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Nick Meidanis

CoachRetiresWeb

So what are you gonna miss most about all this Friday Night Friday night, man. I'm, I'm of the original Friday Night Lights, you know, going back to George Siegling, uh Brian de novels, you know, I, I was one of those guys, man and, and I'm proud to have, you know, held the Gillan trophy three times, you know, and, uh I don't know that there's any other public school that's done it. But, uh, you know, for me, there is, uh there's tremendous honor in that, you know, and I, I've always wanted to, to thank you guys for those opportunities and thank you guys so much for, uh, respecting us enough to feel that we were worthy of that trophy. I appreciate you saying that, you know, Saban Belichick and Tucci, I mean, forever in this span of 24 hours here. It's kind of unbelievable when you think about that. I mean, have you noticed obviously what's been happening in the coaching ranks right now? Oh, no doubt. I mean, I, I can't tell you, uh, you know, how many text messages that I've gotten over the last few hours just about that specific thing, but I also can't tell you how many times I have referenced Nick Saban in speeches, uh you know, over and over again throughout my career. You know, I, I've been a huge fan of Nick Saban, his philosophies. I mean, obviously the man just wins. How much did the kids change over the course of all those years? How much did high school football change? And how much did you have to adapt during that time? So, listen, I, when I got this job in 1998 I was 26 years old. And, uh, you know, I, I thought I knew everything, you know, I thought I was the, the know it all guy, man, we had everything in our packages, offensive, defensive, I tried to do everything. I have my hands in everything and I learned a very valuable lesson in, in those first years, you know, that you need to grow, you need to allow and delegate responsibility. You need to be able to, you know, yes, oversee things and yes, you know, understand that, you know, it's the head football coach's name that goes in the paper the next day or on the news the next day and all that good stuff, you know, but what I've learned over the years is you have to let your coaches coach, you have to give them responsibilities, you have to, you hired them, you know, so you have to have trust in what they're capable of doing. How they do their job, uh how important it is to them. And I've been very fortunate, Nick, I mean, I, I've had three guys on my staff for over 20 plus years. You know. So when you have that kind of stability and you have that kind of consistency in your program, it makes life that much easier, you know, and as far as, you know, the kids and the changes, there's no doubt. I mean, you know, you look at where, you know, college football is today and high school football is today, transfer portals, you know, this, that and the other thing, I mean, things have changed tremendously, you know, and, and I grew up, you know, in the, in, in the eighties, I played for Mike Celli at Key for high school and I respect the man, you know, 1000 times over and we worked as hard as anybody, you know, and, and the way we practice then is not necessarily the way you can practice now and, and the way you kind of coach then is not necessarily how you can coach now, you know, so there are adaptations and you do have to make changes and you still can meet the kids and still get them to buy in and still get them to understand what it takes to be successful. And I hope that that's what we've done here. I mean, I think we are a reflection of that.

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Steve Antonucci led the team to three News 12 New Jersey Gillen Trophies.

Beloved Middletown High School South football coach resigns after 26 seasons

Steve Antonucci led the team to three News 12 New Jersey Gillen Trophies.

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