UNICO

Sports
PEOPLE
In it for the
long haul
by Elena Ferrarin
One thing you can say about Miller
Bugliari: He knows a good thing when he
sees it.
The 80-year-old has spent his entire
coaching career — 56 years and counting
— guiding the soccer team at The Pingry
School, a private prep school in Basking
Ridge, N.J. At 812-102-68, he holds the
national record for most
victories as a high school
soccer coach, earning him
induction into both the
National Soccer Coaches
Association of America
Hall of Fame and the National
Soccer Hall of Fame.
Starting at Pingry as
assistant soccer coach in
1959, Bugliari taught in
the science department,
eventually serving as its
chairman. He also coached
other school teams.
So did he ever think of
leaving over the decades? “Everybody
has other opportunities, but every time
something happened here that I felt I
could help out,” he says. “The kids are
great to me, and I stayed.”
Effective coaches are the ones who
truly forge a connection with players, he
says. “If you have a 40-goal scorer or a
50-point basketball player, a LeBron
James, you’ve got to make sure he knows
what you want, but you also have to find
the right way to reach him,” he says.
“That’s the secret.”
How one reaches players differs from
person to person. “Some of them you
don’t have to say much at all, some of
them you have say, ‘Hey, that’s enough,’”
he says. “It’s getting to know each player
and finding out what gets to them.”
It’s also important to keep up with
66
the times in an ever-evolving world of
technology. “You have to make sure
you’re no so far behind that they think
you’re out of it,” he says.
Bugliari’s ties to the school are as
personal as they get: He was a student
there, as were his three sons. All three
boys, in fact, were members of the soccer
Photos courtesy The Pingry School
team and served as co-captains. Two of
them ended up playing soccer in college,
and one, Anthony, even played in New
Zealand and for the New York Athletic
Club.
Coaching your own kids requires
extra self-evaluation, Bugliari says. “Generally,
if you’re fair, you’re watching
other kids and making sure you’re seeing
your own through the same eyes.”
Bugliari’s philosophy is to never cut
anyone from the team, regardless of skill
level. That means that during practice,
he’ll have as many as 33 players, about a
dozen more than other high school
teams, but only 15 or 16 will actually
play during games.
There is one imperative, though.
Bring a positive attitude, he says, or
you’re off the team.
September 2015
▲ MILLER BUGLIARI
A former student and soccer player at
The Pingry School, he has coached the
New Jersey prep school’s soccer team
for more than half a century, amassing
a hall-of-fame record along the way.
Bugliari served on the board of the
National Soccer Coaches Association
from 1974 to 1980, including one term as
president. One of his favorite memories
of that time is meeting Eunice Kennedy
Shriver when soccer was inaugurated
into the Special Olympics. “She was dynamic.
Absolutely dynamic,” he recalls.
Another highlight was getting up
close and personal with the Italian national
soccer team in 1994. The team,
which made the World Cup finals that
year, stayed in a hotel near The Pingry
School and practiced on campus every
day.
Bugliari, who played soccer in high
school and college, says he always knew
the sport would eventually boom in the
United States.
“It’s been in the last 20 years that it
really happened,” he says. “Then the
women took it up and you see what
they’ve done. It’s a wonderful sport. It’s a
natural sport. It’s played by everyone in
the world.”
When you ask him if he has plans to
retire, he laughs. “Not right now. I have a
couple more projects I’m trying to finish,”
he says, such as raising money for a
field house and more scholarships.
“There’s always something. And school
is good for me.”
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