West Morris Mendham’s first year HC Jeros is optimistic about growth of football program
MENDHAM, N.J. — The West Morris Mendham varsity football team recently hired Ethan Jeros as its new head coach. Coach Jeros has coaching football running through his veins and is excited to have the opportunity to make the program his own.
“I’m truly grateful for being given the chance to coach the Mendham football team,” Ethan says. “I’m optimistic about the prospects of the program. We have a lot of pieces in place and there is a bright future.”
Ethan was promoted from defensive line coach in May 2021 after Brett Ressler left to coach his alma mater (Hackensack High School). In need of a new varsity head coach, Athletic Director Ned Panfile turned to Ethan, who had earned an excellent reputation among the administration as a coach and as the Wellness Counselor at Mendham and West Morris Central.
“Mendham’s Principal Ryan took me aside and said ‘We like you and the kids like you,’” Ethan relayed.
Having begun his coaching career at New Milford High School as the offensive line/defensive line/strength and conditioning coach in 1996, Ethan worked his way up the coaching ladder. He spent 13 years in the collegiate ranks; Marietta College, Virginia Military Institute, Northern Michigan University, and William Paterson University, before returning to take over the reins at his alma mater, Hightstown High School in 2015.
After a three-year stint as the head football coach at Hightstown, Jeros and his family moved to Long Valley in 2018. Deciding to take time off to help raise his son and daughter, he became a substitute teacher at Mendham High School, at the same time furthering his own education by becoming certified as a Wellness Counselor in May of 2020. Ethan then began coaching the Mendham varsity football team’s defensive line and he hasn’t looked back since.
“We have four captains whose ‘whatever we have to do to win’ attitude is infectious. Quarterback Frank Kontely, FB/LB Luke Fehnel, RB/DB Thomas Post, and OL/DT Josh Herrmann are helping turn the program around. The entire team is working hard, everyone believes in what we are doing,“ Jeros explains.
While the team is 1-7, the record is misleading and does not tell the whole story. Mendham lost two of its last three games, by a combined 10 points, to two of the stronger teams in the area. The Minutemen were beating Immaculata (6-1) at home at halftime, October 8th, before the opposing team made a couple of key plays down the stretch to escape with a seven-point win.
At Montville’s Senior Night on October 22nd, Mendham gave the home team (7-3) everything it could handle. Down 24-7 with eight minutes to play, Montville needed an onside kick, a couple of stops on downs, and overtime, to overcome the upstart Minutemen.
“I couldn’t be happier with our efforts—Immaculata and Montville are playoff teams, and we went toe- to-toe with each of them. The kids are working their butts off, doing everything they can to win. We have improved tremendously since our first game. The Montville coach was impressed by our effort and talent,” emphasizes Coach Jeros. “It is now my responsibility to put the team in a position to win, to get the guys over the top.”
In addition to improvements on the field, the team also ‘gets it’ off the field. They understand the spirit of high school sports. Mendham has nominated Shane Sullivan Jr.—who is legally blind in his left eye, and visually impaired in his right eye—for the “Heart of a Giant” award.
“Shane is the most enthusiastic, positive guy I have been around. He is all about the team,” Coach Jeros said in support of Shane. “During our first game this year, at Jefferson, when we were down three touchdowns, he was cheering on the team, saying we were going to come back,”
Between bestowing the life lessons of respect and treating all as equals, and the team turning the corner on the field, Ethan Jeros has the Mendham football program headed in the right direction in more ways than one.
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