Former Holmdel Coach John Nacarlo Approved as New Southern Boys Soccer Coach

Southern Regional’s boys coaching carousel continued spinning through the offseason and it landed on a parent of one of its returning senior standouts from the 2024 NJSIAA Group IV championship team.

It just so happens that parent is also a four-time state champion as a varsity head coach in the Shore Conference.

The Southern Regional Board of Education Wednesday approved John Nacarlo as the new varsity boys soccer coach at Southern Regional High School, tabbing the former Holmdel coach to lead a Rams program coming off the most decorated season in its history.

“There is some extra excitement this time around with my son in the program,” said Nacarlo, who has served as the head coach of the Jersey Shore Boca 2008 team for the past year. “I know a lot of the families and players who are currently in the program and this is a great opportunity to get to work with them on a more regular basis than I was with with the club.”

Nacarlo’s son, Brody, is a returning senior starter at Southern after serving as a key cog on the Rams’ 2024 squad that captured the first NJSIAA group championship in program history. With a record of 10-5-1 on Oct. 20, 2024, the Rams made a coaching change and went on to finish the season on a nine-game winning streak.

The last six of those state tournament wins came during the NJSIAA Group IV Playoffs, during which Southern rolled to its first ever sectional championship by winning South Jersey Group IV by an aggregate score of 18-6 in four wins over Pennsauken, Gloucester Tech, Central Regional and Toms River North. The Rams then turned up the defense to beat Princeton, 1-0, in the Group IV semifinal and finished off their first ever Group IV championship with a 2-0 win over Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

The 2024 Rams were not only the first team in Southern boys history to win a state championship, but also the first to finish ranked No. 1 in the Shore Conference. They also finished ranked No. 5 in the final NJ.com Top 20 — the highest ranking of any public school in the state and what is believed to be the first time Southern finished the season ranked in the state by the Star Ledger/NJ.com.

At the individual level, senior Aidan Donnelly earned the Shore Sports Insider Player of the Year and was also honored as the state Player of the Year by NJ.com after he scored nine of his 30 goals during the NJSIAA Tournament.

After a 2-0 Southern loss to Central in the Shore Conference Tournament round of 16 on Oct. 18, head coach Rob Muñoz resigned from his position. Assistant coach Guy Lockwood — who was the head coach of the program from 2016 to 2021 — assumed control of a team in turmoil and immediately steadied the ship.

“One thing I have learned coaching club soccer is it’s a lot easier to create that family atmosphere in high school soccer,” Nacarlo said. “You’re with the boys for six days a week and it’s a chance to really groom them to become a cohesive team that’s more like a family. I firmly believe that it’s not about the talent you have; it’s about coming together as a group and I think you saw that with this team last year during the state tournament.”

Lockwood oversaw a resurgence for Southern soccer during his first stint as head coach, which included a winning record in each of his first five seasons after taking over a team that had just one winning season in the previous six — a 9-8-3 campaign in 2012. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Southern won a share of its first Class A South division championship since 1989 and finished 14-2-1. That season ended with an overtime loss at Toms River North in the championship game of the modified NJSIAA sectional playoffs.

After serving as acting head coach following Muñoz’s resignation, Lockwood stepped down as head coach earlier this spring, which opened the door for another proven coach to assume the reins of the Rams program.

Nacarlo spent 16 seasons as the boys soccer coach at Holmdel and followed that with a two-year stint as the Hornets head girls soccer coach after taking a year off. In his final two seasons as boys coach and two seasons as the girls coach, Nacarlo’s teams posted a cumulative record of 78-2-3 while winning three state championships and a Shore Conference Tournament title.

As the head boys soccer coach from 2003 to 2018, Nacarlo led the Holmdel to three NJSIAA state championships and a 2017 Shore Conference Tournament championship. Nacarlo’s Holmdel team won the 2010 Group III championship and back-to-back Group II championships in 2017 and 2018. During the two-year run as state champions, Holmdel went a combined 44-1-2 and in 2018, the Hornets finished the season ranked No. 1 in New Jersey and appeared in MaxPrep’s national rankings.

In all, Holmdel’s boys won seven NJSIAA sectional championships and reached the state final six times during Nacarlo’s 16 seasons as coach.

Nacarlo stepped down as boys soccer coach after the 2018, only to return as the head girls soccer coach at Holmdel ahead of the 2020 season. He spent two seasons as the head coach of the girls team and led the Hornets to the 2021 overall Group II championship — Holmdel’s second state title in girls soccer and first since 2014. Holmdel’s 2020 team went 15-0 during the COVID-shortened fall season and was forced to withdraw from the modified state tournament due to multiple cases of COVID on the team.

“The expectations will be no different than they were at Holmdel,” Nacarlo said. “There is a lot of talent within the program and coming off the year they had, expectations are going to be high going in. I want the players and the parents to understand that under a new coach, things are going to be different. There are different strategies, different philosphies and different ways of doing things.”

The Southern team Nacarlo is inheriting will look much different from the one that made history in 2024. Donnelly was one of seven senior starters for the Rams in 2024 and of the 68 goals scored by Southern players last season, 61 of them were scored by seniors.

Brody Nacarlo will be the team’s top returning scorer with five goals and seven assists during his junior campaign, while rising senior defender Caden Schweigart contributed two goals and three assists. Defenders Nick Leiriao and Jonathan Mandell are also slated to return to the starting lineup as seniors this coming fall.

Southern will once again compete in the Class A South division of the Shore Conference along with Central, Toms River North, Toms River East, Lacey and Point Pleasant Boro. The Rams will play in a Shore Conference Tournament “World Cup” group with Wall, Long Branch, Brick Memorial, Pinelands and Red Bank Catholic.

“I took over (Boca) this past year and Brody came a long way with me as the head coach as far as being a leader and being vocal out on the field,” John Nacarlo said. “There are a lot of seniors on (next year’s) team who I have coached over the years and it’s just going to be special to see them out there playing together.

“For Brody and I, it’s kind of the perfect ending to his high school career. He watched all those Holmdel state championships from the sideline as a kid and I got to watch his team win a state championship last year from the stands. Now, I get to coach him and his team during his senior year, so it’s going to be a special year. I’m excited about the opportunity”