By Chris Stevens, Editor
John Kulesza has coached high school basketball in the Delaware and Maryland area for 32 years, so one can obviously understand if one day, he decided to take a break.
And that’s just what he will do, as he has announced his resignation as Conrad girls’ basketball coach, but he does not plan to leave coaching altogether.
“I’ve had a chance during the last three months to mull things over,” he said of his decision. “There’s never a good time to step away, but I want to give someone else a chance to run the Conrad girls’ basketball program.”
And whoever’s next up will have a chance to continue one of the great success stories in recent memory. Kulesza started the Red Wolves girls’ varsity program in 2009 and by 2016, had turned the Red Wolves into a final four team. In the 2017-2018 season, they won the first high school state championship for a Conrad sports team since the 1950s. Several of those players – his daughters Stefanie and Julie, Ny Whittlesey, Erin Ranegan, Kate Glanz and Alyssa Faville – will either start or already have started playing college sports.
“We’ve always had a saying that goes ‘Pride, excellence and a vision,’” he explained. “We still have a group chat with a few of our players from the early days and they said ‘Coach, you’ve always had standards for us.’”
Kulesza’s basketball roots run deep in Delaware as he was a key member of the first Sanford boys’ basketball team to win a state title in 1986. After college, he was the head coach of the Wilmington Friends boys’ team, as well as stops at Bo Manor and McKean. He was also assisting the St. Mark’s boys’ and girls’ teams before taking on the Conrad job. With time now to reflect, Kulesza is proud of what he and his players achieved, as well as giving credit to his right hand man during the run.
“Matt Payne has been my assistant coach the entire way,” he says. “He’s played an intricate role as far as working with our post players and I don’t think people know enough about the job he’s done with us.”
Now that his break from coaching has begun, John Kulesza says he looks forward to watching the game from the stands rather than the sideline.
“I’m looking forward to watching all of our girls compete in college and just being a fan,” he said. “A friend of mine said he’s got season tickets to Villanova, but I say mine are better – I’ve got season tickets to Bucknell, UMass and a few other places.”
