John Truhan is different than most high school basketball coaches. For one he is a math teacher and takes more pride in that job, than any basketball job he has ever had. But the job he takes most pride, is being a parent and Husband. He often jokes how he overachieved in meeting and marrying his stunning wife, KIM. He is most proud of his two children. Kristi, who is an assistant coach on his staff and son John-John a sophomore at Ohio State. You see, these are the things that matter most to John Truhan. Who grew up without a dad and yet has turned his life into a fairytale. That’s because once again John Truhan aka “JT” has done it again, by winning a 2nd consecutive WOBM CHIP.
John Truhan didn’t grow up with a silver spoon his mouth. His dad left him and his mom at an early age. He has had to fight for everything he has ever earned. Nothing has ever come easy for him. Just like in his coaching career. His never has had a plum job. You know the place where everything is in place. Where winning takes care of its self. Where tradition is drIpping from the walls. Where star players arrive and become legends. No JT has had to create these things his entire career. And he has done it over and over and over again. That’s why yesterday’s WOBM Championship is another reminder of his greatness. JT is the poster child for why join them? When it’s so much more fun, when you can beat them and he seems to do that better than anyone else….
Nobody in high school basketball boys or girls has done what JT has done, won and won big at every graveyard program in there state. JT, has turned dead programs not into winners but champions. Please understand the difference. He taken jobs where coaches go to watch their careers die and taken those programs to heights that were unimaginable. It’s why I call him the Bill Parcels of high school basketball. JT fix’s your program and gives it legs well after he is gone.
JT, may not want to admit this. But most coaches want to win enough at a school to get out and a get a plum job. You know the jobs like a SJV, RBC, RUTGERS PREP, MANASQUAN . You know those traditional power type schools, where kids flock too. But JT is different, I believe he likes beating those schools. I think he likes being the underdog and building programs nobody wants any part of. I think JT enjoys taking a kid nobody wants and turns them into a terror, like current guard Riley Joyce . I think he loves showing his coaching peers. He can do more with less than them and beat them as well. He loves kids like Riley Wheeler and Zoey Gulley and Kristen Connors. Those forgotten kids who win chips. JT, may not say it. But he likes proving he is best in the business and he does it with a joke and a smile.
Coach Truhan shocked everyone when he led Toms River South to a NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 Championship and to the Group 3 Final in the first in school history. Then when he took COLTS NECK to a Shore Conference Tournament Championship. The first SCT girls title by a public school in nearly 20 years at the time. Everyone knew he was difference maker on the sidelines. Then when he led Colts Neck to the Central Jersey Group IV title and overall Group IV title en route to the Tournament of Champions final against Shore and State powerhouse, St. John Vianney. Everyone assumed he be at Colts Neck for life, her had created the ultimate plum job. That’s because people don’t understand what family means to JOHN TURHAN. When your childhood is snatched away from you as a kid. You don’t want that for your family. So Coach TURHAN decided the two hours of driving and not spending time with his family was not worth the winning and championships. So he did what few if any would do… walk away from the best team in the state.
When JT coach resigned at Colts Neck, a team where he developed a winning culture and D1 players for what many believe was the worse job in the Shore. Many snickered behind is back and looked forward to him falling in his ego. Well all he did at Central Reg was win three Shore Conference Class B South titles reached the second round of the South Jersey Group III playoffs every year except once and twice reached the State Sectional Seminfinals. No exactly the fall people expected. But then again Coach Truhan has always done the impossible at places nobody believed anything is possible. See this is why RED BANG REG’S second consecutive WOBM CHIP is so sweet. Because JT keeps doing the impossible over and over.
You see people only remember the good times of the moment. It’s seems a lifetime ago, when RBR once again had a coaching opening. They couldn’t give the job away. Nobody wanted any part of it. No tradition, little winning and no players. RBR was a laughing stock. They were best known as school up the block from RBC, not like today as the team that beat RBC. RBR before JT was known as the school that brags about how great they are academically, how they do charity work, have good kids and of course everyone’s homecoming game. You see RBR talked about everything except winning basketball games, big basketball games. So when John Truhan showed up everyone got excited. Excited to put Coach Truhan in his place finally that is! That’s because nobody in their right mind believed anyone could win at RBR especially with RBC right up the block. Many thought the cocky, confidence and fun loving TRUHAN finally had crossed a bridge too far even for him. That was until he started producing ALL FRESHMAN, DIVISION ONE PLAYERS and championship teams with players nobody wanted or cared about. You see everything John Truhan touches turns in the BANNERS. Like it or not the man is just brilliant. He is a freak of nature as a coach. He has this ability to get kids to believe in themselves. He has this deep rooted belief that anything is possible for any kid. SYNAI BLYCHANTON was once one of the kids who had lost her confidence and her way. These days she is the MVP of the 2024 WOBM and believes in herself. That’s because JT was that kid once thrown away too. But John Truhan choose to be a survivor, not a victim. JUST LIKE SYNAI BLYCHANTON and all his TEAMS THOUGH THE YEARS!
CAROLINE POLLOWAY, has developed into star, a force and beautiful person. She is a 3 year captain. JT has been hard on her. But she has 2 WOBM Championships and WOBM MVP. She was a 8th grader when RBR pulled off the upset of a lifetime in beating RBC on the road in the SCT. She is the one player they has been there for wins vs MANASQUAN and then of course yesterday’s win over RFH, let that run around you head, if you have followed Shore basketball over the years. RBR beating RBC..RFH and MANASQUAN? I would be laughable if you had said that was possible before the arrival of JT. But here we are folks. Caroline Polloway, has seen the evolution of Red Bank Reg basketball. A program you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. A place for bad players to call home. To today, where the program has exceeded programs that were once far more thought about than RBR to a TOP 20, State Championship Contender to being the last two names that will appear on the WOBM Trophy… FAIRYTALES CAN BE REAL
JOHN TURHAN, and RBR will soon turn to division play. He will be outgunned by SJV and RBC. He knows this and his kids know this. But the game is not played on paper but on the court. JT and his kids know that’s their advantage. The RBR kids believe their coach is better than your coach. They believe their program has more pride than everyone else. That’s what happens when you have success. You believe, it doesn’t have to always be true. But you believe and isn’t that all the really matters. JOHN TURHAN does that to people. Just ask CHRISTINA LIGGIO of RBC and NAVY BOUND. Coach Truhan volunteered to tutor her in math to help her improve her math scores for the SATS. Why? Because JT wants every kid to have their moment. You ever wonder why JT never coaches a Top AAU team? How it seems he is always coaching the “B” team? But his B team kids always end up being better and more recruited than the players on the top team? Maybe it’s because JT didn’t get his moment as a kid and he is just making up for lost time!
