Thank you, Coach Briggs

After ten years as the Head Coach of the FTHS boys soccer team, Coach Todd Briggs has decided to step aside. This year’s captains write their own goodbye to the coach they know and love.

Jake Kennis, Mike Maltese, and Mark Fasano

Mr. Briggs with soccer captains (from left) Jake Kennis, Mike Maltese, and Mark Fasano
Mr. Briggs with soccer captains (from left) Jake Kennis, Mike Maltese, and Mark Fasano

It has often been said that your coach is not supposed to be your friend, but for the past ten years Freehold Township boys soccer has been extremely lucky to have both.

Coach Briggs has taken the program to heights that were never expected of him, coaching two Shore Conference Championship teams, and two Central Jersey Group IV championship teams. One of the best things about playing for Briggs over the past four years is that he really makes the team become a family. From joking around at practice to playing FIFA with the team at pasta parties, everything he does helps bring the team closer. This year that was especially true. Towards the middle of the season, the team went through a bit of a rough patch record wise. For a senior heavy team it was not looking pretty. The turning point to get us back on our feet was a motivational presentation that Briggs gave us one day after school before going out to practice. It was about how close the team was and that the fourteen seniors on the team had one last chance to prove what we were capable of and not rest on the laurels of those that came before us.

The most important message he gave us, perhaps in all of our four years in the program was him having us close our eyes and then look at the two people sitting next to each other– two brothers, two brothers that would give anything to help an individual or the team as a whole. After doing this simple task, he told us, “No matter what happens the rest of the season, you don’t want to get on the bus and look at your brothers, and know that you could’ve given more because you will regret that for the rest of your life.” His speech then ended with a poem,
The Man in the Glass by Peter Winbrow Sr. It is as follows:

 

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,

And the world makes you King for a day,

Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,

And see what that guy has to say.

 

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,

Who judgement upon you must pass.

The feller whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the guy staring back from the glass.

 

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,

For he’s with you clear up to the end,

And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

 

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,

And think you’re a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

 

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears

If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

 

This really resonated with the team; many of us had been playing with each other since we were in fifth grade, and no one wanted to see the career of the guy standing next to them end. The thing that I will always admire in Briggs is how he was able to put 110% of himself into the team every day when he had a thousand other things he could’ve been doing. He scouted every team we could’ve possibly played, made detailed scouting reports, stayed up late watching films, and then again would stay up at night in fear that he had not done enough to help us succeed. I can honestly say I have never had a coach who cared so much about the players on his team. Beating Monroe in the Central Jersey Group IV Championship will forever be one of my greatest memories, but what Briggs did next is even greater, but first I must take a step back. Throughout the season, the mother of one of our seniors had been battling cancer and still is. He helped us support her by wearing the “FTHS Kicks Cancer” shirts to every game. After we won he called her onto the field and presented her with the trophy. That day had been her last day of chemotherapy and she didn’t even have the strength to drive, but she made it to the game anyway. That literally meant the world to her, and I was just glad to be a part of it. This really exemplifies how Briggs makes the team a family for winning on that day did not come on the field. If one person has something they were going through, we all went through it together.

Compared to other coaches in the school and those who have coached in the past, ten years is not considered a long career, but what Briggs put into those years compares to forty-plus year careers of others. He has truly affected every person who has come through the program for the better, and we would just like to thank him for all he has done. He is more than just a coach to us, he was a role model who led by example. His coaching did not hold allegiance just on the field, but was parallel to all facets of life. He always told the team, “good things will happen to good people” and believe me, that certainly stood true for us and himself. Mr. Briggs is truly a special coach: a coach that one is lucky enough to ever have in his/her lifetime.