Soccer alumni to honor Coach Stan Williston
'Coach Will' is winningest coach in Middlesex County history
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK — Over 460 wins. Eighteen division titles. Four Central Jersey sectional titles. A Group III state championship title.

After 34 seasons as the head soccer coach at the North Brunswick Township High School, Stan Williston retired this year from his job as a physical education teacher at the school, and chose to end his coaching career as well.

On Friday, the North Brunswick Township High School Soccer Alumni Association will honor Williston with the return of its alumni game after a 15-year hiatus.

Williston, a North Brunswick resident for over 30 years, was a multisport athlete when he was younger. He was the captain of the golf team at Edison High School and also played baseball and basketball.

He said he got involved with soccer as an 11-year-old when a group of men in the Middlesex County area decided to put together a travel team, and he continued with the sport as a center midfielder, serving as the captain of his University of Miami team for two years. He was also named an honorable mention All-American his senior year.

Top: The 1991 North Brunswick Township High School soccer team. Above: Coach Will directs his players on the field. Left: The 1976 varsity soccer team.

"The most intriguing thing about soccer … is that it is a constant decision-making game. There is never an exact plan you go in with. Basically, the ball dictates what you do next. As the ball moves, the decisions you make as a player … are like in a chess game," Williston said.

Williston recalled an analogy made by a coach in Europe, who related soccer to music. The man said that in music there are 11 notes that are always the same but that can be played any way, depending on how the maestro decides to interpret the music.

"You can play the same 11, but it's never going to be the same. It always evolves and it will always be different," he said.

Therefore, although the 57-year-old also coached the high school girls basketball team and the golf team, his heart lies with soccer.

Williston was hired right out of college to coach the boys soccer team when the high school opened in 1974. The first varsity season was 1975-1976, when the team went 1-8-1.

In 1978 the team won its first of three titles in the Bicentennial Athletic Conference, and then the conference merged to become the Greater Middlesex Conference.

"We had pretty good success since our first 10- year period. From that point forward, we have been pretty successful," he said.

In 1991, the team won the division title and the Group 3 Sectional Championship but lost in the state semi-finals. However, that team had 21 wins with 112 goals scored — the most of any high school team — and only 15 goals given up to opposing teams.

Then, in 1993, the team won the state championship, the first one ever won by the high school.

From 1976 to 2007, the team never recorded a losing season under Williston's direction.

Williston has different memories of the over 600 "blessed" athletes he coached during the years, noting how several of them have pursued soccer professionally, or have gone on to coach at other high schools and colleges, or have instead become doctors and lawyers and other professionals.

He said the academic and the social experiences were important complements to the athletics, since he enjoyed watching the players develop into men and see them reach their goals.

Williston said that "it's hard to say, 'This is the group I'm not going to coach,'" and that he was told to push for his 500th win. But he and his wife Mary, also a physical education teacher at the school, decided that 2008 was "kind of time" to retire. His daughter, Jennifer, was a swimmer for the high school and his daughter, Allison, competed in softball and cross-country.

Now relaxing and traveling with his wife, Williston said he keeps in contact with current coach Paul Liddy, but that it is Liddy's team now, so he wants the team to develop its own techniques and tactics moving forward.

"It's hard. I want to be there," Williston said, "but I may fall back into coach-mode."

He said he is looking forward to the alumni game because it will be a chance to catch up with all of his former players, many of whom have grown up and have children of their own who are involved with soccer.

"The fun, the camaraderie, in the end is just for the pure love of the game," he said.

For more information about the alumni game, contact Ralph Andrews at REAndrew@ optonline.net or Patrick Fowler at PWFowler@verizon.net.

Contact Jennifer Amato at

jamato@gmnews.com.