Longtime coach and NSCAA/United Soccer Coaches member (1990 to present) Jeff Yearing announced his retirement from active coaching. Yearing is best known for his years spent coaching girls’ soccer in Bergen County, New Jersey. He completed his 51st year of coaching high school soccer and other sports in New Jersey at the end of the 2025 fall season.
Growing up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Jeff graduated from Ridgewood High School (RHS) in 1966. As goalkeeper and co-captain of the soccer team, he earned league, county and state recognition and was voted the team’s most outstanding player in his senior season. Jeff also was co-captain of the baseball team at RHS and garnered league, all-suburban and county recognition as a pitcher during his senior year.
Yearing began his college career at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) where he helped found the first club soccer team while he was a member of the varsity baseball team*. He transferred to Springfield College in 1968 where he was also a member of the varsity baseball team**.
After serving his country in the U.S. Naval Reserve, Coach Yearing earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education from Springfield College in 1970 and a Master of Arts in physical education and athletic administration from Ohio State University. His teaching career in the Millburn Public Schools followed.
In 37 years as a head girls’ varsity coach (1987-2017 at Ridgewood High School and 2020-2025 at Midland Park High School), Coach Yearing’s teams compiled an overall record of 529-222-39 with 16 league titles; nine North 1 state sectional finals including four championships; and two Bergen County Tournament titles with five total final appearances.
From Oct. 27, 1987, to Sept. 27, 1995, Yearing’s Ridgewood team held a 111-game consecutive undefeated streak in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League. It is a record that still stands today for accumulated league play in Bergen County. Prior to becoming the RHS girls’ varsity head coach in 1987, Coach Yearing served as an assistant freshman boys’ soccer coach in Millburn in 1973, was the boys’ varsity assistant soccer coach at RHS for 10 years from 1975-84, and the RHS girls’ varsity assistant coach in 1985 and 1986. He also served as the girls’ varsity assistant coach at Indian Hills High School in 2019.
Coach Yearing was diagnosed with blood cancer (multiple myeloma) in the summer of 2017. He completed the 2017 season at RHS while undergoing chemotherapy. After a stem cell transplant in February of 2018, he endured a seven-month hospitalization and rehabilitation stay recovering from the multiple myeloma, kidney disease, a collapsed lung, sepsis and E. coli infection along with AFib. Coach Yearing resigned from his Ridgewood position in the spring of 2018, but in the fall of 2019, after working hard for a recovery and learning how to manage his stage-four cancer and kidney disease, Coach Yearing served as an assistant girls’ varsity soccer coach at Indian Hills High School.
Finding he still had the desire and stamina to continue coaching and the ability to manage his cancer and kidney disease, he interviewed for and was appointed as the head girls’ varsity soccer coach at Midland Park High School (MPHS) in 2020 where he continued coaching through the 2025 season.
Coach Yearing’s Ridgewood High School program produced 138 first-team all-league selections; 37 All-Bergen County first-team recognitions; 104 New Jersey Girls’ Soccer Coaches Association (NJGSCA) All-State North 1 player selections; 19 National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-East Regional All-America player selections; seven NSCAA National All-America player recognitions; one United Soccer Coaches Academic All-American; and three Parade Magazine All-American recognitions.
In 1994, Tricia Pappalardo was named the NSCAA New Jersey State player of the year. She continued her playing career as a four-year starter at the University of Alabama. In six seasons at Midland Park, Yearing’s teams had 12 players recognized as first-team all-league with seven players receiving North 1 regional All-State recognition from the NJGSCA.
Coach Yearing is very proud of his teams qualifying for the NSCAA/United Soccer Coaches (National Soccer Coaches Association of America/now United Soccer Coaches) national team academic award 24 times (19 years at RHS and five years at MPHS).
Many of Coach Yearing’s players have gone on to play collegiately, with 2009 graduate Kelly Conheeney making the roster of professional teams NJ Sky Blue and the Houston Dash of the NWSL, and Hammarby of the Swedish Ladies Professional League (Damallsvenskan).
