By Wayne Witkowski
Chris Balent, New Egypt High School’s new director of athletics, is adjusting to a change of pace from his previous position as basketball coach and assistant director of athletics at Elizabeth High School since his May 26 appointment.
“It’s been great. I’m extremely busy and trying to do catch-up doing the day-to-day stuff,” Balent said. “It was good to get in before school ends to see how things run and to meet people here. Spring sports finishing up [late] set me back.”
But Balent could not complain, watching New Egypt’s softball team win its fifth NJSIAA Group I championship since 2006.
“The girls were terrific. It was really something to see,” Balent said of the championship victory, 2-1, over Butler High School June 11.
Balent succeeds Philip “Flip” McGuane, who served as athletic coordinator and football coach for two years. Balent said he has taken the opportunity to get familiar with the position before the summer break while students, faculty and coaches have been in the building. That includes newly appointed football coach Steve Fence, who was an assistant coach at Manchester Township High School, and field hockey head coach Lisa Malloy, a former player at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).
“I’ve talked to [Fence] two or three times, and he’s very enthusiastic and looking to get going as soon as possible,” Balent said, as football summer workouts run by the players began this week.
It’s a different experience going from coaching and helping handle athletic department administration of a large, urban, Group IV school like Elizabeth to a much smaller, Group I school in a rural setting like New Egypt. Elizabeth’s boys basketball team was a runner-up in Group IV in one season and lost to The Patrick School in a Union County Tournament title game during the eight years while Balent coached there. He also was assistant director of athletics the past six years at Elizabeth, where he was a physical education teacher.
Prior to those eight years, Balent coached at South Brunswick High School, which also reached and lost in a Group IV championship game, and he was an assistant coach at TCNJ before that.
“The amount of students feels different,” Balent said. “It’s a different atmosphere from what I dealt with, but a nice change. I do like the smaller setting so far and the closeness with staff, administration and students. You don’t get that at Elizabeth with the sheer size of the district and how spread out the schools are there. You just can’t get to know many people in that setting.”
Balent was a catcher and third baseman for the baseball team and a guard for the basketball team when he was a student at Dunellen High School. He went on to Lock Haven University, where he received a bachelor of science degree in health and physical education and then achieved a master’s in education at TCNJ. He also earned a supervisor certificate from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton.
“I want to maintain success in some sports and look for others that did not have as much success to improve,” Balent said. “I want to get as much student involvement as I can and work to develop a connection with the high school program to the middle school and youth leagues.”
For now, Balent said he is getting things in place for the fall in what he said has been a very supportive atmosphere around and beyond the school.