Varsity baseball coach Bill Dennehy says the secret of his success is simple: "Good kids." In this, the 125th year of baseball at Exeter, his team won the league title.

Not everyone jumps out of bed in the morning eager to get to work, but Eric Bergofsky, Hilary Coder and Bill Dennehy do. Although the three have been coaching at Exeter for a combined total of 78 years, they haven't lost that up-and-at-'em enthusiasm.

"I don't know too many people who can leave the house in the morning and be pretty excited. That happens to me every single day," says Dennehy, head coach of the baseball and boys soccer teams and an assistant coach in boys ice hockey, now in his 32nd year at Exeter.

Coder, celebrating her 20th year as an Exeter coach, echoes Dennehy's comments. "I've never had a day where I've gotten up and said, 'I don't want to go to work,' " says Coder, who coaches track and field and girls soccer. "I've never had a single day."

Bergofsky, a mathematics instructor and boys lacrosse coach who arrived here in 1977, is similarly motivated. "To be honest with you, I see myself doing this until it doesn't become fun anymore," he says. "I just can't see myself not doing it until I'm ready to hang it up and retire. And I hope that'll be a long time."

Coaching longevity is the rule, not the exception at Exeter. In addition to Bergofsky, Coder and Dennehy, seven other varsity head coaches-Jean Chase Farnum (who coaches girls swimming and diving, as well as tennis), Rick Mahoney (girls basketball), George Mangan (golf), Kathy Nekton (girls lacrosse), Roger Nekton (boys swimming and diving, and waterpolo), Rick Parris (girls cross country) and Malcolm Wesselink (boys basketball)-have at least two decades of continuous service at the school.

It's already been a long stretch for Bergofsky, Coder and Dennehy, who have shared not only longevity, but success. Between them, they have won New England titles, produced All-Americans and national champions, and sent scores of athletes on to the college ranks-and beyond. What's their secret? According to them, it all starts with Exeter's precious raw material.

"Good kids," says Dennehy, whose 2003 team-the 125th in Exeter history-won the Central New England Prep School Baseball League title. "Sometimes they're great athletes, and sometimes they're not, but they always give everything they have."

Taking It to the Next Level

"With track and field, it's a little bit like opening up a present," says Hilary Coder, whose girls team won the New England championship this spring. "Some of these kids never knew they were athletes before. It's Christmas every day."

How they help those students become better athletes is one way Coder, Bergofsky and Dennehy measure success. "With track and field, it's a little bit like opening up a present," says Coder, whose girls track and field team won the New England championship this spring. "Some of these kids never knew they were athletes before. It's Christmas every day."

Every Exeter athlete comes in a different wrapper, however. "Whatever skill level and knowledge of the game a player comes to you with, you want to increase it," Bergofsky says. "We want to take them to the next level. So that's the goal-come into the program, have a good time when you're doing it. Part of enjoying yourself is to win."

Bergofsky's lacrosse program has done plenty of that. This year's team played a highly competitive schedule and finished 10-6, bringing his career mark to 225-134. "We've had such great people in the program before I got here," Bergofsky says. "It's my role currently, as the steward of the program, to keep that tradition going. And I take a lot of pride in that."

This veteran coaching trio knows what to expect of athletes juggling sports with academics and other activities at Exeter. "You've got to take those things into account," Coder says. "You can't be [overworking] kids when they've got all that stuff going on. Knowing what's going on in the classroom really helps. That's one of the things that I've had to work hard at, staying in touch with the rhythm of the school."

All three came to Exeter in their 20s-Dennehy and Coder fresh out of Springfield College and Penn State, respectively, and Bergofsky after a year in the business world and four more teaching and coaching at the McDonogh School in his native Baltimore. Luck played some role in each of them getting here.

"[In] sixth grade, I knew this was what I wanted to do. I think that's really weird," says Coder, who was recruited for the Exeter physical education faculty and coaching staff by Kathy Nekton, another Penn Stater. "I was 21 years old when I first got here. It was really luck on my part."

Dennehy, another physical education teacher, was also fortunate. "A friend of mine at Springfield told me about an opening here," Dennehy recalls. "I didn't even know what to expect. I really was not much aware of prep schools. I'd been looking at some small-college opportunities."

Bergofsky, who had been part of a national championship lacrosse team at Johns Hopkins, had taken an engineering job after graduation. "Hitting the working world and sitting behind a desk 8-5 every day was just a shock," says Bergofsky, who escaped to McDonogh, then sent an unsolicited résumé to Exeter and was hired. "I missed being around competition and being around sports. The idea of teaching wasn't completely foreign, because my mother was a teacher."

Measuring Success

"Whatever skill level and knowledge of the game a player comes to you with, you want to increase it," says boys lacrosse coach Eric Bergofsky, whose career record stands at 225-134.

None of the three is the same coach today that he or she was when arriving on the Exeter campus for the first time. "I don't think you can ever be the same as you were. When you're in your 20s, the kids feel connected to you. When you get older, they're suspicious," says Dennehy, laughing. "I don't pontificate on anything with them. I do try to get them to appreciate country music.

"I'm much more mellow. I still have trouble when we lose. I think a coach always measures success in terms of wins and losses, but as you get beyond the season, that quickly fades. I've had some teams that were not very successful at all in terms of wins and losses, but some of those kids are the ones that come back all the time and see me, and we maintain a close kind of friendship. And they're doing great things."

Despite her years of valuable coaching experience and successes, Coder's humility remains intact. "I think I've continued to realize how little I know, and that's helpful," Coder says. "I am more comfortable with addressing kids up-front. That's the thing that I didn't have as a young coach.

"They want to know why they're doing what they're doing. They want the big picture. Sometimes, that's too much information for a kid, but these kids need as much information as possible."

Bergofsky sometimes imparts information to his players by borrowing from his math class. "We'll be out there and we'll be talking about something and I'll say, 'You want to be sliding over here on the chord of this circle, not on the arc of this circle. This is the angle that we want to work this at,' " Bergofsky says. "I'll throw some mathematics out there, and the kids will chuckle about that. The kids like that."

No more than these coaches seem to like their jobs. "I'm in an incredible situation, and I'm really lucky to be here, working with the kids I work with," Coder says. "This is like Nirvana. It really is. They're kids who want to learn."

For Dennehy, the story always begins and ends with the players. "They've been great kids, and they've made me laugh and made me cry," Dennehy said. "I've been the luckiest guy in the world. People tell me I have the best job in America. And I know it."

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