Stiefbold is a 1982 graduate of Verona High School, and the son of legendary VHS soccer coach George “Steppy” Stiefbold. Jeff Stiefbold served as volunteer assistant volleyball coach at VHS in 1987 after graduating East Stroudsburg University and then went on to be varsity volleyball coach at James Caldwell High School from 1988 to 2009.
He has a career record of 497 wins and 101 losses, as well as 15 conference championships, six Essex County championships and group state championships in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2009. Stiefbold had 54 All-Essex County players in 12 seasons and seven different players selected as First Team All-State. He was elected to the New Jersey School Coaches Association’s hall of fame in 2007. The VHS volleyball team had a 10-10 record this past season under Coach Christine Sepcie.
Steifbold will be one of several new faces around Verona sports next school year. Ken Lillien will be taking over the Verona-Glen Ridge hockey team, Christine Osborn will coach swimming and Pete Foster will take over wrestling from Don Morgenroth, who retired after 12 seasons with VHS. Chris Hardenberg, another VHS grad, will be joining Foster as JV wrestling coach. In addition, Kelly Flynn will be stepping up from JV to varsity coach for for both boys and girls tennis.
The record and the coach for the VHS volleyball team last season is inaccurate. Molli Dowd was the coach and the varsity team finished with a winning record