Some promises are easier to keep than others.
When Gloucester Catholic High School girls volleyball coach Pete Peterson considered hanging up his clipboard a few years ago, there were many people in opposition of the idea. One in particular was player Ava Godby.
“I made a promise to her during her freshman year that I would stick around until she graduated,” Peterson said. “She’s now a senior.”
Aside from a brief pause in 2019, Peterson has been coaching the Rams’ volleyball program since 2010, and his coaching roots in other sports go much deeper. Over the years, he has fulfilled numerous roles at Gloucester Catholic, coaching softball, soccer and lacrosse, but has mainly been the driving force behind the Rams’ volleyball program. The decision to step down wasn’t easy, but it’s well-thought out. Like any good coach, Peterson has had a plan in place for his departure. Former player Delaney McEneaney, a 2023 graduate at Gloucester Catholic, has already taken the reins.
“I told Delaney that it’s time for me,” Peterson said. “It’s been 38 years of coaching high school sports. I think I’m ready to stop coaching.”
After a year of understudy, McEneaney probably could have taken over this season, especially with steady assistant Abby Wallace by her side. But Peterson honored his promise to Godby.
“It makes me feel kind of special in a way because he cares about everyone so much,” said Godby, who is the Rams’ lone senior and captain of the team. “He has really helped me grow as a player, and it makes me feel really good that he wanted to coach me until my high school career is over.”
If he worried about his overall record, Peterson could have jumped ship after last season after the Rams graduated nine seniors. But there’s a lot more to the sport than wins and losses.
“Volleyball just helps me have fun,” Godby said. “I just want to spend the last year not worrying about winning. I don’t really care what our record is. Obviously, it’s nice to win, but as long as the girls don’t get down on themselves, I’m happy.”
McEneaney, who was a teammate of Godby’s just two seasons ago, is now rallying the team in group huddles and scraping X’s and O’s across the whiteboard as head coach-in-waiting. Still a sophomore at Rowan College of South Jersey and a teacher’s aide at Archway Programs in Atco, she thought it would be years until she took charge of her own team. She was wrong.
“I played volleyball since I was 8 years old, but I knew I didn’t want to play in college,” McEneaney said. “But I also didn’t want to give it up. I asked Pete if I could come back for summer practices, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come back and coach?’ I thought he was joking.”
It’s humorously similar to the way Peterson found out he was the coach of the program back in 2010. Peterson had served as an assistant for the Rams’ softball and soccer programs at Gloucester Catholic and had just helped launch the boys lacrosse program in 2009 when he received a call about volleyball.
“In 2010, administration sent out a letter asking if anyone knew how to coach volleyball,” Peterson recalled. “I walked into [former athletic director] Pat Murphy’s office and asked who the coach was. He told me to walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror. I said ‘OK.’ Then I asked who my assistant was. He said ‘walk back into the bathroom.’”
Despite coaching solo that first year, the success was immediate. The Rams won their first division title in 2010 and added three more in 2012, 2013 and 2016. Peterson then took a brief pause in 2019. But his phone rang again pretty soon after.
“I stepped down in 2019 and they brought in a new guy, but he only stayed one year,” Peterson said. “Then the pandemic hit … so they asked me to come back.”
Peterson is trying to step down again. This time he promises. “I’m 72 years old now,” Peterson said. “And my wife is pretty happy about the decision.”
He promises he will have more time at home, but probably not until he changes his phone number. After all, who’s going to work the clock at the basketball games this winter?
“I’ll still do that,” he said with a laugh. “I also take care of the athletic fields for the high school. I cut the grass and line the fields and other stuff. But, yeah, I’ll still work the clock.”
It sounds like Peterson will still be around for advice, although his teachings have been well-received over the years. Just ask McEneaney.
“He taught me grace,” she said. “It’s not always about winning. It’s about how the girls are feeling and not getting down on themselves. We try to instill that a lot here.”
It’s a promise they intend to keep.
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