Greg Herenda had finally gotten what he had waited for.
After more than two decades as an assistant coach, followed by three head-coaching gigs at a community college, and Division II and III schools, Herenda had finally gotten what he had worked so hard for.
The 52-year-old northern New Jersey native was back home after landing the head position at Fairleigh Dickinson, following his second interview for the job in four years. And in roughly five months, his first season as a Division I coach would begin.
He had everything he wanted. All he needed were players and a coaching staff.
“I had the schedule in front of me and I had no players,” Herenda said. “It was a very difficult task when I first got here. I just needed to field a team. I got hired in May and had six players and no staff.”
Herenda quickly recruited assistant coaches, incoming freshmen and transfers, but then the real challenge began.
After being beat out for the job in 2009 by Greg Vetrone, Herenda inherited a team that had won 15 games in the past three seasons combined and had lost its top three scorers from last season. Of the six players returning, only two had played significant minutes.
Where everyone else saw a routinely empty gym and the ruins of a once-proud program, Herenda saw opportunity.
“I heard enough negative things when I took the job, just about the entire state of the program, and I gave everybody a clean slate,” Herenda said. “I didn’t hold the past against them and I let them know, ‘I’m here to win a championship. I don’t know when we’re gonna win one, but we’re gonna win one.’ … Once they heard that, they got excited.”
Following a season-opening win over Division II Caldwell College, it would have been real easy for the excitement to evaporate. Fairleigh Dickinson seemed to seamlessly grab the baton of embarrassment that has engulfed the program, losing six straight games, including a 50-point blowout at Arizona and a home loss to Division II Metro State.
But then, with some defensive tweaks — utilizing more zone pressure – and the emergence of senior guard Sidney Sanders Jr. — averaging 18.5 points after scoring 4.6 last season — the Knights shocked the Garden State with back-to-back road wins at Rutgers and Seton Hall last week.
It ended the program’s 20-game losing streak to Division I teams and marked the first time they ever had beaten both in-state rivals in the same season.
“Since the season started, it’s been a different feeling. Last season, I don’t even remember that,” Sanders said with a laugh. “We’re more of a team. Last year, it was like a divided team. Now, it’s like a brotherhood.
“This year, we never got down. Coach came in and kept pushing us. He cares a lot about his players. He’s very confident and outgoing. That’s what I like about him. Before the season, he was telling us that we were gonna be great.”
Herenda could have taken a different road. He easily could have stayed on the same path along the East Coast he had followed for so many years, working as an assistant at five different schools, including Seton Hall.
After being presented with the opportunity to become the associate head coach at New Hampshire in 2006, Herenda told his wife, “I’m never gonna be an assistant again.”
Instead, he took his first head position at Elgin Community College in Illinois and moved into the basement of his in-laws’ house.
“I was in my mid-40s and I worked hard and I paid my dues and I took the Elgin Community College job for not a whole lot of money because I wanted to be a head coach,” Herenda said. “I never stopped believing in myself. I never thought that my career would end without being successful. It’s the only way you can do it, if you believe. And I think that’s what the team is starting to do, is believe in themselves.”
After Elgin came Cabrini College, then five Division II NCAA Tournament appearances at UMass-Lowell. Now, after 30 years bouncing from school to school, Herenda is home. And the journey feels like it’s just beginning.
“We’re [3-7] and people are excited, so I don’t know what that tells you, but the last two [wins] were special,” Herenda said. “It’s not only the record, it’s how we’re playing.
“I went from Elgin Community College in the middle of the corn fields of Illinois back to Fairleigh Dickinson, five miles from where I grew up. It was a long road, but one worth traveling.”