Jackson Memorial's Bernie Reider left a lasting legacy on Shore wrestling

The story of how Bernie Reider began one of the legendary wrestling coaching careers in Shore Conference history is not well known.

Reider died July 23 at CareOne, Jackson Township at the age of 84. He said in a 2017 interview that for 50 years even he did not know how he became Jackson Memorial’s first head coach in 1966.

He said he finally found out while attending the 2016 NCAA Division I championships at Madison Square Garden.

The back story came from Mads Madsen, the former Lakewood High School head coach and brother of Howie Madsen, who Reider had taken to an NJSIAA District Tournament as an indidividual in 1966 before Jackson Memorial had a team.

“Mads said his father went to the next Board of Education meeting (after he coached Howie Madsen in the district tournament) and said, ‘We’ve got to start a wrestling team. We’ve got to start it now and appoint Bernie Reider the coach,’ ” Reider said in that 2017 interview.

Several weeks later, Reider said he found out from another legendary person in the history of Jackson Memorial athletics – the late athletic director Don Connor –  Jackson was going to start a wrestling program.

“I got to school one day and he (Connor) told me I had been appointed wrestling coach,” Reider said. “At the same meeting, they appointed him (Connor) athletic director. I didn’t know they were going to have a team. I didn’t know anything.”

Reider, who had come to Jackson from Central Pennsylvania, had been a math and science teacher in Jackson for three years when that decision was made to make him Jackson Memorial’s head coach for the 1966-67 season.

By the time he retired from coaching in 1981, everyone in the Shore Conference wrestling world knew who the man many referred to as “Mr. Reider” was. Everyone who wrestled for him or coached and wrestled against his teams respected the man and the coach – including current Rutgers University head coach Scott Goodale.

Goodale was a state runner-up in 1990 for Jackson Memorial and later coached the Jaguars to a 155-16 record with NJSIAA Group 4 championships in 2006 and 2007 during his seven seasons in charge.

“I knew from when I was 7 or 8 years old, I wanted to emulate him (Reider),” said Goodale, now in his 20th season at Rutgers.

After his coaching career Reider served as Jackson Memorial’s athletic director, principal, and district’s community services director before he retired in 2003.

Reider and his assistant coaches Mike Costa and Rich Rubinstein built Jackson Memorial into one of the Shore Conference’s first wrestling dynasties in the 1970s, following John Nemetz’s Toms River High School teams in the 1960s.

Eventually, Toms River South, with John DeMarco as the head coach, in the mid to late 1970s; Manalapan, with the late Denny D’Andrea as the head coach, in the early 1980s;  Brick Memorial, under head coach Tony Caravella, and Toms River East, under head coach Warren Reid, in the 1980s and 90s and Jackson Memorial, Southern, Long Branch and Howell in the 2000s would all follow in the footsteps of Reider’s teams and make the Shore Conference one of the best wrestling conferences in the state.

“He started that train going,” Charlie DiGiantomasso, who was a district champion at Jackson Memorial in 1978, said. “People saw what he was doing and wanted to do the same thing. ”

For years, DeMarco, whose teams won the first four Shore Conference Tournaments; D’Andrea, whose Manalapan teams won SCT titles in 1981 and 1982; Reid and Reider were close friends and would drive to collegiate wrestling matches together. Caravella, a Brick Township graduate, wrestled against Reider’s teams and had great respect for Reider.

From January, 1972 until a 26-17 defeat to Toms River South in the first Shore Conference Tournament championship match in 1975, Jackson Memorial won 58 straight matches.

Included in that streak was an epic 20-18 win over a very good Howell team in January 1973 in which 10 of the 12 bouts were decided by decision and there were just two bonus points in the match.

Jackson Memorial was in six of the first seven SCT finals (the SCT was a team tournament from 1975-2017) and shared the title in 1980 with Brick Township after a 25-25 tie. His teams went 160-59-2.

“I knew what I wanted to do at an early age because I grew up on Jackson wrestling and Jackson sports.” Goodale said. “Mr. Connor would always do Lehigh introductions for Bernie’s teams. As a little kid, I would be Mr. Connor on the microphone calling Mr. Reider’s teams. That’s what my sister (Rachel Goodale, Jackson Township’s current head girls basketball coach and before that the long-time girls basketball head coach at Jackson Memorial) and I would do in our living room. ”

Jackson Memorial’s powerhouse teams of the 1970s were not able to win any NJSIAA team championships because the NJSIAA did not begin its team tournament until 1980.

Ed Rivera (1974 and 1975), Hector Rivera (1974) and the late Lou Durant (1978) all won state championships during Reider’s tenure.