At the completion of the 2025 season, Coach Yearing had been on the boys’ and girls’ varsity soccer fields at Ridgewood High School, Indian Hills High School (IHHS) and Midland Park High School for a total of 50 varsity seasons (plus one year at Millburn non-varsity) for 51 years of coaching high school soccer in New Jersey. He coached as an assistant or head coach in 976 varsity soccer matches at RHS, IHHS and MPHS, and was part of 659 wins, 266 losses and 51 ties. He has been a part of 22 league championships, four Bergen County Championships and eight Bergen County Tournament finals, as well as five New Jersey State Sectional Championships and 11 New Jersey State Sectional Finals.
In 1993 Coach Yearing created the “Jersey United International Soccer Club.” Its purpose was to give high school female soccer players an opportunity for high-level training experiences and international competition abroad. The team trained and competed during the summers in international open women’s tournament categories as well as playing friendly fixtures. The club traveled overseas 15 times and trained and played against great club and national team competition in more than 20 countries.
Jersey United appeared in 10 international cup finals and won six international titles, including the Italy Cup twice, the Alpen Cup in Austria, the Budweis Cup in the Czech Republic, the Thistle Cup in Scotland, and the Plate Final of the Manchester International in Manchester, England. Jersey United teams have taken seconds in the Rostock Cup in Germany, the Holland Cup (in Amsterdam) twice and the Budweis Cup in the Czech Republic.
Other top-three finishes occurred in the Dana Cup in Hjørring, Denmark, the Norway Cup in Oslo and The Tivoli Cup in Hillerød, Denmark. Jersey United played friendly fixtures against amateur and professional clubs, as well as age-group and national team sides in Ireland, England, Scotland, France Holland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Norway and Sweden. A friendly 1-0 win vs. the Nigerian Girls’ U18 national team in England brought the club’s international record to 105-34-6.
More than 250 players from across New Jersey, and from as far away as Idaho and California, participated in the program. Coach Yearing states, “It was the program’s goal to direct our players to a greater understanding about their participation in sport and life in a global community.” The training component included being exposed to the coaching of many internationally recognized coaches through some of the most recognizable football associations in Europe. Eighty percent of the Jersey United participants went on to compete collegiately at some level.
An international exchange was set up between the Danish women’s national team program and the Jersey United program in the late 1990s. An affiliation with the Post-to-Post training centers and the Sasvari Way training academies were also established for the program.
During the Jersey United tour preparation camp held in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Danish exchange players (selected by Danish women’s national team coach Keld Gantzhorn) would come to the United States, hosted by Jersey United players’ families, to train and tour during the early summer. It was part of an international gesture of friendship. Coach Gantzhorn would also attend these sessions along with other internationally prominent coaches, including those from the English Football Association, the Dutch KNVB, and the German and Austrian football associations.
In other soccer-related positions, Coach Yearing served as the chairperson for the Bergen County Women’s Coaches Association County Soccer Tournament for five seasons. He served as the first vice president of the New Jersey Girls’ Soccer Coaches Association (NJGSCA) for nine years and served as the North 1 (Northern New Jersey Section) Representative to the executive committee of the NJGSCA for another five years. He is responsible for the development and writing of the bylaws that govern the association today.
Yearing is also responsible for the final partnership agreement between the NSCAA (now United Soccer Coaches) and the NJGSCA, securing sponsorship agreements between the NJGSCA and SCORE American Soccer. As first vice president of the NJGSCA, Coach Yearing worked in the capacity of director of coaching education and marketing and brought the first opportunities for NSCAA coaching academy courses to be available to New Jersey high school coaches under the new sponsorship agreement that was arranged between the two associations. Coach Yearing has acted as site coordinator at Ridgewood for the NSCAA Coaching Academy’s High School Diploma course, the NSCAA National Diploma and the NSCAA’s Advanced National Diploma course and Level 3 Goalkeeping course also run as part of the sponsorship agreement.
