Photo courtesy of Frank Rodgers

By Steve Sears

After 265 career wins as head coach of the Hackettstown High School Tigers wrestling team, Frank Rodgers is passing the reigns to his assistant coach, Jim Berringer.

Fear not, though; he’ll still roam the school’s hallways and Morrison Field as he continues to teach calculus and serve as an assistant coach for the football and track & field squads.

“There was a couple of reasons,” he says when asked about his stepping down as wrestling coach. “The new head coach, he started with me in 2013, and he was more than ready to become the head coach. I did it long enough, and he deserves the opportunity to have a shot at it like I did so many years ago.”

Rodgers, who first was a 6-year assistant coach for the wrestling team and then head coach for 24 seasons, has been coaching three sports for the last 21 years. “I had a run there for a while,” Rodgers says, “and you know what, the winter season is the longest season – maybe not calendar wise, but it is mentally. I just would like to have the holidays, be with my family, and kind of relax a little bit. With wrestling, it’s six days a week, and a lot of Saturdays are pretty much spent in the gym all day. That’s part of it as well.”

Rodgers, who considers himself a teacher first and a coach second, is fond of all of his teams, but he speaks of two that were extra special. “In 2006 and in 2007, we were back-to-back district champions, and we were back-to-back North Jersey II Group II Sectional champions. In 2007, we had a final ranking of number 6 in the state of New Jersey. We were 21 – 2 that season.” He also recalls a trip to one of the state’s toughest wrestling spots, “The Pit” in Phillipsburg. “Those kids on that day – and they were all sophomores and juniors; I really didn’t have a lot of seniors on the team – they just took control the whole tournament,” he proudly recalls. “They won the districts in ‘The Pit’ at PBurg, and it was like the first time in like 18 years somebody else besides PBurg won the district.”

Rodgers is married to his wife, Maria, and the couple has five children: Frank, Nicholas, Tommy, Dante, and Monica. Residents of Caldwell, all four Rodgers boys wrestled for the Caldwell Chiefs, occasional opponents of the Hackettstown Tigers. Rodgers therefore faced the tough task of coaching against his own sons. “The older two, Frank and Nick, I coached against multiple times. Thomas was number three when it got to him. I was coaching our kid a couple of times against him, and probably the last time I just couldn’t do it anymore. I told my assistant, ‘Jim, you’ve got to do this. I’ve just got to watch my kid,’ he says with a laugh.

Rodgers, who got his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Rutgers University and masters at Montclair State, grew up in North Caldwell and is a 1978 graduate of West Essex High School. Both a member of the Knights football team as well as a regional champion wrestler, Rodgers is enshrined in that school’s Hall of Fame, and he was also honored likewise by Hackettstown High School in 2019.

“Frank Rodgers epitomizes what a high school coach ought to be,” says current Athletic Director, Bob Grauso. “His tremendous career accomplishments, including 8 team wrestling championships include two state titles, and his 10-time Coach of the Year awards speak for themselves. But it is the positive influence on, not only hundreds and hundreds of his wrestlers, but even more students who pass through his classroom doors each day, that sets Coach Rodgers apart from others.”

As an extra special honor, on January 29, 2022, prior to the 6 p.m. wrestling match between Hackettstown and Caldwell, there will be a dedication ceremony to name the Hackettstown High School wrestling room after Rodgers.