Our Coaches
Aidan McCluskey — Program Director / Varsity Head Coach
mcdubs721@gmail.com
Aidan McCluskey is a former collegiate and professional soccer player and is currently the Head Coach of Ridgewood HS Boys Varsity team. Aidan is a graduate of Farleigh Dickinson University where he starred for the men's nationally ranked Division 1 soccer program. During his tenure at Farleigh Dickinson, Aidan served as Team Captain from 1982-1984, including the team's 1983 season where they were ranked #3 nationally.
He was also named as a first team All American twice during the 1983 and 1984 seasons, as well as finishing third in the Hermann award which recognizes the top player in Division 1 soccer and being elected Farleigh Dickinson's Athlete of the year. He was the second overall pick in the United States Professional soccer draft in 1985, and was named to Farleigh Dickinson's Hall of fame in 2001. Professionally he played for the New Jersey Eagles of the American Soccer League.
Previous to his highly successful college career, Aidan McCluskey had a successful career in his native Ireland. He played 3 years in the League of Ireland for Shamrock Rovers and Home Farm. He also played for Manchester United in Manchester, England on their reserve team after being invited to join them on trial.
In addition to his success as a player, Aidan McCluskey has considerable experience as a coach. He has coached at the Maroons soccer club since 2000, Glen Rock Shooting Stars and has coached both girls and boys age groups from 8 to 19. He currently runs the Shamrock Soccer Academy. He has an E and F training licenses as well as a National and Advanced National coaching license. He had also previously coached St. Joseph's boys team in Ireland from 1978 until 1981.
Jerry Mayo — Assistant Varsity Coach
Jerry Mayo retired from a career in technology, biomed and telecommunications having started with AT&T's Bell Labs and most recently as president of Denmark based GN, the world's largest manufacturer of hearing aides and headsets. He is a graduate of Tulane University and MIT with a masters in finance and a certificate and diploma in Financial Technology, Future Commerce. He played club soccer in college and graduate school after previously winning first team honors twice each for division, city and state in Louisiana. This season marks the 50th anniversary of his first start, half a century and more passionate than ever for this beautiful game.
Jerry has coached for 18 years with eight years of high school soccer coaching to his resume including five seasons here at Ridgewood High School - varsity boys, freshman boys and junior varsity girls teams. He continues to mentor competitive youth soccer programs across northern New Jersey.
Matt Zielyk — JV Head Coach
Matt Zielyk graduated from Rutgers-Newark University with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology & Criminal Justice with Cum Laude Honors. He recently graduated from Montclair State University with a Masters Degree in Counseling, with a concentration in School Counseling.
While at Rutgers his Career Record Holder for Goal Against Average (0.72), ranked eighth with 112 total saves. He was also the all-time shutout leader at Rutgers-Newark (2007-2011) with 15 in 38 matches, a school record, 24 wins in goal with an overall record of 24-6-4.
Matt helped Seton Hall Prep to a two-year mark of 35-5 with an Iron Hills Conference crown in 2005 and a co-championship in 2006. He also attended International Ukrainian Futbol Tournament in Sydney, Australia (2007) as a starting goalkeeper in May of his Senior year; representing Ukrainian-Americans from the United States and Canada. Matt was also a 4 year varsity swimmer and then captain for the Seton Hall Prep Varsity Swim Team in 2006-07.
Along with his decorated college playing career, Matt brings over 10 years of youth and high school soccer coaching to his resume. His intensive background playing soccer, youth coaching and swim instruction. His coaching background includes coaching boys soccer at West Orange High School in 2010 and with competitive youth soccer programs across New Jersey, New York, and California. Matt was also Varsity Assistant at Oak Knoll High School for two seasons between 2014-2015.
Glenn Carlough — Assistant JV Coach
Glenn Carlough grew up playing soccer and hockey in Paramus, NJ. Glenn played club soccer for the Allendale Americans and played varsity soccer from sophomore through senior years at Paramus High School. As a senior captain, he set the career shutout record for goalkeepers at PHS in 1988. That same season Glenn was unanimously selected as first-team All Bergen County Goalkeeper by the Bergen County Boys Soccer Coaches Association and earned second team All-State recognition.
After graduating from PHS, Glenn went off to play soccer and hockey at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. There he earned a BA in philosophy before moving onto Fairleigh Dickinson University where he received a Master's in Education. While studying at FDU, Glenn began his soccer and hockey coaching careers. He coached boys varsity soccer at Park Ridge HS for five years before moving to the girls varsity program at Indian Hills HS for four years.
After nine years of coaching high school soccer, Glenn became the Coaching Director for the North Jersey Avalanche youth hockey club based out of the Ice House in Hackensack, NJ. The result was an unintended hiatus from coaching soccer. During his time on the ice, Glenn coached Bergen Catholic to state championships in 2001 and 2003. In 2005 he led the 12U NJ Avalanche to a USA Hockey National Championship in Fairbanks, Alaska.
In 2016 Glenn made a career change and opened the Steel Wheel Tavern in Ridgewood. In 2017 he joined the RHS boys soccer coaching staff. In 2021 Glenn returned to the ice and he now coaches soccer and hockey in the fall and beyond.
Dwight Loren — Freshman Head Coach
Dwight has been involved with the Ridgewood soccer programs since 2004 having coached Maroons U8-U19, as Maroon board member, as Shamrock Soccer Academy reserve coach, and as Ridgewood USLNJ Senior Soccer Club player/manager.
Dwight learned soccer in Europe having attended the American School of Milan, Italy and the International School of Brussels, Belgium. He is a graduate of Rutgers University where he played club soccer and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry. He has E and F USSF coaching licenses as well as a USC National Coaching license.
Baba Ly — Freshman Assistant Coach
Baba graduated from RHS in 2020, and played for Ridgewood during his time in High School. Baba is currently a junior at Montclair State University.
Andre Bereczky — Goalkeeper Coach
Andre has mentored and coached Ridgewood's Keepers since 2015 and has over 30 years of soccer training experience. He played with and was the youth goalkeeper coach for Debrecen Professional Club in Hungary. During an extensive career, Andre also played professionally throughout Europe including several top professional leagues in Italy and Germany.