Suffern High School’s track and cross country history is legendary. With Hall of Fame athletes such as Ervin Levine, Ralph Consiglio, and Tim St. Lawerence, and coaches like Joe St. Lawerence, Nick Mottola, and David Gaunt, the foundations of the programs were in good shape. Then along came Joe Biddy, and he brought the programs to new heights. Joe arrived in Suffern in 1967 and served as an assistant coach for two years. In 1969 Joe was elevated to the position of Head Boys’ Cross Country Coach. After 40 years and a lot of miles, Joe’s boys’ cross country team total stands at 616 career victories (522 duals and 94 invita- tionals), which is the New York State career record. During that time his teams won 13 league titles, 13 county meet titles, 15 sectional Class A titles, 2 New York State Public School team titles(1993, 1999), and one New York State Federation Team title (1993). From 1986- 1995 Joe Biddy’s Suffern boys’ team compiled a 132 dual meet win streak, which is still a record for a Rockland County boys’ team. Individually, Joe has coached over 75 first team All County runners and one of his athletes, Justin Romaniuk, went on to win the New York State title in 1999.

In 1973, after only a year of the program’s existence, Joe took over the reins of the Boys’ Indoor Track and Field program. And when the Girls’ indoor track program was started in 1978, Joe was appointed as the Head Coach of Boys’ and Girls’ Indoor Track, a position, along with Boys’ Cross Country Coach, that he still holds to this day. Joe’s boys’ teams have won 61 invitational meets, 7 league titles, 9 Rockland County meet titles, and 17 Sectional team titles. The girls’ teams have gone on to win 120 invitational meets, 23 league titles, 24 Rockland County meet titles and 18 Sectional team titles. During that time, Joe has coached 106 Boys Rockland County Individual Champions and 170 Girls Rockland County Individual Champions. On the State and National level, the Suffern Boys’ and Girls’ Indoor Track Team coached by Joe Biddy has been outstanding. The team has had 126 sectional champions qualify for the New York State meet. From that 126, 53 went on to become New York State Champions. Joe sent 46 Sectional relay teams to the New York State meet and had 43 place winners. Suffern has won 10 New York State Federation relay titles at various distances and the Girls’ team won the a State Federation relay title six years in a row (2001-06), the only school, boys or girls, to achieve that feat. On the National level, Joe has had 2 individual champions and 3 relay champions.

In 2006 Suffern High started a Girls’ Golf team and, because of his love of the sport, Joe became the Girls’ Golf coach. In the three years that Joe coached the Girls’ Golf team, they won 2 Rockland County tournament titles. If you put together all of Joe’s championships, the record is astounding: 43 league meet titles, 48 county meet titles, 50 sectional titles. In addition to that, Joe was selected as “Coach of the Year” by the Journal News over 40 times, and, in 2000, he was selected by a committee of county coaches as the “Boys’ Cross Country Coach of the Millennium” Joe and his wife Barbara, live in New City, and have two children, Marci, 34 and Gregory 30.