In his role of vice president of marketing for the NJGSCA, a relationship with the New York Power of the now defunct professional Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) was also arranged to bring opportunities for the team to play exhibition matches in Northern New Jersey as well as to have a presence with player and staff representations at all NJGSCA functions. This included the association’s annual all-state banquet (with approximately 1,000-1,200 attendees) each year and the association’s annual senior showcase game.
Coach Yearing also served for five years on the NSCAA fall girls’ high school national ranking committee. He also served on the Grassroots Committee for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1999 for the New York/New Jersey venue and served on the community advisory board for the WUSA’s New York Power for three seasons.
From 1996 to 2017, Coach Yearing served on the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s (NJSIAA) state soccer seeding committee as the girls’ soccer North 1 Group 3 representative and he represented the NJGSCA and Bergen County Women’s Coaches as a liaison to the NJSIAA state soccer committee.
Citing Title IX legislation, Coach Yearing lobbied the NJSIAA state soccer committee to bring equal representation to the girls’ high school game in New Jersey. He petitioned the committee on behalf of the NJGSCA to have state playoff opportunities for high school girls equal to that of the boys. This proposal was based on the total amount of girls’ programs vs. boys’ programs in the state. These proposals lead to a motion for equality in the playoff system which was carried and won on a unanimous vote by the committee. Today the boys’ and girls’ high school soccer programs in New Jersey have identical playoff systems.
Coach Yearing has presented seminars dealing with problems surrounding high school vs. club soccer at United Soccer Coaches national conventions in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Indianapolis. He has published multiple articles in the United Soccer Coaches’ Soccer Journal magazine.
An ardent proponent of educationally based programs in interscholastic athletics, Coach Yearing states: “I believe our playing fields and gymnasiums are classrooms where the important task of challenging our students to new success is accomplished through the athletic medium. This medium provides students with tools to develop the foundation for lifetime success using techniques in goal setting, personal preparation, creative problem-solving, critical thinking skills, communication skills, cooperation, tolerance, teamwork and mutual respect. I believe it is the high school coach’s responsibility to oversee this development in their student-athletes through the teaching of their athletic curriculum. I strongly believe in the coach’s obligation to be held accountable for this educational component in their program and for it to be recognizable in their coaching methodologies beyond the common measurement of wins and losses.”
A believer in inclusionary opportunities for interscholastic athletics, Coach Yearing has never cut an athlete from one of his programs. From novice to highly experienced student-athletes, he has always found a place in his program where students who want the opportunity can work to achieve success and gain the great benefits he believes participation in educationally based athletic programs can offer. His advice to coaches today working in interscholastic athletics:
“Treat your athletes the way you would want your own child to be treated.”
“Remember: Before they care to know, they want to know you care.”
“Use the THINK process during team communications. Make it: Thoughtful, Honest, Insightful, Necessary and Kind.”
Coach Yearing has been recognized with various honors, including:
- Inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association (NJSCA) Hall of Fame Class of 2003
- Inducted into the New Jersey Girls’ Soccer Coaches Association (NJGSCA) Hall of Fame Class of 2011
- Inducted into the Ridgewood High School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2018
- Awarded the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Sport Award in 2003
- Awarded the “Distinguished Service Award” from NJGSCA in 2008
- Awarded the “National Certificate of Appreciation” from the NSCAA in 2008
- Awarded “National Letter of Commendation” from the NSCAA in2014
- Awarded The YMCA of Greater Bergen County and North Jersey “Special Achievement Award for Coaching” in 2015
- Named to “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers” eight times: 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006
- Named North 1 NJGSCA State Coach of the Year in 1991 and 2002
- Named Bergen County Coach of the Year in 1993
- Named Big North Conference Coach of the Year in 2016
- Named Herald News All-Area “North Jersey” Coach of the Year in 1989
- Selected as one of the 25 most iconic coaches for the past 25 Years by The Bergen Record, Aug. 25, 2025
- Voted North Jersey Interscholastic Conference American Division Coach of The Year in 2025
Coach Yearing holds the United Soccer Coaches State Goalkeepers Diploma, the Regional and Advanced Regional Diplomas and the National and Advanced National Diplomas.