Falling Into A New Position

A wall in the commons area covered in photographs of our athletes.

Image Credits: Connor Bonicky

By Connor Bonicky

Coming into the new season, we have 9 new coaches stepping into a new coaching position. Out of the 9 coaches, 4 are football coaches, 2 are field hockey coaches, 2 are tennis coaches, and one is the boys soccer coach. These coaches have to prove themselves as some of them are stepping into a new head coaching gig.

Field Hockey Coaches

Coming onto the scene for the field hockey coaches we have Joe Rock and Christine Kunder. Mr. Rock, has been teaching at Pinelands for 21 years, he has been at Atlantic City for 4 years, now he works at Oakcrest. At Pinelands he taught marine biology and biology. While he may be new to field hockey, he is not new to the coaching scene as he was an assistant golf coach for 8 years and coached ice hockey for 5 years. The other new coach for field hockey is Mrs. Kunder. She has been teaching at Pinelands for 15 years where she started in youth services but now she is Physical Education teacher. She is a Pinelands alumni and went to school at Rowan where she played field hockey for 4 years. From 2007-2013 she was an assistant coach for field hockey, basketball, and softball, until she had her kids which is why she took a hiatus in coaching. Now she has taken the role as head coach for the Lady Cats in her first head coaching position.

Boys Soccer Coaches

Leading the boys soccer team we have James Campbell. Coach Campbell has been a men’s soccer coach for for 5 years now. He was an assistant coach the last 4 years and now he is filling in the shoes of coach Scotto Di Carlo who has led the team to multiple b-south championships. Coach Campbell is a Pinelands alumni from the class of 2002. He currently works in law enforcement and has been for 10 years now. This is Campbell's first head coaching gig at here at Pinelands.

Football Coaches

The football team has 4 new coaches coming into the season. John Tierney is the new head coach, Vincent LoVerde is the defensive back and special teams coach, Vemba Bukala is our running back coach, and George Martin the defensive line and offensive line coach.

John Tierney has all eyes on him as he looks to turn the football team around. Coach. Tierney, has been coaching for quite some time now. He was an offensive coordinator and offensive line coach here at Pinelands from 2001-2010. After Pinelands, he went to Lacey where was a run game coordinator and offensive line coach from 2011-2018. He was an assistant basketball coach at Mater Dei from 1998-2002 then took over the head coaching job in 2002 and was there until 2016. He has been teaching at Pinelands for the last 20 years..

Vincent LoVerdeis one of the youngest coaches on the staff. Coach LoVerde started off playing football for Montclair State University where then ended up coaching the wide receiver and return men for Montclair after he retiring from playing. After coaching there, LoVerde bounced around to Belleville and Townsend where he coached special teams, wide receivers, and defensive backs between the two schools.

Vemba Bukala, Vemba is Pinelands alumni where he holds multiple records in both football as a running back and in track and field. Coach Buk, went to Hosfra University from 2000-2004 where he had a full ride scholarship and played football there.. Buk says that he has been coaching his entire life whether it was on the field or in his neighborhood where he would coach kids and make sure kids were on the right path. He has been a New Jersey State Trooper for the last 14 years.

Lastly we have George Martin, another Pinelands graduate from the class of 1998 where played offensive and defensive line. He went to Kean University in 1999 and played football but ended up transferring to Rowan University where he continued to play football and study criminal justice. In 2012, he started coaching American Youth Football for Pinelands and in 2015 he took over the youth programs. Coach Martin coached at the Junior High from 2017-2021 and then moved up to our Freshman team in 2021. and now this year he is at the varsity level. On the other hand, he is Barnegat Police Sergeant for 21 years now.

Girls Tennis

The girls tennis team is coached by Sarah Ervin and is joined by her new assistant coach, Denise Morrissey. Coach Morrissey has been teaching at Pinelands for 22 years now. She has coached multiple sports for Pinelands including JV girls soccer, JV girls basketball, JV softball and is currently the head ⅞ softball coach. is a math teacher at the Junior High School. Before Pinelands, she attended Kean University where she majored in special education and played both soccer and basketball.

Coming into the fall season, Pinelands has multiple new coaches and we are hoping to see them succeed in all of their new coaching positions!