“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time;

they just have the heart.”

Hoddy Mahon – Basketball  Hoddy has run the town basketball program,  in one form or another, for over 15 years. His name has become synonymous with Ridge youth basketball in town, & across the region.  He is on the Board of the Garden State Basketball League (in which we compete) and is a master administrator.  He makes it look easy and it isn’t. Hoddy comes from a basketball family (his father having coached Seton Hall University), & all of his kids played hoops with great success at the HS level:  Hoddy Jr, Dillon, Jake, Samantha, and Sydney.  His focus on the fundamentals of the game are a key to the success of our program.  We are grateful to Hoddy for the thousands and thousands of hours he has put into the basketball program in town over two decades and to his wife, Maria for putting up with all of the hours Hoddy spends on RYSI Basketball.

Evan Ganny – Football  Evan has proudly served the RYSI organization and its constituent families for well over 16 years.  During those years, Evan and his lovely wife, Vanessa, have spent countless hours dedicating their efforts and volunteering their time to improving the Ridge community.  As a parent and a coach, Evan has enriched the RYSI Football organization and, at the same time, has helped support Ridge High School and its football program.  He has coached hundreds of young student-athletes who have moved through the RYSI program including his own children Evan, Luke, Jack, McKenna, Ryan and Bode.  In addition to serving as a coach, Evan has been an invaluable resource to RYSI over the last 5 years as a member of the RYSI Football Committee.  Evan has served as an Assistant Coach, Head Coach, Grade Level Commissioner, Game Day Coordinator and Conference Representative.  In addition, Evan has dedicated countless hours to ensuring that RYSI’s equipment and uniforms are stored, distributed and collected each and every season.  As a coach, Evan has always stressed fun, teamwork, learning, safety and enjoyment above winning and losing.  His focus on developing a positive experience has always been readily apparent to anyone that has had the privilege to be a part of a team with which he has been associated.  He has always kept the interests of those young student-athletes first and foremost and has helped mold each of them into better football players and even better young men. 

Christopher Gussin – Flag Football  Two years ago, Chris Gussin approached the RYSI Football Committee and asked if we would consider expanding our flag program to include older grades.  After much deliberation and with consideration to the other flag program, RYSI approved expanding the program.  Chris took on the task of restructuring the Flag program to include grades K-5.  Chris brought on referees and established a playoff and championship structure for the older players.  He spent countless hours structuring our flag program so that the older players could experience the team and competition concepts their tackle counterparts experience, all while running his own business, Maven Communications and raising his three children, Chase, Romey and Max. 

Bill Kosakowski – Softball  Bill has been coaching girls softball since the inception of the RYSI Softball program in 2010.  He continues to coach his daughter, Carly on the RYSI Girls Softball High School team.   Bill played football at Bucknell University and brought that expertise to RYSI and coached his twin boys, Christopher and Kyle in the RYSI football program.  Bill has tremendous success with all of his softball teams but the “Summer of 2015” was very special.  The team went 37-5-1, 5 “straight” tournament championships!  RYSI Softball, Ridge softball, Koz softball became names synonymous with a winning culture, and a new team among the successful Softball programs in New Jersey.   

Lisette Mowen – Girls LAX  As if being on the Cedar Hill PTO and a working mom of twins isn’t enough, Lisette Mowen has donated so much of her time to RYSI as a team manager. Her twins, Addie and Aidan, are the force behind her involvement, and we are extremely lucky to have her as a part of our organization. She has single-handedly managed Team Snap, organized every single tournament and ended each year with a wonderful end of the year event. If you’re questioning the weather, Lisette has the forecast; need to adjust the schedule, Lisette is rearranging; need a tournament organized, Lisette has the sign up. She takes the initiative and make decisions. While working with Lisette, the onus is on her, she is at the helm. We are extremely lucky to have a community that provides us with parent volunteers of such caliber.

Will Hudkins – Boys LAX  Will has been with RYSI since its inception in 2006, when he volunteered to be Head Coach for his son’s flag football team.  He joined the lacrosse program when it was first offered in 2009.  You could say that his sons, Wesley and Lucas grew up with the program. Will was well-prepared to offer an enormous amount of knowledge and enthusiasm for the program. He played center and defensive tackle for Summit High School.   Will also played lacrosse at Summit H.S., and continued to play lacrosse for two years at San Diego State University.  His expertise in lacrosse has been a godsend for Bernards Township. In addition to being a Head Coach, Will helped coaches who had never played the sport, he designed the logo for the program, choosing the uniforms and overseeing merchandise, publicity and marketing.  He was made Director of the RYSI Boys Lacrosse program in 2016.  What stands out to so many in the Ridge Lacrosse family is Will’s dedication to both the sport and to the players. His desire to build a strong community of lacrosse players and families in Basking Ridge is unparalleled, and has made Ridge competitive with other “legacy towns” in New Jersey. For all the players in the program, Will emphasized the value in learning a new skill, or achieving a personal goal, and perhaps most important, building a sense of community for the players. Although his boys are out of the program, no one in the rec program will be the least bit surprised if we see Will at Mountain Park on a frigid Saturday morning in the spring, keeping his eye on the young players who have enormous opportunities ahead of them because of the dedication and hard work of volunteers like Will Hudkins.

Lee Clark – Cheerleading   Lee is no stranger to athletics and the Ridge community. As a wife to Brian and a Mom to Joseph (grade 10), Macy (grade 8) and Morgan (K),  she has been an active team parent volunteer through the years whether it be through football, lacrosse, softball and  cheer. Always up for a challenge and willing to assist, Lee has made an impact by spearheading multiple efforts for the Ridge Youth Sports Cheer program.  For the last two years, Lee has been the ‘Mum’ mom in charge coordinating one of the cheer program’s largest fundraisers to help benefit the senior rec competition team on their quest to Nationals each winter. The annual fall mum sale fundraiser, partnered with local business Back to Nature, not only requires a huge amount of organizational and coordination efforts but also an immeasurable amount of time and patience.  Never to back away from a challenge, Lee continued to assist the cheer program last spring by taking on one of the larger tasks from our annual Uniform Day.  When the program was in need of someone to handle the resale of uniforms - Lee graciously accepted the job and succeeded in making it a smooth resale year this past spring. Lee’s sunny disposition and overall positive attitude is infectious and undoubtedly has benefited the RYSI cheer program as a whole. Her unwavering support and willingness to support her children and their respective athletic teams showcases the type of involvement we always welcome and appreciate from our parent volunteers.  She serves as a wonderful role model to our cheer families and hope that her involvement continues!

Shown in the photo:  Will Hudkins, Lisette Mowen, Evan Ganny, Lee Clark, Hoddy Mahon.