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High-five for coach ROTTERDAM
Brothers share love of sport, country Man takes on deployed sibling’s soccer coaching job
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter

    Josh and Cory Gregg are very similar.
    Both love soccer and coach soccer. They are both teachers — Cory, 28, teaches social studies and economics at Mohonasen High School and Josh, 26, teaches seventh-grade social studies at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Middle School.
    But they’re in different places in their lives right now.
    Cory, a Marine reservist, is in Iraq. Josh is home, carrying on one piece of his brother’s life for him.
    When Cory found out last spring he was going to be gone for 13 months with his Marine Corps Reserve unit — seven of those in Iraq — he asked his younger brother if he could fill in for him as coach of the Mohonasen varsity boys’ soccer team.
    Josh last year was the varsity coach at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School. Both he and Cory had competed on the Schalmont High School team in the late 1990s and both graduated from The College of Saint Rose after successful soccer careers there also, Cory in 2003 and Josh in 2004. The coaching was a natural fi t.
    Josh interviewed for the Mohonasen coaching position and was hired, while keeping his teaching job at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk.
    This month the Mohonasen team finished its regular season with a 9-8-1 overall record, 7-8-1 league mark and were seeded seventh in Class A of Section II. Mohonasen defeated 10th-seeded Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake 5-0 Thursday night.
    For Josh, taking over for his brother gave him the chance to coach a more high-profile program like Mohonasen and compete against teams such as Guilderland, Bethlehem and Shenendehowa.
    “It was a great opportunity for me to come in as a coach — being a Suburban Council school, playing a lot of great schools in the area and being pretty successful, more successful than I think some people expected,” he said.
    He added that his goal was to “try to challenge myself on the field and try to bring the best out of these guys so we can be successful as a team.”
    Mohonasen Athletic Director Joseph Scalise said the position was posted and Josh was the strongest candidate interviewed. Both Josh and Cory had been involved with the Rotterdam youth soccer program so they were familiar with the students. “He knows our expectations as well, so it’s nice fit for our school,” Scalise said.
    Josh also coached junior varsity soccer for two years at Class B Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, and varsity last season.
    Cory left for Iraq in September after a few months in California training. He’s a platoon commander doing security around the base. He is out doing 8- and 10-hour patrols every couple of nights. Sometimes, he is on extended patrols.
    Josh said that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks his brother wanted to serve his country and joined the Marine Reserves while completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Saint Rose.
    “He felt there was no better time in his life than that. He felt we were in need,” he said.
    Cory’s wife, Melissa, also a Mohonasen teacher, keeps in touch with him by e-mail, except when he is away on an extended patrol off base. The couple married on July 4. They plan to have a formal ceremony renewing their vows next August. Cory is expected to be back in the United States in April or May. The 13-month tour includes a few months spent getting ready for and debriefing from the mission.
    Melissa Gregg said it was especially important to Cory that the soccer program be left in good hands because there are a lot of seniors on this year’s team. Josh was a perfect choice, she explained, because he knew Cory’s coaching style.
    “It would be a little bit easier instead of finding someone who didn’t know the team,” she said.
    The team’s assistant coach, Mark Woodrow, remains on board, providing some continuity.
    While both brothers look very similar and are very physically fi t, Josh and Cory do have different approaches to soccer. Cory’s focus is on defense, while Josh said he is offensive minded and would rather take chances and score. “They get to see [soccer] from two different angles and I think it’s helped out,” he added.
    Scalise said it has been a good transition, and Josh has done a great job.
    “He’s kind of taken this team to the next level — what his brother was envisioning for the season.”
    Josh’s personality is somewhat laid back — until game time — when he becomes intense, according to Scalise. “He expects the best from his kids. He’s a very good teacher of the game.”
    Josh has advocated for his team off the field as well. When the sectional seedings came out, Josh was disappointed that his team had been seeded seventh and worked to persuade committee members to change how teams are seeded in the future.
    Josh Gregg said the boys’ seeding committee does not factor strength of schedule into its seeding process, but is determined instead by league records. Under that scenario, Mohonasen found itself playing Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake in the first round of the Section II playoffs, which he said was a pretty tough match up.
    “If we play well against Burnt Hills, we feel like the sky’s the limit,” he said prior to Thursday’s game. “We think we can make a serious run at the section title.”
    Josh said he does not know what the future holds for him. He may go back to coach at Ravena or stay in the Mohonasen system.
    Scalise said Cory will resume his coaching duties when he returns from Iraq.
    The program has improved each of the three years Scalise has been athletic director. It had no league wins in 2006 to two in 2007 and seven this year.
    “We’re looking to create a continuing improvement and bring this team to a level where they’re competitive in Suburban Council year in and year out,” he said.
    The young men are sons of Drew and Carol Gregg of Rotterdam.


PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Mohonasen boys soccer head coach Josh Gregg, right, celebrates with assistant coach Mark Woodrow after their team scored its third first-half goal against Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake on Thursday.

PHOTO PROVIDED Cory Gregg and his wife Melissa.

Nice story! Good for them! And prayers for Cory and his family while he is in Iraq!

This was an excellent article...congratulations and good luck to the Gregg Brothers!