Former Millburn High Coach Has Big Goals for Caldwell College's Men's Soccer

Caldwell College’s newly hired men’s soccer head coach Rob Grosso is ready to get to work. Grosso has already met with the 15 returning players and four new recruits who will make up the team in the fall. He will get up bright and early Monday to hold his first conditioning session with the players at 6 a.m.

But he won't have to travel far to get to campus. Grosso is a resident of West Caldwell who is excited about the proximity of his new role, as well as the challenge.

Grosso comes to Caldwell College after a successful nine-year run as head coach of the girls soccer team at Millburn High School. At Millburn, his team compiled an overall record of 114-57-9, while winning three Essex County championships and a Group 3 state title in 2008. That season, he was named the conference and sectional Coach of the Year.

Grosso said last week he hopes to make Caldwell College’s soccer program one that excels at the state level as well as the national level. 

“It’s an exciting challenge for me as this is my first college position,” said Grosso. “There’s a lot of work with recruiting and bringing student athletes to the college.”

In addition to coaching at Millburn High School, Grosso has been a health and physical education teacher at Heritage Middle School in Livingston since 2002. He also serves as the Director of Coaching for the West Essex Soccer Club, and has coached youth teams for the Millburn Soccer Club since 1998. Grosso is the owner and president of Sticks N' Kicks, which has provided training for youth soccer and lacrosse players since 2001.Last season, the Cougars were 6-11-1 overall; 4-6-1 in conference play. Grosso said the closest teams Caldwell plays in the Center Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) are Bloomfield College and Felician College, with the majority of teams located in Delaware and New York.

"We were fortunate to have a strong group of candidates to consider for the men's soccer position, and Rob stood out through the whole process," stated Mark A. Corino, Executive Director of Athletics, in a release. "His coaching record at the high school level speaks for itself, and we are glad he will be taking the next step to the collegiate level here at Caldwell."

Grosso played on the semi-professional team, the North Jersey Imperials, for two years. He graduated from Montclair State University in 2002 with a bachelor’s in health/physical education. At MSU, he played soccer and led his team as a forward in goals his senior year.

Grosso was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and lived in Roseland as a child. He spent his sophomore and junior years of high school in Argentina, but returned to Roseland to graduate from West Essex High School.

Grosso moved to West Caldwell two years ago with his wife, Jodi, and their two daughters.

The 2011 Caldwell College Men’s Soccer team will play its first home game on Wednesday, Sept. 7, against Bloomsberg University. It will be an out of conference game.