Among the illustrious alumni being inducted into the St. Benedict’s Preparatory School Hall of Fame on Wednesday night, the most celebrated of them was not in attendance.
Gregg Berhalter, 49, a member of the Newark prep school’s Class of ‘91, was on the other side of the globe, in Qatar, as coach of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team competing in the World Cup.
“When I made that decision to transfer my sophomore year, I had no idea what would unfold in those next three years,” Berhalter, who grew up in Tenafly, said in a videotaped acceptance speech shown to over 400 alumni, students and faculty gathered at Nanina’s in the Park in Belleville.
“But looking back, I can see the lessons that would stay with me for my entire life,” he added, “whether that’s the hard work you need to be successful at any level, whether it’s tolerance of different cultural backgrounds, or the culture that St. Benedict’s thrives on and builds every single day. These are elements that make St. Benedicts truly special and a wonderful place to go to high school.”
The moment could hardly have been more triumphant for the soccer-crazed school, founded in 1868 by monks of the Newark Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine monastery. St. Benedict’s is now a K-12 institution with just under 1,000 students on an 11-acre campus across Springfield Avenue from the Essex County government complex. It recently added a girls division.
The Gray Bees boys varsity team is coming off yet another in a long line of unbeaten seasons, prep school state championships, and a number 1 ranking in the country. On Tuesday, the national team coached by Berhalter beat Iran 1-0 in a World Cup match it had to win to stay alive in the quadrennial tournament. The U.S. plays the Netherlands on Saturday.
After St. Benedicts, where his teammates included one of America’s all-time greatest players, Claudio Reyna, Berhalter attended the University of North Carolina, followed by a lengthy professional career as a player in Europe and the United States and as a member of the U.S. team in World Cup competition. He retired in 2011 with Major League Soccer’s LA Galaxy, where he became an assistant coach, before head coaching jobs in Sweden, with MLS’s Columbus Crew, and finally the U.S. men’s team in 2018.
Fr. Edwin Leahy, who last month celebrated his 50th anniversary as headmaster at St. Benedict’s, has presided over the school’s growth, racial and gender diversification, and the development of its hugely successful soccer, basketball, fencing and other sports programs.
Leahy remembered Berhalter as a determined student-athlete whose talent and hard work put him on a path toward professional success despite being overshadowed at the time by Reyna.
“Greg is an example of a guy who was unbelievably hard-working,” said Leahy, a youthful septuagenarian known as “Father Ed.” “To get where he is was nothing but hard work because he never had the spotlight on him.
“When he was with us, he played in Claudio’s shadow,” Leahy added. “Nobody would ever have picked him out. But he worked at it as a player and wound up playing in Europe, in the Netherlands, and worked at it as a coach, here at MLS, and then in Europe. He’s a great example for the school, for the kids, to just show what hard work can do.”
Leahy said the renewed attention on Berhalter thanks to the World Cup will also help St. Benedict’s continue to recruit top players and raise funds toward its $16 million operating budget and financial aid, which came to $6 million this year.
Other inductees included Class of ‘87 track star James Barnes-Hawkins; longtime trustee William H. Connolly Jr., ‘91; wrestler Omar Feliciano, ‘97; Filmmaker Tom Haneke, ‘66; St. Benedict’s math teacher and track coach Marty “Doc” Hannon; 2008 Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Cullen Jones, ‘02; and the school’s championship 1990 fencing team and 1997 and 1998 soccer teams.
It’s little wonder that the coach now leading the U.S. men’s soccer team at the global pinnacle of the sport is a product of the St. Benedict’s program. This past season was another typically exceptional one for the Gray Bees varsity team, which went 17-0 in 2022, outscoring their opponents 77-2 and extending a 5-season winning streak to 87 straight en route to prep school state and national championships.
Baden Wandling and Luke Bueno were two of the defenders who helped the Gray Bees shut out opponents in 15 of their 17 games. Both were on hand Wednesday night to celebrate Berhalter’s success.
“It’s an inspiration,” said Wandling, 15, of Clarke, whose father, Jimmy Wandling, is the St. Benedict’s coach. “Because If they can do it, I can do it.”
Bueno,17, a senior from Newark, said he’s hoping for a pro career after attending either the University of Michigan or Berhalter’s alma mater, North Carolina.
“It gives me hope,” Bueno said of the coach’s success, “that with people who came up from the same place where I am, that I can get there one day.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com
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