Scott Stay is back on the bench for the Millville High School wrestling team.
After a 14-year stint as the Thunderbolts’ head coach from 2003-17, Stay returned to the same role earlier this week.
Stay takes over for Jason Bilinski, who ran the program for the last eight seasons including last year’s 18-4 squad that won the Cape-Atlantic League National Division title.
“I’m happy to be back,” said Stay, who is also a physical education teacher at Millville. “It’s a good group of kids. I had an opportunity to come back and I decided to take it. If I didn’t do it now, I might not get another chance.”
Stay guided Millville’s grapplers to a back-to-back playoff berths and 18-win seasons in 2012-13 and 2013-14. It was a program record for wins in a season that was matched by last year’s squad.
When he stepped down following the 2017 season, Stay never anticipated getting back into coaching.
“For the first two or three seasons after that, I didn’t miss it at all,” he said. “I did nothing wrestling related during that time.”
That changed when Christian Varga and other wrestling parents asked if he could help out with the wrestling program at Lakeside Middle School. Stay obliged and reignited his passion for the sport.
“Wrestling has been a big part of my life since I was 10 years old,” Stay said. “I saw the excitement the young kids had for wrestling, they’re learning and I was just able to go out there and coach.”
Millville is scheduled to open its season at the Pete Adams Memorial Tournament at Vineland on Saturday. Junior Patrick Tull, who placed fifth at 138 pounds at Region 8 last winter, will lead the team into competition this season.
Tom McGurk is a regional sports editor for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 35 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him by email at tmcgurk@usatodayco.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Scott Stay returns as head coach of the Millville wrestling program
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