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Volume 24 • Issue 541
JerseySportingNews.com
6/12/18 - 7/2/18
AFTER 44 YEARS, LEGENDARY HENRY HUDSON TEACHER, COACH VINNIE WHITEHEAD RETIRING
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By John Sorce
HIGHLANDS - Twenty-eight years of cross country. Twenty years of basketball. Ten years of baseball. Four years of field hockey. Two years of softball. That’s what Vinnie Whitehead has coached at the varsity level over an illustrious 44year career at Henry Hudson Regional High School. “It’s been a great run with the all the students, teachers, administrators over the years,” Whitehead said. “I think I’ve gone through four or five principals and two or three superintendents, so I’ve seen a lot of transition. I started out as the youngest, and now I’m the oldest, so that’s pretty funny.” Whitehead grew up in Wall Township and attended St. Rose Grammar School. He went to high school at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft before attending Brookdale Community College. He earned a baseball scholarship to Furman University in Greenville, SC, where he got his health and physical education degree.
Whitehead played baseball at Brookdale under Paul MacLaughlin and played on the first two state championship teams in 1971 and 1972. As it turned out, MacLaughlin had a connection that got Whitehead involved at Henry Hudson, and he’s been there ever since. “Paul was directly responsible for me getting the job at Henry Hudson back in 1974,” Whitehead said. “He was a teacher there and when Brookdale opened up, he left Hudson and got a math position over there. He put in a word for me when I graduated from Furman. He let the superintendent know that I was Health/Phys Ed and he recommended me. “The wild thing is out of 200 applicants, it came down to my brother-in-law and myself for that job, and I didn’t even know his sister at the time,” Whitehead added, laughing. “We figured that out years later.”
continued on page 6
SAINT JOHN VIANNEY HOLDS OFF MOUNT ST. DOMINIC TO CAPTURE
NON-PUBLIC A STATE TITLE COVERAGE ON PAGE 8