By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Geoff Chrisman always knew he wanted to get into coaching.
“As soon as I got my 60 college credits I started coaching football at Princeton High and lacrosse at (John Witherspoon School),” said Chrisman, a Princeton High graduate. “I moved on from there and have coached at different places. I feel coaching and teaching go hand and hand. I knew this was something I always wanted to do.”
Chrisman is getting his first shot at a head coaching job this spring as the boys lacrosse coach at West Windsor-Plainsboro South. He takes over for Matt Foret, who stepped down at the end of last season.
“I am really excited to be here,” said Chrisman, who teaches Social Studies at New Brunswick Middle School. “I have been a football coach at South the last two seasons and I coached lacrosse two years ago. I took last year off when I got married last spring.”
Chrisman takes over a WW-P South program that has been successful over the years but struggled to a 5-13 mark last year. Chrisman is excited about the current collection of Pirates and brings coaching experience from various levels of the game.
“The technical lacrosse stuff is all the same, but you expect more at the varsity level,” he said. “The biggest difference coaching at the varsity level is making sure everything is in place with fundraising and team dinners and everything else on the paperwork side. That’s something someone else always handled.”
Chrisman has a roster heavy with returning seniors and thinks the group is ready to make a step forward in terms of better results on the field.
“I think we have about 13 seniors who are a good group that is committed this season to improving,” he said. “We also have a good number of juniors and a large sophomore class that are committed to improving.
“It has been terrific so far. The kids have bought into everything. They spent the whole winter playing together indoors and we were able to hit the ground running when practice started.”
The Pirates open the season Wednesday at Madison and will face WW-P North two days later. The schedule is a tough one, which includes out of conference games with the likes of Johnson Regional, South Brunswick and East Brunswick.
“It’s always a tough schedule,” Chrisman said. “We open up with Madison. So we start with a tough game right out of the gate. That area has such great lacrosse. I wanted to get our kids up there to see different parts of lacrosse.
“I was at South for two years as an assistant and I learned so much from Matt. It was a pleasure to work with him. “
