First-year head coach Anthony Sicoli guided the Glen Ridge boys lacrosse team to the state championship in June.
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Head coach Anthony Sicoli coolly slid his sunglasses up before sprinting across the turf, diving headfirst into a celebratory dog pile of screaming lacrosse players. His wayward sneaker bumping a player on the head when landing which was his son, Hunter Sicoli, making the victory that much sweeter.
It was a moment of release, pressure, pride and redemption for a team everyone had written off that has since turned into a real Cinderella story. The Glen Ridge High School boys lacrosse team, ranked 80th in the state in 2024 and seeded fifth in the group 1 south bracket this season, had just upset top-ranked Rumson-Fair Haven with a killer goal by junior Stephen Grober, securing their spot in the sectional championship game for the first time since 2012.
This remarkable turnaround was led by Sicoli, named USA Lacrosse’s 2025 Group 1 Coach of the Year in his first season as head coach. Some might say that Sicoli looks more like a roadie than a head coach, with his trucker sunglasses, handlebar mustache and laid back vibe. But beneath that cool exterior was a focused, tactical leader who stepped in after the retirement of longtime coach Carl Houser. Sicoli’s plan wasn’t to just rebuild a team, but to instill a culture rooted in discipline, trust, and unity.
A former Division I player at Rutgers and a daily Jiu Jitsu practitioner, Sicoli brought a unique presence to the sideline, “We had the pieces,” he said. “We just had to believe we could put them together.”
At first, the pieces didn’t fit. The team struggled, not for lack of talent, but because they hadn’t learned yet how to play as one.
Printed on the back of each player’s practice shirts reads, “Chop wood. Carry water.” It’s a Zen proverb favorited by Sicoli, which teaches, in order to achieve greatness, you must do the simple things first and with intention. “I train in jiu jitsu daily and try to bring that same mindset, discipline, resilience and attention to detail to how we coach and compete,” Sicoli said.
Early in the season, injuries, miscommunications and inconsistencies contributed to their many losses. “We made so many mistakes and learned so many lessons,” said Sicoli. He and his assistant coach recognized what the team needed to reach the next level, and didn’t try to do it alone. He actively reached out to former players, experienced alumni and parents with deep ties to the program.
Sicoli remembers speaking to Glen Ridge alum Colin Ducey, whose promising 2020 team run was cut short by the pandemic. “Come back on board and help us finally get that ring,” he told him. That was the overwhelming sentiment that drove others in town to join the ranks, such as alumni Drew Wohlgemuth, parent Matt Trevenen, who was an All American and played for Princeton, John Mulligan, who birthed the Glen Ridge lacrosse program more than 25 years ago and coach Adam Torrisi, a sports psychologist. One by one, they all stepped up to offer guidance and inspiration to a team on a mission.
With one of the best defensive coaches, assistant coach Ed Adeogun by his side, Sicoli emphasized unity at every level of the program. “There’s no varsity and junior varsity. We’re one team,” he told the players. That spirit carried through to the JV squad with standouts, such as Aiden Kelly, Sicoli and Dixon Atkinson, which Ducey led to an impressive 14-1 record.
The championship run was nothing short of a climb from the bottom. Most local newspapers favored top-ranked programs, such as Caldwell and Mountain Lakes. But behind Sicoli’s quiet mantra, “Chop wood. Carry Water,” the players found purpose in the grind.
The lessons learned showed on the field with a defense anchored by all-conference defender Cam Atkinson, Academic All-American Mason Giamo and All-State standout John Leone, who turned grit into ground balls and checks.
Off the field, some team members stepped up as leaders through community service. Through Sicoli’s student-led initiative, Athletes for Good, players like Carson Ross, Leone, Matty McCormack, and Kieran Leiber consistently volunteered at local senior centers and served as mentors to younger athletes.
This model of service, Sicoli said, strengthens the very foundation of a team. “When the brothers serve, side by side, they learn to trust and depend on each other beyond the field. That bond shows up in every ground ball, every clear, every fourth-quarter stand.”
On the sidelines, the sense of unity extended beyond the roster. Fellow students, teachers and even parents whose children had long-since graduated, stood deep along the field, chanting and rallying behind the Ridgers, inspired by the team’s hunger and resilience. Generations of residents in town leaned in, game after game, becoming an undeniable force of encouragement. Some townspeople even drove 45 minutes and more to attend the last state game.
Their championship game against No. 20-ranked Mountain Lakes was fast, physical and emotional. Glen Ridge trailed 7-6 late in the fourth quarter before goals by Jimmy Benson and JP Labadia sent the game into overtime. After a timeout was called, the final play was set; Leone passed the ball to McCormack, who fed it to senior Brad Foster. Foster weaved his way around defenders, sprinted 50 yards and fired the winning shot, his third goal of the game. He kept running past the goal, tearing off his helmet and gloves, before tossing them in the air, grabbing his face, sobbing straight into the arms of his classmates at the sidelines.
The undeniable overall reaction in the stands was, “My God. They did it. They actually did it. They won the state championships!” This was the program’s first win since 2011 and Glen Ridge’s second-ever boys lacrosse state title, a defining moment for a team that refused to quit.
“We were placed at the fifth seed, so we really just had nothing to lose.” Foster told NJ.com.“This group of guys I’ve been with for the past five months, we’re all brothers. We all love each other. There’s nothing more we wanted to do than win a state championship.”
Like the Buddhist proverb behind Sicoli’s favorite mantra, this team’s narrative was never about flashy headlines. It was about showing up, every practice, every rep, every setback and doing the work. Ultimately, it was about one coach’s insight to invite a community onto the sideline to help build something greater than a winning team.
They chopped wood and carried water.
And in the end, that community, the coaches and the brothers became one. And in becoming one, they became champions.
Photo Courtesy of Carey Reilly
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