Passing of Ed Mather

[Grote]

Longtime Bernards coach and history teacher Ed Mather passed away after a long struggle with Parkinson's this morning in Hunterdon County. Mr. Mather started and fostered a tradition of excellence in Bernardsville that continued on for decades and has been carried on at higher levels to this day collegiately and post-collegiately. He began with kids pre-high school and changed the path of many lives. I don't want to speak for anybody, as I didn't know the man as well as many, but I have mentioned Jason Vigilante many times on this board, recently as NCAA Asst. Coach of The Year, and coach of frosh NCAA 1500m Champ Leonel Manzano. Vig got his start running with Mr. Mather as a kid, and continued through high school to train from Bernards High at The Wall. He followed him to UNC-Charlotte, and later used his success there and transferred to NC State. Jason has been affected so strongly that his first born son's middle name is Mather and Mr. Mather travelled all the way to Florida in poor health for Jason's wedding. He's just one example of many, but a good one at that.

Mr. Mather would surely be proud to see the legacy of success continuing with Coach Szostack at Bernards and even the recently graduate Mr. Papazian, who still eats up the miles on the long-established backroad routes from The Wall.

Grote

[dirtbagdan!]

excrept from an article from long ago star ledger.... great coach... bernards was big way back when chris hallinan was great along with fred rollefson, the two first big bernards guys...... there they are this small school popping out great runners... i remember hearing people way back when saying "where's bernards?"...(i guess now people say "where"s Gill St. Bernards?" :) "... however people knew great coaching must have been part of it since bernards came from a small community.. it was awsome to see a small school like bernards have great runners and compete with awsome powerhouses(and big schools) like cba and north hunterdon .. much like today how papazian wins all these titles from such a small school (i think its a small school right?).....anyways after mather kids from bernards knew about distance running and thought it was the cool thing to do much like cba, cranford, north hunterdon, morris hills,(and if your a real nj xc fan newark central vs. st benedicts was a huge deal making newark a hot bed for distance running for a while) etc.... if i had to put an all star top 7 mather would defiantly be considered a strong coaching prospect.. link to a great article http://www.nj.com/hssports/ledger/index.ssf?/hssports/century/stories/bxcdecades.html
1980s


Bill Babcock, North Hunterdon (1984)

John Carlotti, Bernards (1982)

John Coyle, Christian Brothers (1988)

Jason DiJoseph, Paul VI (1988)

Tom Fischer, Manalapan (1981)

Brad Hudson, North Hunterdon (1983)

Andy Martin, North Hunterdon (1984)

Carlos Martins, Newark East Side (1986)

Mike Mykytok, Bound Brook (1988)

Cliff Sheehan, Westfield (1980)
Honorable mention: Bill Barrett, Christian Brothers (1984); Ron Faith, Paul VI (1985); Ken Flynn, Ramsey (1989); Carlos Hanze, Newark Central (1981); John Hayes, Randolph (1984); Jim Herdman, Hunterdon Central (1982); Matt Mitchell, Christian Brothers (1987); Jim Nielsen, Bernards (1984); Kevin Pumphrey, Highland (1985); Urie Ridgeway, Bridgeton (1988).
Coach: Ed Mather, Bernards

[Grote]

Gill St. Bernard's is definitely SMALL...try a graduating class of 35 yesterday! Made for a pretty quick commencement, though, I'll say that. I am not sure that distance running was ever the cool thing to do at Bernards, but I am pretty sure that the guys did not care...they did it for the right reasons, were very serious, worked hard, and won alot.

Grote

[themile2248]

Gill St. Bernard's is definitely SMALL...try a graduating class of 35 yesterday!



whoa that is really small....the only other school that comes to mind that small is oratory prep in summit (?)