Coach Alan Deaett
Alan Deaett left an indelible mark on Glen Rock High School in a caring and committed 43 year career. “Coach, Teacher, Mentor, Friend” graces the sign on the school’s football field named in his honor.
Alan Deaett joined the Glen Rock High School faculty as a Social Studies teacher and as a coach of the school’s football, wrestling and tennis teams in September 1963. In September 1967, he was promoted to Head Coach of the football team, a position he held for seven years. While he had to give up continuing as Assistant Coach of the wrestling team, he continued to be the Head Coach of the tennis team. During this period, he was named Bergen County Coach of the Year for his work with the spring 1969 tennis team.
Alan stopped coaching football after the 1973 team but continued to periodically coach tennis, track & field and wrestling at the high school. In 1984, the Bergen County Coaches Association gave him a Special Award for having made “an outstanding contribution to athletics in Bergen County.”
In 1980, Alan returned to coaching Glen Rock football, when he was named Head Coach of the freshman football team. Then, in September 1995, he returned as Head Coach of the varsity football team. The next fourteen years, with Alan at the helm, were the Golden Age of Panther Football. Glen Rock had a combined record of 130-25 (a winning percentage of 84%), winning seven B-PSL titles, qualifying for the State Championship Playoffs in thirteen of those fourteen years and winning six Group 1, Sectional Championships, beginning with the undefeated 1996 team and then including an incredible five seasons in a row from 1998 through 2002. Alan retired from coaching Glen Rock’s football team after the 2008 season. In that final season, the team reached the Group 1, Sectional Championship final.
In 2010, the undefeated 1999 team was inducted into the Glen Rock High School Hall of Fame.
Alan has deservingly received considerable honors for building the Glen Rock football program into what one newspaper called “one of the most prominent and most dominant programs in New Jersey.” He was named All-Suburban Offensive Team, Coach of The Year by The Ridgewood News in 1995 and 1996 and All-Area Group 1 & 2, Offensive Team, Coach of the Year by The Herald & News (Passaic, NJ) in 1995. (Chuck Johnson, Ridgewood was Coach of the Year in 1998.) While those papers were reluctant to repeat him as Coach of the Year during each of the following years, in 2003 he was named the Bill Tierney Foundation Coach of the Year. In 2003 he was inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Hall of Fame and in 2010 he was inducted into the New Jersey Football Coaches Hall of Fame. During these years, he also was honored by the Bergen County Football Coaches Association, by both local NFL teams, the Giants and the Jets, and by the NFL Foundation. At the conclusion of his final season in 2008, The Bergen Record named him Bergen County’s Defensive Coach of the Year. And in 2010 Alan received the distinguished YMCA of Greater Bergen County Service to Community Award.
In recognition of his coaching accomplishments, in 2009, the Glen Rock High School football field complex was named the “Alan Deaett Field.”
Alan taught History at Glen Rock High School for 43 years and had a significant, positive impact on the highly-rated GRHS Social Studies Department. He was the Chairman of that department from 1992 until his retirement in June 2007. In 1994, he was awarded the Glen Rock Home and School Association Robert H. Ax Award that is given to a teacher who has done outstanding work over a period of years or has made other effective contributions to the excellence of Glen Rock schools. In 1998, the GRHS Faculty chose him as the school’s Teacher of the Year.
During his years teaching at Glen Rock, he also served as Student Council Advisor and the Dean of Students. He was also recognized by the State of New Jersey, receiving the Governors Award for Teaching on multiple occasions and being named Social Studies Supervisor of the Year.
Alan was an outstanding member of the Glen Rock community, including teaching tennis and wrestling during the summer Youth Recreation Program. In recognition of his service, including his work on Glen Rock’s 1994 Centennial Celebration, he was selected as the Grand Marshall of that year’s 4th of July Parade and was proclaimed an Honorary Citizen of Glen Rock. In 2006, he was Chair of the committee that organized the events surrounding the Fiftieth Anniversary of Glen Rock High School.
Alan was a star multisport athlete at East Providence (RI) High School. As a senior he captained the football, wrestling and track teams and the Providence Journal chose him as the outstanding scholar athlete in Rhode Island. (Al’s dad played in the NFL and was his athletic inspiration). In 1990, he was inducted into that school’s Hall of Fame. He then attended and graduated from Amherst College and focused exclusively on football, wrestling, track and rugby! He set the school rushing record at 169 yards vs. Trinity College in 1960 as a right halfback and was twice named ECAC Player of the Week. His undefeated rugby team was league champion. After graduating with a BA (History) from Amherst in 1962, he worked as a Graduate Assistant Coach at Amherst for one year before coming to Glen Rock. While teaching at GRHS, he received an MA in Social Sciences from William Paterson University and an MA in African Studies from St. John’s University.
In 2016, Alan was inducted into the Glen Rock High School Hall of Fame. He is notably remembered for the following statement:
“Championships are not as important as the young men and women who have developed into role models for our communities…and the wins and losses are not nearly as important as the wonderful relationships with the many great kids I have coached.” Coach Alan Deaett
Awards, honors and recognition
NJ Teacher of the Year – 1988 and 1992
Robert Ax Award – Glen Rock HSA – 1994
Social Studies Supervisor of the Year – NJSS Council
GREA President, 1994 and 1998.
Chair of the GRHS 50th Anniversary Committee – GRHS
Grand Marshall – GR 4th of July Parade – 1994
“Honorary Citizen of Glen Rock” – 1995
BCCA Century Club – 1993 (100 wins in football)
President of the BCCA – 1974-1975
Coach of the Year: Bergen County Tennis (’70), Ridgewood News (’96, ’98 and ’08), NY Jets (’97), NY Giants (’00), Bill Tierney Foundation (’03), The Record (’08), NFL Foundation Hall of Fame (’09) and Bergen County Football Coaches (’09).
Halls of Fame: East Providence High School (1990) and NJ Football Coaches (2010)