Haddonfield Memorial High School wants to help its students learn and practice skills like team building, leadership, problem solving, discipline and responsibility.
Getting them there means offering plenty of sports.
The fall season has football, boys’ and girls’ soccer, field hockey, girls’ tennis, girls’ volleyball, both boys’ and girls’ cross country and cheerleading. The school band also competes during the season.
Lefteris Banos is the athletic director of the borough schools.
“Interscholastic athletics is an extension of the classroom, and they learn so many lessons,” he says of players. “It’s what I call the unwritten curriculum – about becoming a good person, a contributing member of society.
“And really that’s what we try to do here at Haddonfield Athletics, make good kids better people.”
For the current season, 674 high-school students are playing a sport. The middle school – which offers cross country and field hockey in the fall – has 400.
“Attending Haddonfield high school and playing sports, they’re synonyms,” Banos believes.
Students who participate in Haddonfield’s athletic program are expected to use the opportunity to display positive attributes in their behavior both on and off the field.
“Our expectation of our student athletes,” Banos explains, “is that they use the season to represent our school and our community with great sportsmanship, to learn life lessons of commitment, hard work, getting along with others, improving your skills and developing a healthy lifestyle that will carry on to the rest of your life.”
Among the fall season’s highlights was head tennis coach Jeff Holman’s achievement of reaching his 2,500th career win at a match against Vineland High School on Sept. 9.
“He is currently the winningest high-school tennis coach in the country,” Banos says proudly. Holman has been a teacher and counselor in Haddonfield for 51 years, and has been coaching tennis since 1974.
“I have had the good fortune to coach many great tennis players who have won a lot of matches for Haddonfield,” Holman reflected in a statement after his career win.
“However, my hope is that participation in Haddonfield’s tennis program has instilled in more than 2,500 young athletes a love of the sport and the desire to continue playing throughout their lives.”
The community – including current players, alumni and media – were invited to celebrate Holman’s achievement at the Centennial Tennis Courts after a girls’ tennis match between Haddonfield and Gateway Regional high schools.
“Coach Holman is more than a coach, he’s a cornerstone and a treasure of our school community,” Banos maintains. “His impact on young lives is immeasurable, and 2,500 wins is just a reflection of the extraordinary commitment he’s given to this program.”
Another fall season highlight is the borough’s participation in the Colonial Conference, an athletic competition for public high schools in Camden and Gloucester counties. It operates under the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).
The conference – which Haddonfield has been a part of for decades – sponsors several sports for member schools. For the borough, it’s also become a family affair.
“… You develop rivalries that go back to the parents having played these games there,” Banos explains. “Sometimes even the grandfathers have played in the same games …”
Among Haddonfield’s Colonial Conference sports are boys’ and girls’ cross country, soccer, field hockey and tennis. And then there’s football. A fall sports tradition is the annual Thanksgiving Day game against Haddon Heights, a rivalry that began in 1902.
“We’re one of the oldest Thanksgiving games still in existence,” Banos points out. “… So it’s a great tradition between the two communities.”
The game draws families from both communities, with some of the student athletes continuing that legacy for generations.
“You see kids that are walking onto the field, and you have the dad and their grandfather or the uncle or the cousin wearing the football jersey that they wore when they played, from both communities being here on the same field,” Banos notes.
Many of the student athletes are veterans of the sports they play.
“Especially in our small community here, they have grown up playing together in youth soccer, youth football, youth field hockey, youth – all the sports together,” adds Banos, adding that doesn’t mean students can’t try a new sport.
“It’s not unheard of.”
Banos emphasizes how involvement in sports throughout their high-school careers helps student athletes create valued memories.
“They’re finally in high school,” he observes, “and they’re going to play
high-school sports with their friends, which is special, because of the memories that you make and the friendships that you developed, and those tend to be your closest friends, years and years down the road.
“That’s why high school sports are so great.”
The Haddonfield school district’s sports schedule can be found at haddonfieldathletics.org,
