By Rich Chrampanis
LITTLE SILVER – Nick Giglio has resigned as the head football coach at Red Bank Regional High School following a 10 year tenure. Giglio will remain at the Little Silver school as a teacher. He met with his team Monday and told them it was a difficult decision, but was proud of the state of the program as he turns things over to a new leader.
“It was always important to me that when I stopped coaching to leave the program with a better direction than when I received it 10 years ago,” Giglio said in a letter to parents. “I feel the program is better off now due to having a structured, time tested 12 month program already in place, set with built in year round coaches and players expectation levels to achieve. I am leaving behind a returning veteran team with 14 starters, several full-time special team players, and an upcoming sophomore class filled with great talent and promise.”
Giglio leaves his post with a 45-57 record over 10 seasons. His final season saw Red Bank Regional surprise the Shore Conference with a remarkable turnaround from two wins in 2017 to a 7-3 2018 campaign that saw the Bucs win a postseason home game over Allentown before losing to RFH in the Central Jersey Group 3 Semifinals. RBR’s three losses all came to teams that won sectional or state championships (Red Bank Catholic, Rumson-Fair Haven and Long Branch).
The most memorable season in the Giglio era came in 2015 when Red Bank Regional went 11-1, highlighted by an epic regular-season win over Red Bank Catholic and reaching the Central Jersey Group 3 finals at Rutgers where they fell to Rumson-Fair Haven.
Two of Giglio’s players were notable Division I recruits. Garrett Sickels went on to an outstanding career at Penn State and made his NFL debut in 2017 with the Los Angeles Rams. Sadiq Palmer, the top wideout on the 2015 RBR squad, is currently a wide receiver at the University of Massachusetts.
Nick Giglio spent 10 seasons as Red Bank Regional’s head football coach winning a division title in 2015. Photo courtesy RBR
It was clearly a tough decision for Giglio, but in the end the desire to spend more time with his family helped him arrive at his ultimate verdict. “I don’t believe there is an exact right time to step down as a coach/leader, but the program and the kids have a great positive direction, as I now will put more time and energy into my own kids at home,” Giglio said. “The 2019 season has already been set in motion; the strength program, recruiting, schedules, etc. are in full effect.”
While everyone pays attention to wins and losses, the legacy of Nick Giglio will be defined by something much more important. He has developed a culture at Red Bank Regional that he’s confident will only continue to grow in the coming years. “Football has always been called the ‘ultimate team sport,’ and every day during my tenure as a coach I have based what I do around bringing individual players together working towards accomplishing one common team goal,” Giglio said. “This is more important than anything else each year, and the 2018 Team accomplished this each and every day. This close ‘team bond’ is also what I leave for the next coach to build upon, and take to another level.”
