Randolph High School, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, stands as the lone secondary school of the Randolph Township Schools in the state of New Jersey. The school has a rich history of athletic achievement, particularly in ice hockey.
Prudential Center in Newark, often the venue for NJSIAA ice hockey finals.
A Tradition of Success
For the last 31 years, Rich McLaughlin has been the architect behind the prideful tradition and success of the Randolph ice hockey program. The 2003 Randolph team had a 24-6-0 record and scored the most goals by any team in RHS history with 135 and let up 59 and played a record 30 games for a single season. Winning the Public School State Championship by defeating Brick Memorial 7-0 in final, this was the first State Championship in hockey team for Randolph High School. This tremendous group of hard working kids who didn’t have great talent from top to bottom of the line up but made up for it with a work ethic and a desire to win and have fun.
Randolph students packed two sections of the Prudential Center, expanding outward and down against the boards. The Rams, who have four in the past eight years and eight overall, were trying to win the Mennen regular season, Mennen Cup and NJSIAA championship for the second time in school history.
Mike Randolph etched his name into the history books Monday with his 708th victory as a head high school hockey coach.
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The McLaughlin Era
On Wednesday night, he put a stamp on what has been one of the most storied coaching careers for one of the most well-respected individuals in the history of New Jersey high school ice hockey. McLaughlin won his 500th career game when Randolph, ranked No. 7 in the NJ.com Top 20, defeated Ramapo 3-0 to keep its undefeated record alive and prove that it’s been the best Public team in the state this season. Since he took over the reins of the program in 1993, McLaughlin has amassed a 500-202-77 record along with nine state championships and four Mennen Cup titles. He was inducted into the New Jersey High School Hall of Fame in 2009.
The respect that he has gained for his commitment to building a winner for 30-plus years rivals just a few others.
Building a Winning Program
He took over in 1993, and the first year was not pretty. Randolph won just three games, practiced at five in the morning, and shared one rink at Mennen Arena with all of the other teams in the area. But things began to build incrementally over time, as did parent support when it became clear how committed McLaughlin was to building a winning program that competed for championships year in and year out.
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The positive impact that he has had on the hundreds of players that have walked in and out of his locker room, along with their families, cannot be overstated enough. That’s been one of his favorite parts about his career at Randolph - to see families keep coming back, and to see former players come back as assistant coaches.
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In 2017 when McLaughlin won his 400th career game, Jase’s older brother JT Zangara scored two goals in a 3-1 win over Roxbury. McLaughlin said, “It’s wild how it’s all connected. There are things that we do today in the locker room that these kids don’t even know that we did 30 years ago because they learn from the guys ahead of them. There’s a lot of tradition like that and there’s a lot of guys who played because their older brothers played and that’s the best part. I tell these guys that my job is a success when I see alums walk in at 11:00 at night with their old man hockey outfits on and they’re still playing. That means we did something right. It’s great seeing family ties go back 20 years.”
Just three other coaches in state history - Bob Auriemma, John Warchol, and Harvey Cohen - have won 500 games, and McLaughlin is now connected to them in more ways than one. He joked that he still has energy left to keep coaching, and that there’s not a day he doesn’t love walking into the rink. That is especially true this year, as Randolph is undefeated with a 16-0-1 record and is the top ranked Public team in the state.
All my assistant coaches played for me, and they bring memories up all of the time and I just can’t remember half of it,” McLaughlin said. “You think about all of the people that have come through here and you see some of them coaching now and they come back for the alumni games. It’s a special place to have worked for 30 years.
Mike Randolph: A Historic Win
Mike Randolph etched his name into the history books Monday with his 708th victory as a head high school hockey coach. The longtime Duluth East coach was coaching his first game for Northern Lakes, his third team in the past five years. Northern Lakes defeated Prairie Centre 11-0 at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud. With the win Randolph passes former Rochester Mayo coaching legend Lorne Grosso. Former Albert Lea head coach Roy Nystrom had 705 wins. Randolph became the third member of the 700-win club last season.
After the game Randolph was presented with a jersey with the Duluth East, St. Thomas Academy and Northern Lakes logos and the No. 708 on the back under his name. Randolph was given a jersey to commemorate his history-making win. Randolph has coached on the high school and collegiate levels for more than 45 years and was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018. This is his first season with Northern Lakes.
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Prior to joining Northern Lakes Randolph was head coach at Duluth East for 32 years, leading the Greyhounds to the state tournament 18 times, earning the championship twice. In addition to his Hall of Fame honor, Randolph was the Class AA Coach of the Year in 2012-2013. Randolph previously coached at Duluth Cathedral, Duluth Denfeld, University of Minnesota-Duluth and the College of St. Scholastica.
As a player, Randolph played on the 1976 US Olympic Team, four years in the minors, two years in the British Columbia major juniors and four years for Duluth Cathedral High School.
All Time Wins Leaders
The table below shows the all-time wins leaders in Minnesota Boys High School Hockey:
| Coach | School(s) | Record (W-L-T) |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Randolph | Duluth East; DC; STA; Northern Lakes | 708-234-37 |
| Lorne Grosso | Rochester Mayo | 707-442-31 |
| Roy Nystrom | Albert Lea | 705-502-24 |
| Willard Ikola | Edina | 616-149-38 |
| Bill Lechner | Hill-Murray; Stilwater | 607-261-37 |
| Jeff Lindquist | Bloom. Jeffers; Blake | 599-323-33 |
| Jim O’Neill | Cretin-Derham Hall | 593-316-41 |
| Tony Sarsland | Elk River | 588-189-26 |
| Ken Pauly | Benilde-St. Margaret’s | 586-282-35 |
| Larry Ross | International Falls | 566-169-21 |
| Lee Smith | Eden Prairie | 547-223-40 |
| Bruce Plante | Hermantown | 547-197-23 |
| Tom Saterdalen | Bloomington Jefferson | 545-167-21 |
| Mark Loahr | Totino-Grace | 538-335-31 |
| Wes Bolin | Woodbury | 537-434-46 |
| Cliff Thompson | Eveleth | 534-269-29 |
| Gordy Genz | Roseville | 529-261-23 |
| Curt Giles | Edina | 524-165-29 |