Ridge
girls soccer coach Todd Hebden has a tough time explaining to his buddies
back home in England that he’s actually taken a liking to the female version
of his national pastime.
“The concept of girls’ soccer is completely alien to my friends in England,”
said Hebden, 26, who came to the U.S. three years ago to explore new career
opportunities.” Girls playing soccer was unthinkable when I was growing up.
They’ve really only started to play in the last two years over there.”
Despite the occasional taunts from his pals, Hebden has developed quite an
appreciation for the game as it’s played by American girls. It may be slower
and more deliberate than the boys’ game but that doesn’t make it any less
intriguing.
“In some ways, I find that it’s a better environment to teach the game,”
said Hebden. “As a coach, you can better see what’s happening on the field
and it’s easier to watch things develop. Plus, the girls are always a little
more willing to listen.”
This fall, Hebden’s words of wisdom inspired Ridge
to a season that would have made even
his doubting cronies proud.
The Somerset County school finished with a 21-0-2 mark, captured its first
Somerset County Tournament crown since 1989 and earned its first NJSIAA
championship - the Group 2 crown, which it started with Mendham after a 1-1
draw in the state final on Nov. 25.
Ridge was one of only three teams in New Jersey to finish without a loss,
along with Group 3 champion Ramapo (26-0) and Group 4 titlist East Brunswick
(24-0).
Hebden, who has guided Ridge to a 37-2-3 mark in his two seasons there, is
The Star-Ledger 1996 Girls’ Soccer Coach of the Year.
“He’s awesome because he knows the game so well and he also knows how to
deal with each one of us on an individual level,” offers junior midfielder
Stephanie Hulke. “He knows what we’re capable of doing and he made us
believe that we could accomplish all of our goals.”
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Hebden admits, though, that this isn’t what he envisioned when he left
England in the summer of 1993.
After graduating from Sheffield
University, where he had led the soccer team to a national championship as a
high-scoring senior forward, Hebden decided to cross the Atlantic in search
of something new and exciting.
He settled in Somerset County and went to work for the budding United Soccer
Academy (USA), which offers summer camps, year-round coaching programs and
instruction for youth traveling teams in Central Jersey. USA has since
grown to the point that Hebden, now one of the four USA directors, is able
to make his living by teaching the game that he loves. What began as a
one-year journey has grown into something much more.
“I had planned to stay for only that one summer, but I enjoyed it so much
that I decided to stay,” said Hebden. “It’d been pretty tough to turn my
back on it all now. I’m coaching soccer for a living, an occupational choice
I’m pretty happy with.”
At Ridge, Hebden stresses the same principles that he learned as a player in
England - sound fundamental soccer with an emphasis on building from the back.
“I think with the slower pace, goals are harder to come by with the girls,”
said Hebden. “So I put a lot of stock in our defense. It’s the starting
point of our attack.”
Ironically, though, it was an offensive slugfest that helped Ridge turn the
corner this year. On Oct. 22, Hebden’s crew edged Bridgewater-Raritan, 5-4,
in an SCT semifinal sudden-death shootout. It was that game, more than
anything else, that got the Ridge kids believing.
Bridgewater-Raritan had won the SCT crown four straight years under coach
Bob Morris, a streak that officially came to an end the following week when
Ridge blasted Pingry, 4-0, in the championship game.
“The Bridgewater game was a big step for us,” said junior Christine Hulke,
Stephanie’s identical twin sister. “We came back three times to tie before
finally pulling it out. That game made us believe we could do it.”
It also helped convince Hebden that perhaps he had found the dream job he
was looking for when he arrived here a little more than three years ago. |
