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November 8, 2000

Phil Birnbaum Leaves a Legacy of Success

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist

Thirty years ago, high school tennis was in its infancy in the Cape-Atlantic League. Ocean City had just started a program the previous spring and athletic director Dixie Howell coached the team with his doubles partner, Rod Bosbyshell.

In 1970, Dixie hired Phil Birnbaum to take over as boys tennis coach (it would be five or six more years before girls tennis would be added) and he began building a program that helped stimulate the CAL into one of the most competitive leagues in South Jersey.

In boys and girls tennis, Birnbaum's teams won more than 660 matches. He has nearly 250 more victories in his career than any other OCHS coach in any sport. His teams won a half-dozen South Jersey championships and reached the South Jersey final more than a dozen times. At one point, his boys teams won 115 consecutive CAL matches, the second longest league winning streak by any Ocean City team and the third longest in Cape-Atlantic history.

The girls program started under the direction of Wendy Nickles, who coached her own South Jersey champion before stepping down to become Birnbaum's assistant in the fall.

Birnbaum's career started with players like Frank Johnson, Jim Schmidt, Mike Boston and the OCHS Player of the Century - Don Barton - during the 1970s. There was Lou Paone, Danielle Franus and Brian King in the 80s. And Kevin Schmidt, Jen Frank, Joe Carey, Kristen Franus and Kyle Ragan in the 1990s.

But those are just the top singles players. There were hundreds of other male and female tennis players who contributed their time and talents to the Raider success story. They learned from Birnbaum that winning at team tennis doesn't always mean you have the best player. There are five matches and winning at second doubles is just as important to victory as winning at No. 1 singles.

It is quite appropriate that his career end with another South Jersey championship and with his selection as South Jersey Coach of the Year for the third time in his career.

Through the years, Birnbaum's program developed a reputation throughout South Jersey. Other coaches knew that his players would understand the game and be prepared to compete from the first serve to the last volley. And, when other programs in the CAL began to close the gap with the Raiders, their status grew.

There are a handful of coaches in South Jersey - Ralph Ipri at Cherry Hill East, Jeff Holman of Haddonfield and Bill Kingston of Moorestown - who accomplished the same things in their leagues.

Birnbaum's impact in tennis was all the greater because, for many of his 31 years as the high school's coach, he was also directing the city's recreation tennis program during the summer. He will continue in that position and, in fact, because he should have a little more time in the spring, might actually expand his summer program into the spring months.

For well over a decade, Birnbaum has also served as co-director (with his good friend, Stan Friedman, of Ocean Township High School) of the NJSIAA's tennis tournaments. He expects to continue in that position despite stepping down from OCHS.

At Stockton, Birnbaum will initially concentrate on creating a women's tennis program. It is a fall sport in the New Jersey Athletic Conference but he hopes to play some exhibition matches and out-of-state tournaments next spring. His first season of NJAC competition will be next fall.

On the college level, like he did as a high school coach, you can expect Birnbaum to battle for his program. He is a coach who knows the rules and knows what it takes to be successful. He will continue to make sure that the young women who play tennis for the Ospreys get every opportunity to develop and showcase their skills.

Phil Birnbaum is a pioneer, a coach who took a sports program that barely existed and used his teaching skills to nurture it until other schools were almost forced to make an effort to compete. Ocean City has been fortunate to have had quite a few of these coaching pioneers - people like Dixie Howell in boys basketball, Fenton Carey in swimming, Pat Dougherty in girls basketball and Mike Naples in girls track and cross country.

You cannot lose a talented coach like Birnbaum and not feel the loss. But the OCHS tennis programs will continue to meet with success in the future because of the 45 or so seasons he spent as head coach and the way he developed the program.

If what has happened to Ocean City High School tennis is any indication, you can expect good things to happen pretty quickly for Stockton's women's tennis program.

After all, the Ospreys' new coach has already been a pioneer once before.

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