen and learn so much from him. I’ve been around a lot of amazing coaches.”
Now, Carter is hoping to become one of those amazing coaches himself. He knows it won’t be easy and will take some time. But he’s certainly willing to put in whatever effort it takes to be successful.
”You never know how you’ll do until you’re put into the position,” said Carter, who will be assisted at the varsity level by junior varsity coach Shahid Abdul-Karim. “But I am constantly trying to evaluate myself as a coach. You never really know until you get into a game situation.”
Carter will be in a real game situation for the first time on Friday night at Lawrence. And among the highlight games on the schedule will be a trip to Allentown, Pa., where the Little Tigers will face Carter’s old coach, Snyder, in a holiday tournament. PHS will play Snyder’s William Allen team on Dec. 27 at 8 p.m. in the opening round of the William Allen tournament.
”That will be a lot of fun,” said Carter, a physical education and health teacher at PHS, as well as head of the Teen Pep peer leadership program. “We’re looking forward to that. I know it will be exciting because a lot of ex-Princeton guys who played for Doug are planning to make the trip. Doug was coaching here when we had some great years. Hopefully we can eventually get the program back to that level.”

