Bogushefsky credits his team, assistant coach for milestone
OCEAN CITY — Ocean City High School boys soccer coach Aaron Bogushefsky isn’t just trying to build better soccer players. His aim is to build better men.
He’s been doing it as head coach since 2009.
Bogushefsky recently hit the coaching milestone of 200 wins, but he shares his record with his teams and longtime assistant coach.
“It’s a cool thing to be around for that long,” he said, “but all the credit goes to the teams that I’ve had. There have been a lot of fun teams along the way and this team is no exception; I love these guys.”
The coach reached 200 Oct. 8 with a 2-1 victory over Millville, making his record 200 wins, 88 losses and 18 ties. His history with OCHS soccer goes back well before he started coaching.
Bogushefsky, an art teacher at Ocean City Intermediate School, is a 2001 OCHS graduate and played on the Red Raider state championship soccer teams of 1999 and 2000 as a junior and senior, respectively, under Mike Pellegrino, who is now the athletic director.
“I would not be anywhere without Tim Tower. He has been my assistant coach for 15 years. It’s unfair to say it’s my record. It’s his, too. Without him I couldn’t have done half of what I did,” he said.
“My first year we were 8-8-1. I said to myself I cannot do this by myself. I called him up and I couldn’t be more happy that he said yes to help me.”
He and Tower graduated together and played together on the Red Raider championship soccer teams.
“We’ve been friends since the third grade and this is just a natural thing. We have a similar mindset of the game and he’s a busy guy and carves out a lot of his schedule to be here with these boys,” he said. “I would say it’s more about him than me. He’s a big part of what we do here.”
Bogushefsky fell in love with soccer as a kid.
“It’s called the beautiful game because I think the passing and working together — having 11 individuals working as one unit — there is something almost poetic about it. That’s the way we try to play here and we try to replicate the things that we’ve done.
“I want these kids to have what I had and to experience those championships — CAL championships and South Jersey championships and state championships. We want that for them,” he said.
He was a volunteer coach with the team starting in 2005, spent the next two years as junior varsity coach and became head coach in 2009. Tower joined him in 2010.
His teams have been to the NJSIAA South Jersey finals six times.
“Six years we’ve been in that game and two times we have won. Some were heartbreakers. The first time was in 2013, right here, and 2014 was right here also,” he said. “We were there in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019 in the South Jersey finals. Some of those teams I couldn’t believe made it that far, but I was so proud of them.”
He believes the best team he ever coached was in 2017.
“They moved the ball. I would sit down on the sideline and they would do it all. My most memorable game was a South Jersey quarterfinal against Lacey. We knew they had a long bus ride, and our whole philosophy is to keep the ball. We don’t want to give it up. Keep it the whole time. That discourages the other team.
“We started the game with the ball and we connected I think it was 20 passes and it took 17 seconds and (Lacey) never touched the ball. They didn’t even tip the ball, and it went into the back of the net.
“To me,” he said, “the team shows up and they don’t even get to touch the ball and we’re up 1-0. That’s the epitome of what we’re trying to do.”
Bogushefsky said his philosophy of coaching comes from his dad. He tries to emulate great coaches.
“We’re trying to make better men first, because if you’re a better man, you’re a better teammate. If you’re a better teammate, your team is going to be better. It has nothing to do with individual statistics. It’s about the team,” he said of the philosophy his father passed on to him.
“The team is always above the individual, even above me.”
“For me it’s a fantastic opportunity to help these kids and help mentor and coach them through life,” he said. That includes “teaching them to be good men and what a good man looks like, and sounds like, and the way he holds himself. It’s not always aggressive. Sometimes it’s gentle. I find that the strongest men I know are the most gentle too.”
Bogushefsky also believes in teaching his players “the what, the how and the why.”
“What is soccer, how do we do this and why are we doing this? Those are the three levels of understanding, and if we can teach them all three we’re in really good shape,” he explained. “I think the why is of critical importance because that gives people purpose in what they do.
“This is for all things in life. I bring this to soccer. I find the greatest coaches in the world … in any sport really understand people. And I’m not saying I’m one of those guys, but I’m trying to model what I do after them because I think what they’re doing is right.”
This season he has a nearly new starting squad after graduating 12 seniors, including eight who were starters.
“Our goal every day is to be better than the day before. The record will work itself out. … To me it’s how we’re playing. When we get to the end of the season, it’s about results, too, but we’re trying to develop these guys. The thing I love about these guys most is that they have such a resilience. We’ve gone down in so many games and they fight right back to be in the game. I can’t teach that. That’s from these boys.
“I love these kids and every day is a joy to be out here with them. It’s not work at all. It’s a lot of fun for me. A lot of people come up and thank me, but this is great for me, too. It’s not a one-way street.”
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff