Rutgers Prep Athletics

Mary Klinger enters her 28th year as head coach of the Argonauts. Under her direction the team has gone 429 - 193, winning 9 NJISAA Prep B State Championships and 3 Somerset County Championships. Klinger has been an active member of the WBCA & McDonald's All-American Selection Committees. This past season she was named the McDonald's All-American East Coach. During the spring Klinger directs the NIKE Skills Academy for the East Coast. Klinger was recently named to the WBCA Board of Directors.  During the summer she co-directs the NIKE National Basketball Tournament in Augusta Georgia. She was a member of the Rutgers University Womens Basketball Team that won the AIAW National Championship in 1982. Her induction into the RU Womens Basketball Hall of Fame capped off a wonderful career at Rutgers. Klinger was inducted into the New Jersey's Sports Writers Hall of Fame in 2009. Klinger resides in Franklin Park with her husband Jim and son Mike.

Matthew "Shifty" Shifman, RPS '72, has been coaching girls basketball at Rutgers Prep for 22 seasons. In that time, there have been 18 consecutive winning seasons, which included eleven  20 win campaigns, 9 Prep B State Titles, and 3 Somerset County Championships. Aside from RPS hoops, Shifty is a huge fan and supporter of all women's basketball, especially the UConn Huskies. For your reading pleasure he would recommend: A Sense of Where You Are by John McPhee, In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais, and In Pursuit of Perfection by Geno Auriemma.

Scott Neal is in his 3rd season as an assistant for the Girls Varsity Basketball program. He was previously the head coach of the boys' varsity basketball team (3 years) at Rutgers Prep and also served as an assistant to Dick "Oke" O'Connell for 7 years. In this time, Scott coached six 1,000 point scorers, 7 players who played in college, was a part of two NJISAA State Championship teams and numerous Patriot Conference Championship teams. Scott is a graduate of Bethany College and Saint Joseph's University. He has been teaching at RPS for 21 years and is currently the Middle School Math Department Chair. He resides in South Brunswick with his wife Amy, daughter Katie and son John.

Bob Fusik is in his second season at Rutgers Prep. He comes to RPS after three seasons as an Assistant Coach for the Trenton Catholic Academy’s boys Varsity team, during which time they won the NJSIAA non-public State B Championship. Prior to TCA, Bob coached at MAYHS and led their boys to their first winning season, capturing a championship title in Montreal, Canada. Bob also brings with him 10 years of experience coaching in the AAU Arena. He has coached his U17 boys team to an AAU National Title and 2 USBA National titles in the last 5 years. Bob’s love of basketball has spread to his wife Melissa and their six children Robert, Cole, Brianna, Jeff, Sam and Jordan who are always in the gym with him.

Gia Liwski (formerly Bocra) spent 9 years as a student at Rutgers Prep graduating in 1994.  Gia played 4 years of varsity basketball under the tutelage of Mary Klinger and Matt Shifman.  Being the first female 1,000 point scorer at Prep, Gia was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in May 2008. While attending Rutgers University in New Jersey, Gia was captain of the women’s golf team while earning a degree in Journalism.  Presently, Gia is an LPGA Class A Teaching Professional at Hamilton Farm Golf  Club in Gladstone, NJ.  Gia and her husband Chris live in Peapack, NJ.