Kingsway's Kodluk recalled as caring, knowledgeable coach

Some say Kingsway is a Group 4 school with a Group 1 feel.

When it was built, it was surrounded by miles of farmland along the southern border of Gloucester County. For decades, its small student body was mostly the sons and daughters of the people who tended that land.

"But all of the sudden, it felt like over night, the school just took off," said Joe Galliera, athletic director at Kingsway from 2002 until his retirement in 2014. "Houses were being built all around us. One year, we'd graduate 200 seniors and we'd get 300 freshmen. The next year, we'd lose 300 seniors and get 400 freshmen."

There were times when girls' soccer coach John Kodluk would reflect on the change, and it would take him aback.

"We would talk, and he would wonder if he could actually coach a program that just keeps getting bigger and bigger," Galliera said of Kodluk, 57, his friend who died suddenly Wednesday morning. "Of course, anyone who knew him knew how knowledgeable he was, how perfect he was for that team."

The pillars of Kingsway athletics over the last 15 years were institutions like Kodluk and Galliera and Tony Barchuk - people known as much for their endearing personalities as their wins or losses. When the school was small, it was easy for them to get to know the families of their players. Their focus was on relationships, on helping kids become good men and women - and then good athletes.

And that is Kodluk's legacy.

It's not that he adapted to a changing environment. It's the opposite. In 14 years as the girls' soccer coach, he never changed. More kids just meant more families to have dinner with, more friends to make.

"I was afraid we would lose that," Galliera said. "But people like John were there to make sure the family atmosphere only got stronger."

Players said he was a father figure. They remembered his smile.

His teams would do charity work before practice on Saturdays. He would visit kids in class if they had a big game the day before.

He would show up at almost every Kingsway sporting event when he wasn't coaching - always helping out, always socializing, always supporting anything and anyone in any way he could.

"Kids who didn't even have him in class or didn't play sports would become close with him," former player Maria Kirby said of Kodluk, who also taught economics at Kingsway since 2002, the same year he began coaching there. "He was one of those teachers that everyone would want to visit when they came back after graduation."

And winning - oh yeah, that too.

Kirby - currently playing goalie at Division I Longwood University - was a four-year starter at Kingsway. She was in net when the Dragons won their first-ever Tri-County Royal Division title in 2012.

"And the thing I remember most about the game that we clinched the championship," Kirby said, "was at the end, we were jumping around and excited. And he called the team around him, and the first thing he said was for us to go shake the other team's hands - to make sure we showed class."

Area coaches have similar tales of a man oozing with perspective.

Kodluk was known for giving remarkably thorough scouting reports to area coaches in need.

"I always told him he deserved a ring for my first state championship," said Moorestown coach Bill Mulvihill.

And opponents were made to feel welcome.

"He was just a warm guy," said Eastern coach Jamie McGroarty. "When you'd see him, it was almost like soccer was secondary, the first thing he would do was ask about your family."

Winning was nice. But Kodluk's passion for high school sports was more about his passion for people, for relationships.

And so when his athletic director of 12 years tried to sum up the man, Kodluk's record was a distant thought.

Galliera didn't think about the way Kodluk led one of South Jersey's biggest girls' soccer programs. It was more personal than that, and, in the end, that was the essence of what Kodluk meant to South Jersey sports.

"He would come to my office every day, every single day," Galliera said, fighting back tears. "And we would just talk. We would talk about everything - our families, our backgrounds, our values, our Catholic faith - we shared as much as any two brothers would share.

"I never had a brother. And there are only a couple people I've met in my life who I would consider a brother. John is one of them."

rallysports@phillynews.com