Ridgewood High School (New Jersey) - Athletics

Athletics

Ridgewood High School now competes in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. For the 2009-10 school year, Ridgewood was part of the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, a conference established on an interim basis to facilitate the realignment. Before then, Ridgewood High School was one of the public high schools from Bergen, Essex and Passaic counties that were members of the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League. With 1,231 students in grades 10-12, the school is classified by the NJSIAA for most sports as North I, Group IV, which includes schools with enrollment of 1,120 to 2,479. The school's sports teams are nicknamed the Maroons. Ridgewood High School athletics are broadcast locally on RHS-TV Sports, a student-produced sports television network, every Tuesday night at 8PM throughout the school year.

The football team won the North I Group IV state sectional championships in 1991, 2003 and 2004. In 1991, Ridgewood, under coach Chuck Johnson, defeated North Bergen High School in football to win the North I Group IV state championship, the first ever for the Maroons. In 2003, the football team defeated Morristown High School 35-6 in the NJSIAA North I Group IV title game at Giants Stadium. In 2004, the football team repeated the feat by defeating Hackensack High School 27-20, again at Giants Stadium.

The boys lacrosse team has won state championships in 1990 (vs. Arthur L. Johnson High School) and 1991 (Montclair High School), along with Group III championships in 2004 (Westfield High School), 2006 (Randolph High School), 2008 (Montgomery High School) and 2009 (Shawnee High School).

Ridgewood softball, coached by Debbie Paul, won the 2005 Bergen County Championship and 2006 North I Group IV State Sectional Championship, defeating Bloomfield High School by 3-0.

In 2007, the boy's tennis team won their second State Sectionals title in three years, defeating Livingston High School 3-2 to win the North I, Group IV championship. The 2008 Boys Tennis Team won their third consecutive North I, Group IV state sectional championship with a 4-1 win in the tournament final over Livingston High School. In 2009, the Maroons defeated Bergen Tech 4-1 at Paramus High School for their fourth consecutive North I Group IV state sectional championship.

In 2007, the girl's indoor track and field team came in 2nd nationally for the Shuttle Hurdle Relay. That same year, the team were North I, Group IV champions barely edging out East Orange Campus High School in a thrilling final 4X400m race. Although not running as fast as they did in 2007, the team came 1st in 2008 for the Shuttle Hurdles at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships. In 2008, the boy's outdoor track and field team placed 6th nationally in the Sprint Medley Relay, the first sprint team to place at Nationals for RHS after numerous previous Top 6 finishes in the Distance Medley Relay.

In 2010, the girls' lacrosse team won the Tournament of Champions with a 7-6 win against West Morris Mendham High School. They also won in 2011 with a comeback victory against rival Moorestown High School, winning 10-9.

The Ridgewood boys cross country team has won Group IV state championships in 1991 and 1992. The team, headed by Coach Mike Glynn since the 1970s (with the exception of a two-year break), has won multiple titles at the Bergen County Meet of Champions since the 1990s, earning Glynn recognition from The Record in 2010 as its Coach of the Decade. Notable runners in previous years include Joe Lemay, who went on to represent the United States at the World Half Marathon Championships and the World Cross-Country Championships, and Bob Keino (son of Kenyan Olympian Kip Keino), who won the New Jersey State Meet of Champions in both 1992 and 1993. Taro Shigenobu qualified for the Nike Cross Nationals in 2008, and was recognized by The Record as its runner of the year in 2009 and as part of its All-Decade team in 2010, joining Michael Cator, Byron Williams and Ari Zamir on its list of top Bergen County runners. The girls team won Group IV titles in 1980, 1992, 1998 and 1999, and won individual Group IV championships in 1984, 1993, 1997 and 2001.

Girl's soccer coach Jeff Yearing, in his 25th year of coaching, won his 400th career game in September 2011, placing him second among all active Bergen County coaches.