The New York Jets have announced that Daniel Perez of Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been named this year's recipient of the New York Jets High School Coach of the Year Award. For his efforts, Perez will receive $2,000 to benefit his school's football program and he will be presented with a certificate from the Jets.
The award, in its 15th year, is given to a coach in the tristate area who serves the best interests of the game through the teaching of sound football fundamentals, the motivation of young players to achieve, and the promotion of youth football by way of dedication to the community, the school and the student-athletes.
A two-way lineman in his playing days, Perez began coaching as a volunteer at Fort Hamilton in 1997, just months after he graduated from the Brooklyn school and while attending Brooklyn College. In his first season as head coach after serving the previous seven as the defensive coordinator with the program, he helped guide the Tigers past the Lincoln Railsplitters, 8-6, in a matchup of two unbeaten teams for the Public Schools Athletic League championship on Tuesday, Dec. 7.
It was the Tigers' third city title in six years. Perez's defensive calls helped them win consecutive PSAL city titles in 2005 and 2006. He also helped Fort Hamilton to back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons the previous two years as an assistant under then-head coach Vincent Laino.
Perez graduated from Brooklyn College in 2001 with a degree in computer information systems and is a physical education teacher at Fort Hamilton.
