John Giraldo, who led the Monmouth University men’s basketball team into the NCAA Tournament when he was the Hawks’ point guard, is the new boys head basketball coach at Matawan High School. Giraldo was an assistant coach at Roselle Catholic High School, which won the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions this spring. MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS John Giraldo understands what it takes to build a championship team, having been involved in four NJSIAA Tournaments of Champions as a player or assistant coach. He will carry that knowledge to his first head coaching position with the Matawan Regional High School basketball team.
Giraldo succeeds Tom Stead, who coached the Huskies to their finest campaign two seasons ago with a 24-5 record and their first NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II title since 1957 behind Jason Dunn, who went on to a college career at the University of Hartford. Stead accepted a position recently as director of athletics at Lakewood High School.
“I know the team is young. We lost four starters, but the talent is there,” Giraldo said. “I was able to interact with the kids a couple of weeks ago, and they showed great interest. If they put their time in to develop their skills, we can have a successful program.”
Matawan was 15-12 last season, losing to Manasquan High School, 50-47, in the sectional semifinals. Mergim Gyjrigi is the lone returning starter from that team, which suffers its biggest loss to graduation in sharp-shooting guard Joe Piscopo.
The Huskies began play this week in the Hoop Group summer league in Neptune and will participate in the Rutgers Team Camp June 26-28. Giraldo said he might squeeze in another camp.
Mike Pelkey remains as varsity assistant and junior varsity coach, and John Saffiano is freshman coach.
Phil Tyburczy, starting his third year as director of athletics at Matawan, ironically held the same position the three previous years at Marist High School, where Giraldo led the Royal Knights to the Tournament of Champions finals, losing to Shawnee High School during his senior year in 1992.
“I didn’t know that until the day of the interview with him,” Giraldo said. “Even though I was long gone from Marist, he knew a lot of people there from when I was there. It was a little bit of comfort, something in common.”
Giraldo, a Manalapan resident the past six years, will remain as a physical education teacher for all grades at Anna L. Klein Elementary School, where he starred in his years growing up in the small Hudson County town of Guttenberg.
“Going back and forth from there to Matawan is no problem because I live in the next town,” Giraldo said. “It was tougher going to Roselle to coach at Roselle Catholic, where you had to go through a few towns.”
Over the last eight seasons, Giraldo was on the coaching staff at Roselle Catholic, which made the Tournament of Champions the last three years, winning the overall titles this past season and two years ago. He also played on Marist’s Tournament of Champions team that reached the 1992 finals, losing, 46-42, to Shawnee. Marist was ranked No. 3 in the nation in USA Today at the time.
Giraldo’s teams in all four Tournaments of Champions as player and coach beat nationally acclaimed St. Anthony High School to win the Non-Public B title all four times to get to the state showcase. “I was one of the few people to beat St. Anthony as a player and coach,” Giraldo said. “It doesn’t happen often and when it does, you enjoy it.”
Giraldo also starred at Monmouth University as a two-time First-Team All-Northeast Conference Selection, holding numerous Monmouth University records. Giraldo, who is tied for first on the school’s Division I all-time scoring list with 1,749 career points, also ranks first in steals with 260 and second with 492 career assists. He ended his four-year career with the Hawks by leading Monmouth to its first Northeast Conference Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance during his senior season in 1995-96.
After that, Giraldo played professionally in five different countries, including Colombia (Piratas of Bogota and Paisas of Medellin), where he was a three-time MVP; Venezuela (Trotamundos of Valencia); Portugal (Ginasio of Figuera de Foz); Germany (Poco Iserlohn); and Argentina (Obras Sanitarias).
“It was fantastic. The level of competition was very high,” Giraldo said of his playing experience internationally. “It’s a lot different from high school and college. Once you’re a professional, you just work on your craft with time and dedication. There’s a lot of competition, and I was able to play almost 10 years because I had to make sure I could maintain my skills and level of play. I can bring all that to coaching.”
Giraldo said he learned a lot playing and getting coached internationally that enhanced his own coaching approach.
“There are great athletes all over the world and a lot of big stars in basketball like [Manu] Ginobili [of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs]. A lot come to the United States not just for the NBA, but you see a lot in colleges. It seems every team has at least one foreign kid, and they’ve been successful. The level of basketball has grown internationally.”
He believes the level of basketball has evolved around the Shore, as the level of leading talent is more spread out and less top-heavy among teams.
“It’s really growing, and we hope to add to that,” Giraldo said. “You have it tough, night after night.”
He said the focus starts with defense with a wide mix of zones.
“It’s an advantage when you’re able to change defense and keep the other team guessing,” he said.
Giraldo said he sees a wide variety of styles in the guards on early impressions from slashers to shooters. Most are underclassmen.
“I’m happy with what I see so far,” Giraldo said. “It’s definitely going to work for them.”
And he said he learned one thing in his prior coaching experience that he has impressed on the players.
“The best player is the hardest worker on the team. When you put in the best effort, you improve,” Giraldo said. “When you’re not in the gym, you should be working out on your own — your skills and working on academics. I’m instilling that in the kids.”