Junior Varsity Soccer Coach to Take Varsity Role at MTHS

Next fall, Dana Bertoli, a math teach at Montville Township High School and a junior varsity coach for the girls soccer team, will take over as varsity coach for girls soccer.

"I'm excited," said Bertoli. "It will be nice to have these kids look up to me, I think a lot of them already do; a lot of them go out of their way to see me during the school day."

For Bertoli, grades come before athletics.

"I think they know my priority is school comes first, then soccer," she said.

Bertoli has played soccer for 21 years, and her dad was her coach up until the time she started playing at Morris Hills High School, where she was the captain of her soccer team and received all county, all conference and all state honors. She spent two years playing sweeper and two years as a center midfielder.

In college, she played left fullback at William Patterson University.

For the past two years, Bertoli has been the junior varsity coach at , so some of the varsity players she will coach next season have already had her as a coach on the JV squad.

"My philosophy really is defensive," Bertoli said. "Build from the back and then get forward, having a close-knit, bonded team."

Girls soccer begins in the fall of next school year.