Maher returns for fourth term

By SHAUN CHORNOBROFF / For Jersey Baseball Nation

Jim Maher’s reputation precedes him in the Mercer County baseball community. Through leading multiple programs to success, being an assistant coach for a MAAC Championship team at Rider University, a Division I school in the county and having a plethora of success down to the Little League level, it’s a name that comes with respect for good reason.

The New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Hall of Fame doesn’t just come calling without good reason. Maher is a 2018 inductee.

That expertise is something Mike Suosso saw personally as a player when Maher led Nottingham from a team that was a bottom feeder, winning 10 combined games in his freshman and sophomore seasons to 19 wins in his final season.

“Winning always comes to mind when talking about him, said Suosso, who graduated from Nottingham in 2016 and went on to play college baseball at Cabrini University. He loves competing, brings it every day.”

Maher stepped down as Nottingham head coach after the 2019 season. Less than a 15 minute drive from there, Lawrence won a mere five games in 20 opportunities last season and hasn’t had a winning season since 1998. Heading into the 2023 season the Cardinals have a young core with some standout talent with Maher, a veteran of reversing a program's fortunes, now at the helm.

“I’m excited about the challenge; it’s a program that’s had some growing pains,” Maher said of his newest gig. “But there are some good young players there. And I think there’s a nucleus there and a foundation to turn things around pretty quickly.”

When Maher stepped down at Nottingham in 2019, it was on the heels of a rare down season as a high school head coach and he was expected to take over the program at Cumberland County Community College. However, nearly three hours of daily round-trip travel ultimately caused him to change his mind.

Now the Director of Baseball at Centercourt in Lawrence, Maher has spent the last three years as an assistant to former player Mike Moceri at Hamilton West, where Maher led the Hornets to the 2000 state Group 3 title.

Maher said he had conversations in the last few years about returning. But when Rider pitching coach Mike Petrowski – Maher’s pitching coach at Nottingham – filled him in on the potential at Lawrence, it really piqued his interest.

“I still have that energy to do it,” Maher said. “I still have that fire to win and build something,” said Maher, who coached at Florence, in addition to Hamilton West and Nottingham.

Maher said he will have three assistants who have played under him in the past. Two of them were stars of his rebuild at Nottingham - Ronnie Voacolo, a 2022 NAIA National Champion at Southeastern University and Suosso, who was an assistant with Nottingham last year, but departed his alma mater to reunite with his former coach.

“I was pumped right away,” Suosso said. “It’s hard to say no to something like that, to be a part of a situation that’s similar to what we had at Nottingham and to learn from him. It’s hard to say no to that.”

There are some similarities between the situation at Lawrence and that of Nottingham when Maher took over. Nottingham had won five games in each of the two seasons preceding Maher’s arrival, the same amount Lawrence did last year. In Maher’s first season in 2015, with a youthful team, he won 12 games and upset Steinert, his alma mater in the first round of the state tournament. The next three seasons, Maher won a combined 60 games, a Central Group III Title and made two appearances in the final of the Mercer County Tournament.

With a pitcher in Kellen Moore who is committed to Lafayette and what he described as some exciting younger talent, Maher envisions success in the near future. If history repeats itself, it won’t be long until the Lawrence Cardinals are feared in the Mercer County area.

“Obviously, Number 1 is you (have) to have some players,” Maher said. “But Number 2, it’s having enthusiasm every day you come to the park,” said Maher. “You give 100% in every drill, every swing, every game rep. It’s being confident when you're in tough situations, but again, you have to have some players.”