JEAN CARY
PEARL RIVER HIGH SCHOOL
COACH
Jean Cary arrived at Pearl River High School in 1969 after a four-year stint teaching physical education at her alma mater, River Dell High School in Oradell, N.J. When Title IX was passed in 1972, prohibiting gender discrimination at institutions receiving federal funding, a new era dawned in women’s athletics on the high school and college levels. Jean Cary was in the right place at the right time, building programs in softball and girls’ soccer that would make Pearl River a perennial contender for more than two decades.
Serving as head coach of both sports for 22 seasons, Jean retired in 1996 with the Rockland County record for most career coaching victories in both girls’ soccer (224) and softball (293). Her soccer teams won Rockland County Public School Athletic League (RCPSAL) titles in 1973, 1975 and 1979, and six sectional Class B crowns – two in Section 9 (1979, 1980) and four in Section 1 (1985, 1988, 1991, 1994). In softball, her teams won three Section 9 Class B championships (1977, 1979, 1980), one Rockland PSAL flag (1980), and two league titles (1989, 1994). As a point of reference, RCPSAL championships were eliminated in team sports in 1983.
Pioneer, Champion of Women’s Sports
Formal interscholastic competition in girls’ sports was still a dream when Jean began coaching at Pearl River in the mid-1970s. Extramurals and “play days” were the norm, in which a few neighboring schools got together informally to play exhibition games and enjoy social activities. Jean was a leading advocate for giving girls “equal opportunity to play against other schools, like the boys did,” she says. Those play days were the steppingstone to the organized and sanctioned league competition that scholastic athletes take for granted today.
“There is no question in my mind,” wrote Tom Doherty, the former Pearl River coach and athletic director, “that Pearl River High School now enjoys unparalleled success in girls’ sports through the efforts of Jean and Athletic Director Max Talaska,” who was a 1995 Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
A Natural in Softball, Quick Learner in Soccer
Softball was the sport that Jean first fell in love with. As a 9-year-old, she learned to pitch from her dad, who instructed her in the fundamentals. He would come home from his job in New York City each evening and, on the dirt road where the family lived in Oradell, allow Jean to pitch a simulated game, with him calling balls and strikes. Jean developed into an exceptional right-handed windmill pitcher, playing at River Dell, Montclair State College (where she also captained the basketball team) and as an adult, primarily in a league sponsored by the Town of Orangetown Recreation Department, directed by Joe Emmert. For her outstanding play, Jean was inducted into the Rockland County Softball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Jean had not been a soccer player but was familiar with the sport. When Pearl River’s first girls’ soccer coach, Barbara Cole, opted to leave coaching to join the U.S. Marine Corps, Jean applied for the position and was hired by Max Talaska. She learned soccer tactics and strategies from Pearl River boys’ coaches Gus Filter and Larry Ruderman, and began to assemble the makings of a successful program. Jean cultivated a crop of talented players throughout her 22-year tenure in both soccer and softball, and recalls with fondness integral players such as Dawn Galvin, Denise Murphy, Jamie Renella, Christine Grommisch, Noreen Annunziata, Cathy Pearn, Kelly Gorman, and pitcher Cathy Marsico.
Trusted Aides, Fellowship of Coaches
Coaches cannot succeed without the help of their valued coaching staff, and Jean was no exception. Her trusted confidants on the sidelines included Mary Mulderig, the JV softball coach; Alisa Ehrenman, the JV soccer coach; Marilyn Falt, the middle school soccer coach; Eleni Kousoulas, assistant coach; and scorekeeper Jo Mosella.
The camaraderie of the Rockland coaching fraternity is something Jean cherished greatly. She paid tribute to coaches such as Dave Powers of Nanuet, Pauline Capobianco of Clarkstown North and South, and Tony Boffa of Nyack, among others. “Everything changed when we went across the river,” she says, referring to Rockland’s mid-1980s athletic realignment from Section 9 to Section 1, grouped with schools based east of the Hudson. “We were very close-knit all together in Rockland.”
Outside the Lines, Making an Impact
Jean, a 1963 Montclair State College graduate, taught physical education at Pearl River from 1969 to 1996. Aside from her coaching duties, which included cheerleading in the winter, Jean played integral roles in other supporting activities. She was founder of Pearl River High School’s annual Girls and Women in Sports Day, which was celebrated in a ceremony at halftime of a home girls’ basketball game. Carmen Roberts, the former longtime athletic secretary, was the first recipient to be honored. The tradition that Jean started is still going strong, as the Girls and Women in Sports Day continues each year at Pearl River.
Jean was chairperson and a longtime member of the Section 1 Girls’ Fall Soccer Committee, as well as a longtime member of the Section 9 soccer and softball committees and the Section 1 softball committee. She also was the area representative for the selection of the New York State Physical Education and Athletics Award, known as the Dorothea Dietz Memorial Scholarship.
Retirement: Touring the Country, Settling in Tucson
Upon retirement in 1996, Jean and her husband Fred purchased a fifth wheel camper and traveled around the country “meeting wonderful people” at RV campgrounds and throughout their travels. Fred, her husband of 42 years, died in 2008 at age 69. The following year, Jean purchased a house in Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the RV campground where she and Fred had spent winters since retirement. She continues to live there, taking advantage of the campground complex’s wealth of amenities and activities, playing tennis, enjoying its restaurants and theater, and attending church services.
Jean, who is 82, has become an ardent fan of the athletics program at the University of Arizona, which is based in Tucson. She has season tickets to the softball, women’s basketball and men’s basketball teams, and doesn’t mind telling you about the Wildcats’ softball team’s championship at the final Pac-12 tournament, and what a shame it is that the Pac-12 Conference is disbanding.
Jean has one son – Sean, 56, an Albertus Magnus graduate. Sean and his wife, Rachell, live in Jennings, Florida. They have two adult children, Jean’s grandkids – William and Georgia.
Fun fact: One of Jean’s classmates at River Dell H.S. was Bill Parcells, the ex-Giants coach, with whom she still stays in touch. Fun fact No. 2: Jean’s uncles were card-playing buddies with Vince Lombardi, who coached at St. Cecilia’s High School in nearby Englewood, N.J.
Jean is a charter member of the Rockland County Coaches Association’s Century Club – signifying 100 victories or more – in both softball and soccer. She was inducted into the Pearl River High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Congratulations to one of the finest coaches in Pearl River and Rockland sports annals, Mrs. Jean Cary.
