Rooney family has deep roots in Montgomery sports
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Siblings Johnny Rooney and Suzanne Trautwein phone their parents to thank them for coming after every Montgomery High School softball game they attend.
The siblings have made hundreds of calls home since they began coaching together four years ago.
”I can count the number of games on one hand that he’s missed since I’ve been coaching varsity softball,” said MHS seventh-year head coach Johnny of his father’s support. “It’s been unbelievable.”
John and Clare Rooney have been staples at Montgomery sporting events since the 1980s. Before they supported their kids’ coaching, they were parents rooting on Johnny, who ran cross country and played basketball and baseball at MHS before a post-graduate year at The Hun School, and Suzanne, who also ran cross country, played soccer, basketball and softball for the Cougars. John and Clare continued to come to games when Johnny was coaching junior varsity field hockey and Suzanne did middle school softball, a blessing that their children still appreciate and admire.
”It’s pretty amazing,” Suzanne said. “We were very fortunate as athletes having our parents’ support. I’d think at some point they’d get burned out doing it. I think they enjoy it maybe more watching us coach. For me, it’s just as enjoyable looking over and seeing my parents watching us coach as when they were watching us play.”
For John, it is easy to explain. He went to support Cougar teams before his own children were on them. He’s gone to games after they stopped playing and started coaching.
”I love sports,” said John, who coached his children through Little League. “Some of it is just watching the games, not just Johnny or Suzanne.”
Added Clare: “It was great to never break that bond that was going on. It’s great to follow the team and see them coach. We go there through the cold and rain. If they play, we go.”
She finds it more enjoyable to watch them coach, but the Rooneys support more than their own children. They go to see other sports, including the volleyball teams at West Windsor-Plainsboro High North. The Knight boys and girls teams are coached by Erich Trautwein, an MHS graduate whom Suzanne married two years ago.
”They have come to the big games, especially when we play Hillsborough,” said Trautwein, noting MHS’ biggest rival. “We always have Hillsborough on our schedule twice.
”I think aside from us being family, they really, really enjoy high school sports,” he added. “They see all the good that comes out of it and how we interact with the kids. Watching the kids compete is something they enjoy. They get to know the kids well. It’s almost like one huge family.”
Trautwein also coaches middle school wrestling at Princeton Academy, where he is a physical education teacher, and last winter he and John Rooney Sr. helped to run the Montgomery softball team’s winter workouts. It keeps everyone that much more closely connected.
”It wasn’t long after we started dating that we roped him into coaching our winter league,” said Suzanne of Trautwein, who had coached softball at Tusculum (Tenn.) College before returning to Montgomery. “The girls played at the Jack Cust dome and he was their coach. He’s a coach and has that mentality. I couldn’t see myself with anyone that didn’t have that mentality. We grew up together, so he knew my love was of athletics and coaching and teaching kids.”
While Suzanne and Erich have settled in Pennington, Trautwein’s parents and the Rooneys still live in Montgomery just minutes from each other. On Monday, both families got together to make 300 sandwiches for the Trenton Soup Kitchen, something that has become a Christmas tradition. They go to games together, have golfed together and gotten to know each other well.
”They’re great,” John said. “The Trautweins are really, really terrific. It’s nice to see Erich a lot. We get to see some volleyball.”
More than anything, though, they get to see their children teaching, coaching and serving as role models for Montgomery students. That they coach the same team is a bonus.
”I never thought we would teach and coach together,” Johnny said. “It’s been exciting.”
Not much about the direction of her children is a surprise to Clare.
”They loved Montgomery,” she said. “They loved going to the Montgomery schools. I thought in the long run they’d come back. It kind of went full circle and they’ve come back to the schools.”
Johnny also still lives in Montgomery. He is a physical education teacher at for kindergarten through second grade at the Montgomery Orchard Hill Elementary School.
”A lot of my friends made fun of me,” he said. “I wanted to come back and teach and coach at Montgomery. It was definitely a goal to come back and do it since sophomore year of high school.”
Aside from graduating from C.W. Post, where he played baseball and a brief stint in Rocky Hill, Johnny Rooney has lived in Montgomery since 1980, when his parents moved from Long Island. Suzanne was only 2 when they came to Montgomery, and she’s explored a little more than Johnny.
”Suzanne moved 3,000 miles away,” Johnny said. “I moved 3.2 miles away.”
After graduating from Holy Family College, where she played softball, Suzanne lived in California for four years while doing graduate school work at Pepperdine. She coached softball on the side, and better yet, she got to play softball year-round in the warm Southern California climate, something that was difficult to leave, but so was Montgomery and her family.
Said Suzanne: “Part of the reason I moved back was because of the three of them. It’s a very different dynamic when you have your family doing these great things.”
Upon her return, Suzanne, who teaches second grade at Orchard Hill Elementary, lived together with Johnny in the Montgomery townhouse that Johnny still lives in now.
”I got teased way more than anybody about it,” Johnny said. “We lived together more than three years. It definitely weighed on our relationship. By the time we would get home after teaching and softball and everything, we had exhausted all conversation. We spent so much time together.”
While their friends may have teased them, they also admit that the Rooney family’s support of each other is unparalleled. Part of that support is evident in their presence at games, home or away. John will split up his vacation time to make games, though now he is watching how the coaches are handling the teams.
”It is different,” John said. “The game’s the same. When you’re watching your child, you’re watching your child interfacing with their own team and the competitive team. It’s enjoyable watching them compete and succeed. When they’re coaching, they’re managing the strategy of the game and also managing and dealing with the parents, the administration and the umpires. There’s a lot more when we’re watching your child play that you don’t see.
”I also enjoy watching, from almost a management perspective, keeping a team motivated, making the most of learning when they do lose. The life skills that you can gain from sports are so important. It’s what happens off the field, not on the field.”
John even finds ways to support the team off the field.
”He’s gone to the spring sports banquet since 1989 because I was playing, Suzanne was playing or I was coaching,” said Johnny. “There’s always been an overlap. And sports banquets can be extremely boring.”
Explained John: “Recognition is so important. A lot of banquets, for the seniors, it’s a chance to say good-bye. As a senior, you don’t have a lot of focused time to do that.”
Johnny and Suzanne share in the day-to-day coaching duties with Tom Wain, a township police officer who has volunteered his time and adds balance to the mix as a member of their extended family. After games, Clare offers unending support while John may talk strategy.
”If the three of us coached together, it would have to be a one-time all-star game,” Johnny joked. “If we did it for a long time, I think it would break up the family.”
Instead, it is the family that has shared in the joys of the softball program’s first county and state titles as well as gotten through the trying times of heartbreaking losses and the struggles that every team faces.
”Not every year is your best year,” Suzanne said. “Having my parents, having Tom definitely, and just knowing that family is always there for each other helps a lot.”
The Rooney family is never far from each other, and they enjoy their supporting roles whether it be as a coach, teacher, parent or fan at a softball, field hockey or volleyball game.
”It’s very cool,” Johnny said. “Sometimes it’s hard for people to understand. I don’t think it’s for everyone. But it’s worked.”
And for that, the Rooneys count their blessings during the holiday season.