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HOF Coach Maher Takes Over at Lawrence

With more than 400 wins, a state title, three sectional crowns and much more to his credit, Maher tries to turn around a program that's struggled to win.
HOF Coach Maher Takes Over at Lawrence

Centercourt Lawrence Director of Baseball Operations Jim Maher has accomplished a great deal in his Hall of Fame coaching career.

But that doesn’t mean he’s ready for it to be over.

With 427 wins, a state title, three sectional crowns,, nine sectional championship game appearances, and a Carpenter Cup title in a career that has included stops at Florence, Hamilton, and Nottingham, Maher was inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018. He led Hamilton to its only state baseball title in 2000 and Nottingham to its only sectional crown in 2016.

Maher has also won a Little League state title at Nottingham, made three consecutive Babe Ruth World Series appearances with Nottingham Babe Ruth, and managed the Trenton Generals to the 2014 ACBL Championship. He has served as a college assistant at the D1 (Rider University), D2 (Barton College), and D3 (then Trenton State College, now The College of New Jersey) levels.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t want one more shot to create something special.

Last night, Maher was approved by the Lawrence Township School Board and appointed as the new Lawrence High head coach for the 2022-23 school year. It’s an exciting move for a Lawrence program that hasn’t had a winning season since 1998.

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But Mike Petrowski, now the pitching coach at Rider and former pitching coach under Maher at Nottingham, has worked numerous clinics with the Lawrence youth programs and saw the talent coming up through the school system. He piqued Maher’s interest in the job and the possibilities there, as did the vision of LHS Principal David Adam and athletic director Anthony Ammirata.

Maher stepped down at Nottingham after the 2019 season. This will be the first time he has coached in the Colonial Valley Conference outside of Hamilton Township. Of particular interest will be games against Hopewell Valley (coach Ken Harrison’s son plays for the Centercourt Makos), Hightstown (coach James Pugliese played for Maher’s teams that reached three straight Babe Ruth World Series), Steinert (coach Brian Giallella and Maher have a long history), and, of course, Hamilton, as Maher has assisted head coach Mike Moceri since he stepped down with the Northstars.