Major milestone for successful Middle tennis coach

Posted: January 1st 1970

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

There was a time when the boys tennis program at Middle Township High School struggled.

That changed almost immediately when Matt Gilbert became head coach.

Gilbert, the leader of the program for 20 seasons now, won the 300th match of his career Friday when the Panthers beat Seneca, 5-0, in a non-league match. Middle improved to 7-1 with the win.

Gilbert’s 300 victories have come against just 61 defeats.

“I’m probably most proud of the longevity of success we’ve had in the program,” Gilbert said. “Year after year, we’ve created a culture that everyone who’s come into the program has bought into. It’s hours of training and good competition. I feel like we’ve become one of the premier programs in South Jersey and it’s a tribute to all the hard work and dedication from the players.”

Gilbert’s resume is filled with much more than 300 victories. He’s guided Middle to 10 Cape-Atlantic National Conference titles, 14 appearances in a sectional title match and three South Jersey titles. On Saturday, the Panthers won the Cape May Tennis Club’s Round Robin Tournament for the 18th straight year in an event that this season also included Lower Cape May, Wildwood Catholic, Jenkintown (Pa.) and Neshaminy (Pa.).

“It’s great to have gotten this to the point that when a kind comes into a program he knows he’s going to have an opportunity for a championship of some sort,” Gilbert said.

In many seasons, Middle has always had one or two players enter the program with at least some tennis experience. Gilbert helped the program’s depth by first recruiting good athletes from the soccer program, in which he served as first an assistant coach and later the head coach. Now that he’s no longer coaching soccer, the program is still drawing athletes from other sports, as well as some players with very high academic achievements.

“We don’t really have a feeder program for tennis in the district so a lot of it has been word of mouth,” Gilbert said. “We used to get a lot of soccer players before. Now, it’s really a good mix. We’re still getting some soccer players but we’re also getting swimmers, kids in the robotics program, some high academic kids. We’re getting kids that never played before trying a new sport and they come in and work hard. It’s nice to get good athletes into the program.”

Gilbert credited the addition of assistant coach John Leahy as helping provide a jolt to the program in recent years. Leahy has also guided the girls basketball program to three South Jersey championships during his long career as head coach, including each of the last two seasons.

“Having Coach Leahy by my side, he’s kind of given us the edge to keep going and compete for more,” Gilbert said. “We’ve had a lot of support – from the administration, from the families of the kids in the program, from the community.”

Gilbert was asked how long he planned to continue coaching.

“I never really think about not doing it,” he said. “With life in general, you’re always going year to year but I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon.”

Which means we should probably expect the success of the Middle Township High School boys tennis program to continue.