It would take the most talented archivist years to catalogue the vast collection of Pingry School memorabilia covering almost every speck of space on the walls and floor of Miller Bugliari’s office.
Included are team pictures, photos of the 90-year-old Bugliari with various sporting luminaries, plaques, pennants, framed news clippings and other reminders of a 66-year career spent coaching soccer, teaching, fundraising and making the lives better of anyone who intercepted his orbit. One particular highlight is a framed mock mob movie poster of “Don Bugliari.” It’s practically a museum.
“He is the institutional memory of this place,” Pingry athletic director Carter Abbott says.
On this steamy late-July day, as construction continues outside on a new World Cup-caliber soccer field on campus, Bugliari is behind his mayhem of a desk, which contains piles of papers, many of the legal pad variety, as well as his phone, which chirps four times during an hour-long visit.
At one point, 2025 Pingry senior co-captain Harrison Hackett calls to check on plans for the next week’s team trip to London, which includes Bugliari. The coach assures Hackett everything is ready and then issues a challenge. “Harrison, in two weeks, I’m going to ask you who should start this year. Don’t say, ‘I don’t know,’” Bugliari says.
Photo: Christopher Lane
“I can give you the starting 11 right now,” Hackett replies. “And maybe even the backup 11.”
Bugliari is pleased, but he can’t resist the last word.
“Harrison, I don’t want you ahead of me. I want you with me.”
Thus ends yet another of the dozens of interactions Bugliari will have daily at Pingry. He is coaching his 66th team and begins the season with 952 career victories and six NJSIAA state championships. He has been named New Jersey Coach of the Year seven times and is a member of nine different halls of fame. His soccer contacts include national and international team coaches. But Bugliari’s impact on those he has coached, taught and mentored goes well beyond the legendary resume.
“He changed me,” says Jeremy Goldstein (Pingry, ’91), who played for Bugliari. “I wanted to be great for him.”
Goldstein arrived at Pingry—a top private school with campuses in Millburn, Basking Ridge and Pottersville—when his home life was difficult, and he was often in trouble. Bugliari provided a firm hand and a counselor’s kindness that helped Goldstein persevere and later thrive. “At a school where they really did take an interest in us, he was next level,” Goldstein says.
Bugliari is more than just the sporting father figure cliché. He is equal parts influencer, consigliere, police officer and adviser.
Photo: Christopher Lane
“His assistant coaches are like the mean dad telling you to eat your vegetables, and he’s the grandfather slipping you candy under the table,” says longtime assistant head coach David Fahey (’99), another former player.
Bugliari has mellowed, but he was “a strict disciplinarian” on the sidelines for decades, according to Fahey. He presides over practice from a golf cart and allows his assistants to run the drills, but he meets with them daily to set the framework of the workouts. When he addresses players—whether individually or as a whole—they listen.
“He’ll still step out of the golf cart and demonstrate a defensive stance,” Fahey says.
Senior co-captain Akku Chanchal has received plenty of advice from Bugliari about his play, but Chanchal has been impacted more by the coach’s counsel. “He’s almost a larger-than-life figure, but he doesn’t act like one,” Chanchal says. “If you see him in the hall, he’ll pat you on the back and ask how it’s going. He’ll always remind you to come see him. If you don’t for a couple of weeks, he’ll send a friendly email saying, ‘Is there a kid named Akku who still goes to this school and plays soccer? I haven’t seen him.’”
If Bugliari happens to notice Goldstein walking across campus on one of his regular visits, he won’t hesitate to tease him.
“I’ll be 50 feet away and will hear, ‘Morris Catholic throw-in,’” Goldstein says.
Photo: Christopher Lane
In the 1989 state semifinal against Morris Catholic, a Goldstein throw was intercepted and brought in for a goal.
Bugliari remembers just about everybody who played for him, and he delights in needling them, although “you can only do it with certain people,” he admits.
Greenwich Country Day School head Adam Rohdie, who taught, coached soccer and administered at Pingry from 1989-2004, appreciates Bugliari’s barbs. “He is definitely a character,” Rohdie says. “He has a great sense of humor.”
Bugliari’s father died when he was 10, and he attended Pingry on a scholarship. “They supported me when I needed it,” he says. He uses soccer to help others experience the school. “He’s the reason I came to Pingry,” Fahey says. Bugliari has raised considerable funds for financial aid for students, and when the school threw a 90th birthday celebration for him in May, he enjoyed the event but was happier that it raised $6 million for scholarships.
Bugliari graduated from Pingry in 1952 and studied science and physical education at Springfield College in Massachusetts, where he played striker on the soccer team. He joined the Army Signal Corps after graduating and stayed on part-time until 1963. After teaching science at South Plainfield Middle School for a year, he returned to teach biology at Pingry in 1959 and serve as assistant soccer coach. A year later, the team was his.
Rohdie says Bugliari was “ahead of his time” during his early days as a coach. As Pingry began to win, players from all over central New Jersey migrated to the program. “It sort of fed on itself,” Rohdie says.
Bugliari is the winningest all-time coach in New Jersey. He is not the winningest soccer coach in the country. That distinction belongs to Terry Michler, who won 1070 games in Missouri from 1969-2024. But Michler doesn’t have Bugliari’s connections.
“Michler can’t pick up his phone and call [former U.S. men’s national team coaches] Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley,” Fahey says.
Though he “can’t do quite as much as he used to,” Bugliari still travels around the country to meet alumni and solicit donations. He is on the sidelines for games and practices. Thanks to Bugliari’s close relationship with New Jersey soccer legend Charlie Stillitano, Pingry has the highest-quality fields and serves as a practice facility for club and national teams—like the U.S. women’s national side, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain.
“Anybody who plays at MetLife [Stadium] or Sports Illustrated Stadium wants to train here,” Fahey says.
But Bugliari doesn’t act like a big shot. He’ll assist anyone, from the former soccer player turned football kicker who needs help with his form— on a blazing summer afternoon—or the Pingry student with trepidation about his pending college journey. That’s why 500 people showed up at his birthday party. “It felt like the whole East Coast was there,” Chanchal says.
Bugliari wants to keep coaching. More importantly, he wants to continue building relationships.
“I try to make sure people know I’m there if they need me,” Bugliari says of students, alumni and faculty. “Some kids don’t think they need anybody, but it’s nice to have someone to help who cares about you.”
There are moments when he wonders if it’s time to stop.
“If I’m driving home, sometimes I’ll ask myself if I’m enjoying it as much,” Bugliari.
The answer is almost always yes.
Bugliari continues to feed his legacy. Often, he’ll look at one of the many photos in his office and think about a former player.
“Not win-loss, but I’ll wonder what they’re doing now,” he says.
It’s all part of the rich tapestry of a career spent in the service of others.
“My dad died when I was 25,” Fahey says. “Miller has sort of become a father to me.”
He’s not alone.
Michael Bradley is a writer who lives in suburban Philadelphia and is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Villanova University.
