MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Aaron Breitman’s goal was to become a head boys basketball coach at Columbia High School someday. He actually harbored that goal when he was a four-sport CHS student-athlete as a senior 15 years ago.
Much to his delight, Breitman’s dream has come to fruition.
After spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach for the CHS girls basketball team, Breitman recently was officially promoted to head coach of the squad.
Breitman, who lettered in football, basketball and baseball, and was a thrower in track and field at CHS, succeeds Chuck Keegan. Interestingly, Keegan also was the head coach of the CHS football team for three seasons from 2004-06, and Breitman played for Keegan on the team. Keegan was also Breitman’s throwing coach in the sport of track and field. In his senior season in 2008, Breitman played baseball, but switched to track and field during the middle of that spring after gaining state approval.
Breitman played for then-head coach Jerry Hill on the basketball team. Hill always knew that Breitman would become a head coach. That’s because Breitman reminded Hill of himself.
“This has honestly been a goal of mine since I was in high school,” said Breitman of being a head basketball coach at CHS. “My coach in my senior year in high school, the one thing he said to me was that I reminded him too much of himself. He said ‘I have a feeling you are going to be a very good coach one day.’ Since that day, my goal was to be the boys basketball coach, but I ended up taking a different route, coaching girls basketball. It’s like coming full circle.”
After graduating from CHS, Breitman attended Union County College and later transferred to Thomas Edison State College to finish his degree. He got his first coaching position as a girls basketball volunteer coach at Golda Och Academy in West Orange. Breitman then became the head coach of the Golda Och girls basketball team where he served in that role for four seasons until the end of the 2019-2020 season. In Breitman’s last season at Golda Och, the star of the team was Ally Landau, who finished her career with more than 2,000 points. At the end of that campaign, Breitman saw Keegan at the Super Essex Conference end-of-season meeting. Keegan inquired about Breitman’s future plans. Soon after, Bretiman joined Keegan’s staff at Columbia, returning to his alma mater.
“He is one of the best people that I know,” Breitman said of Keegan. “When he told the girls that he was resigning, he said to them, ‘If you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out,’ and he is actually one of the few people who mean that. When he coached me and when I was at Golda Och, he and I were in contact. He is just a good guy.”
The Cougars have been hit hard by graduation, losing seven players from the team that lost a heartbreaking 48-44 overtime decision to Kearny in the quarterfinals of the North 1, Group 4 state sectional tournament to finish with an 11-15 record this past winter. Columbia went 6-6 in the SEC–American Division, the top division in the conference. However, Breitman said three starters will be back next season: rising seniors Talia Baptiste, Summer Lonning and Jaime Levi.
The Cougars will be busy this summer, attending a team camp at Rutgers University and taking part in workouts at South Orange Middle School. In addition, the team plans to compete in independent scrimmages against other schools.
Columbia HS alum Aaron Breitman promoted to Cougars girls hoops head coach added by Joe Ragozzino on
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