Vince Ascolese wasn’t the only North Bergen coach to reach a milestone last week. Veteran boys’ soccer coach John Belluardo captured the 200th win of his coaching career when the Bruins defeated Ferris 1-0 on a penalty kick by sophomore goalkeeper Jonathan Brun, of all people.
When Belluardo took over the soccer program at North Bergen, he truly believed that he would be in charge for only a short time.
"To tell you the truth, I figured I had about five years in me," Belluardo said.
That was 1983. Twenty years later, Belluardo remains in charge.
"I still enjoy the game," said Belluardo, a North Bergen grad (Class of 1971) who didn’t have a chance to play soccer in high school, but went on to play at St. Peter’s College. "When I took over the program, soccer wasn’t important in North Bergen. But now, we have a good feeder program and our program succeeds."
Belluardo didn’t have a chance to play soccer in high school, but he was the defender for a bunch of club soccer teams in the old German League and Italian League, which played at Schuetzen Park.
After graduating from SPC, Belluardo returned to North Bergen High to teach. When he returned, there was a groundswell from the students who wanted to have soccer as a sport, with current girls’ basketball coach Dan Reardon and former coach Dr. Guillermo Ayerbe.
"The kids brought it to the Board of Education and soccer was started," Belluardo said. "I was Dr. Ayerbe’s assistant coach for three years, then I took over as head coach."
For what Belluardo initially believed to be a five-year stint at the most.
"The goal was to have the kids have fun, enjoy the sport, but to learn a lot about discipline," Belluardo said. "That was my motto, to have discipline. They had to have rules to follow. I wanted them to enjoy themselves, but they had to follow the rules and stick together as a team."
Belluardo’s motto worked through the 1980s into the ’90s, when the Bruins began to have some success. He guided North Bergen to two HCIAA championships (1991 and 1992) during his career, and his teams have qualified for the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group 4 playoffs in each of the last 15 seasons.
That ledger includes this year, because North Bergen owns an impressive 8-2-1 record thus far, despite starting three freshmen for the second straight year.
"I never started a freshman before last year," Belluardo said. "But I was happy with the way the freshmen played last year and I’m very happy with the freshmen this year."
One of last year’s fabulous frosh is now sophomore goalkeeper Brun, who has added the role of goal scorer to his resume. Brun has become North Bergen’s penalty kick specialist and has scored two goals this season, including the goal in the win over Ferris that gave Belluardo his 200th career win.
"I’ve never had a goalkeeper take penalty kicks before," Belluardo said. "He’s confident at what he does."
Last year’s freshman class, namely midfielder Jessie Vanegas and forward Myung Choi, have also returned to give the Bruins some stability.
Belluardo is also pleased with the performances of this year’s freshman class, namely forward Edwin Ventura, who has scored a team-high eight goals, forward Sebastian Rodriguez and defender Irving Coates.
Belluardo’s young team is blessed to have senior captains and leaders like center midfielder Christian Mendoza, who has nine goals and eight assists thus far, and defender Walter Soto, who has been a varsity performer for three years.
"We have a young team, so I’m very surprised with how well they’ve done so far," Belluardo said. "With a young team, you never know what to expect. We really don’t have a lot of big-time goal scorers. Our hopes hold with our defense. I’m happy with the way this team is playing."
Much like the way Belluardo liked the way his teams in the past played. Many of those players returned last week to wish their former coach good luck on reaching the milestone.
"I like that many of the alums came back to show their support in the program, to congratulate me on getting the 200th," Belluardo said. "That meant a lot to me."
Belluardo knows where the credit lies.
"I have to give credit to the recreation program for getting the players ready when they come to high school," Belluardo said. "They’re the ones who got the kids interested in soccer and put us on the winning track. Now, we also have a girls’ team that’s doing well. Soccer wasn’t popular before. Now it is. Now, everyone wants to play it."
And at North Bergen High, everyone wants to play for the winning program of John Belluardo. – Jim Hague