The coaches and wrestlers at Jackson Memorial who came after Reider’s teams built on the tradition he started.

Eight Jackson Memorial wrestlers combined for 11 more state championships from 1990-2012. Jackson Memorial’s 220 district champions are the most of any program in Shore Conference history.

The Jaguars won four Group 4 state championships from 2004-2011; 11 sectional titles from 2004-2023 and five more SCT titles from 2000-2007, including four straight under Goodale from 2004-2007.

The Shore Conference Tournament was a pride and joy to Reider. He was the long-time director of that tournament.

“We wanted to do what his (Reider’s) teams did,” Goodale said. “That’s why those Shore Conference Tournaments at the time were the most important thing in the world. We thought we were wrestling for national titles. It just wasn’t me. It was the whole town.

“All those kids we had on those teams, their dads wrestled for Mr. Reider. The Shore Conference Tournament was really, really important to them because of Mr. Reider. ”

Jackson Memorial’s iconic program merged with Jackson Liberty in the summer of 2025 to form what is now the Jackson Township team. But, the program, started by Reider will forever be a major part of Shore Conference history.

One of the reasons Reider is referred to as Mr. Reider is because he was a second father to many.

“Outside of my parents, he was probably the most influential person in my life,” Goodale said. “He’s the one guy, outside of my grandpa, that I always seeked approval from. Whenever I made a big decision, Mr. Reider was always the person I asked.

“There were a couple of opportunities I had early on (in the scholastic part of his coaching career) and I would always talk to Mr. Reider and he would tell me, ‘No, no, no’ .”

And when Goodale was in the final stages in late July 2007 of deciding whether to accept then-Rutgers’ athletic director’s Bob Mulcahy’s offer to become the Scarlet Knights’ head coach, he sought Reider’s input.

Goodale had it made at Jackson Memorial. He was already a Jackson Memorial legend as a three-sport athlete and coach. 

The Jaguars were the consensus No. 1 team in the state and nationally ranked in 2006 and 2007. There was, at that time, an endless pipeline of talented wrestlers coming through the town’s recreation and Goetz Middle School programs. He also was a teacher with tenure.

Rutgers was a program that had been close to being on the chopping block when he applied for that job.

“He told me to do it,” Goodale said. “I didn’t ask my mom. I didn’t ask my dad. I asked Mr. Reider. I think a young kid growing up in that town – who loved wrestling, and there were a lot of us – Mr. Reider was the guy we seeked the stamp of approval from. It’s not just me. It’s a lot of the guys I’ve worked with who were Jackson guys.”

Long before he started wrestling at Jackson Memorial in the mid 1970s Reider had an impact on DiGiantomasso.

“He was like the first adult type of teacher, mentor type of person I met when I first moved here when I was 8 years old,” said DiGiantomasso, who graduated from Jackson Memorial In 1978 and later was a long-time referee in the Shore Conference and is currently the Shore assignor for wrestling referees.

DiGiantomasso’s family had moved to Jackson from Rockaway Beach, New York.

“Bernie ran the rec program out of Woodlane Park,” DiGiantomasso said. “They had a building where they would play games. He made some of his own games.”

DiGiantomasso’s nickname of “Chips” came from one of the games Reider created.

“It was about throwing the chips against the wall and I kept winning.” DiGiantomasso said. “Even through high school, Bernie would call me ‘Chips,’ not Charlie. It has stuck with me my whole life. Even my wrestling buddies know me as ‘Chips.'”

One of the lasting images of Reider was he was always there for those who knew him.

“Both of my parents died when I was very young. My brother (Dave) was in high school. I was 28 and he was the first one there,” DiGiantomasso said. “He was the first one at the house.

“You hear the same stories from other people, too. His caring of people was unbelievable. He knew when somebody needed something. He had that instinct where he knew he had to be there.”

From the unusual beginning to his coaching career to the end of his life, Reider left an unforgettable, positive influence on so many.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Reider.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend his memorial visitation from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, July 30 at the George Hassler Funeral Home, 900 Bennetts Mills Road.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Four Diamonds Fund, c/o Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, 600 Centerview Drive, PO Box 852, Hershey, PA 17033-0852 (www.fourfiamonds.org); Jackson Scholarship Fund, PO Box 910, Jackson, NJ 08527 (www.jacksonscholarshipfund.org) or the Dementia Society of America, PO Box 600, Doylestown, PA 18901 (www.dementiasociety.org).

For directions, further information and to send condolence messages to the family go to  www.hasslerfuneralhome.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jackson Memorial’s Bernie Reider left a lasting legacy on Shore wrestling