By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Mickey Hover has more experience than most when it comes to building teams from the ground floor.
As a high school student, Hover was part of the first group of players that helped start the Montgomery High football program.
After a standout career as a goalie at the college and professional levels, Hover got into coaching and was part of the staff that started the program at Gwynedd Mercy College.
And now, Hover is taking on his biggest endeavor yet as the head coach of the first-year men’s lacrosse program at Georgian Court University in Lakewood.
“I have always wanted to coach,” said Hover, who played football, ice hockey and lacrosse at Montgomery High. “I had a really good friend, Chris Sanderson, who passed away, and he was a friend and a mentor. He got me my first lacrosse coaching job with True North. That was my first taste of coaching while I was still in college.
“Coaching has always been a passion of mine. I had a great opportunity with Dana Lindstrom at Gwynedd Mercy right out of college and have been doing it since. It is great to be in a spot where you can change college kids lives and be a good role model.”
Hover has taken on quite a challenge at Georgian Court. The school just started to admit male students three years ago and this is the school’s first year fielding a men’s lacrosse team. The Lions are a Division 2 program competing as an independent this year.
“It is an experience that you have to be patient with,” Hover said. “There are going to be good times and bad times. But there are huge positives and it is just being part of it that is so exciting. You are taking each day at a time and keeping focused on bringing the right players into the school, which helps the whole process.”
Hover started in his position a year ago before the Lions were even playing he games. He spent the year recruiting and this year has a roster of 22 players that includes 14 freshmen.
“Last year I was recruiting,” said Hover, who is assisted by Alec Chisolm, who played his highs school lacrosse at Jackson Memorial. “There was no club team here so nothing was established. There were no kids on campus interested in playing so it was a full start up. We had to recruit everybody. It’s nice because you know the individuals you have in the program. There isn’t anyone with a different agenda who may have been with the club team. The guys we have are all in this together.”
After playing at Montgomery, Hover played at Southern New Hampshire. He played professionally for the New Jersey Jesters and the Philadelphia Wings before turning his focus to coaching. His experience starting a program from scratch at Gwynedd Mercy was something that made starting the program from the ground floor at Georgian Court intriguing to Hover.
“Georgian Court and Gwynedd Mercy are both similar schools,” Hover said. “Both are Catholic universities that wanted to boost enrollment. And from a school standpoint to boost male enrollment one of the better ways is to add sports teams. With bigger numbers football is sometimes difficult to add. Lacrosse is a little easier to start. It’s been a great process at both schools. I learned so much the first time and now I am going through the process again.
“Having that experience was definitely important to the school and to the athlete department. I think they realize I know how to handle the ups and downs.”
The results on the field this year have been more down than up. The Lions fell to 0-7 with a 16-5 loss to Franklin Pierce on Wednesday. But they still have eight more games on the schedule, which means eight more opportunities to grow as a team.
“With the record, we try to have the guys remember we have to get better every day,” Hover said. “It is going to take some time. But we’re doing the right things off the field and in the classroom so those things will come quicker than expected. The guys have played hard every game which is all you ask for as a coach.”
While Hover draws much of his experience in starting a program from scratch from his days at Gwynedd Mercy, he also falls back on his experience from Montgomery when the Cougars were getting the football program off the ground.
“My first year of football was the first year that Montgomery had a team,” Hover recalled. “My freshman year it was a brand new program. It was the same thing. We played some good teams and it was a process. Now Montgomery football is established and that is always something I look back on. We had 40 or 50 guys and maybe three or four had played football.
“One of the mindsets with Coach (Zoran) Milich and Coach (Doug) Ruhlman was how they handled every single facet that is something and teaching the basics and the fundamentals. As a staff we are trying to do the same thing and teach these guys the right way to do things.”
Hover knows the road to success will take time and effort at Georgian Court. But it is a process he is looking forward to and approaches with enthusiasm every day.
“I am so lucky to be able to call that my job and lucky to have a great athletic administration and a great group of guys,” Hover said. “Something we touch on a lot with them is they are writing the history books. We have the guy who had the first goal in program history (Joseph Ramirez with an assist from Ryder Verdoni) and that will always be remembered. There are things they are very proud of being part of as a startup program and creating that history.”
