Michael Santoro, North’s new head baseball coach, is used to winning big.
During his junior and senior years, he helped lead Steinert to state titles for Group IV and served as captain in his senior year. He was named to Second Team All-State and was also named All CVC for his role as the team’s catcher. Santoro then played for his American Legion baseball team, which made it to the world series.
Now Santoro is hoping to build a young Knights team into a competitive squad — one that will inevitably have to face his alma mater every season.
A lot of people have been asking Santoro about his feelings on returning to Steinert — as an opponent. Steinert is where he had “some of the best memories of my life.”
“My time at Steinert is something I will always be proud of because we were so successful, but I am starting a new chapter in my life as a coach, and I would like to carry that same success over as a coach,” he said.
Santoro grew up in Hamilton and attended school there his whole life. His mother works for the Client Protection Fund, and his father, now retired, worked as a truck driver. Santoro played baseball at Monmouth University, where he stayed for a year before transferring to West Chester University. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree and his teaching certification in 2004.
He has served as North’s junior varsity coach for the past five years. This is his sixth year working in the WW-P district as a health and physical education teacher at North. He currently lives in Ewing.
Bob Boyce announced last summer that he was resigning as head coach of the team after having accomplished his goal of building the program into a consistently successful team. Boyce, a calculus teacher at the school, remained in his teaching position, as well as his position as head coach for the girls’ basketball team.
Boyce said he made the decision after thinking about the rigors of teaching calculus and serving as head coach of back-to-back sports teams. He said he wanted to focus on building up the girls’ basketball team.
Santoro, meanwhile, is busy preparing the North baseball team for the upcoming season, which begins on Friday, April 1, and is ready for the challenge.
Because he already knows the players from his time as a junior varsity coach, it will help him in the transition to head coach.
“I coached them all at some point, and I do know their strengths and weaknesses,” he said. “I know what Bob Boyce established, and I’m trying to add to it. We’re very young and inexperienced at the varsity level. But we have guys who can step up and compete.”
There are only two returning starting seniors this year — the shortstop and third baseman. There are also two pitchers returning from last year. “Everybody else is pretty much either role players at the varsity level, or they were with me at JV,” he said.
Santoro said he feels the team’s pitching will carry the team a long way. “Right now it’s a work in progress, but I think we’ll be OK. With regard to fielding, if we can develop fundamentally, it will help us.”
The good thing for Santoro is that his players like to work hard to get better. “They don’t want to just stay at a level they’ve been at before; they want to improve their game,” he said.
The team’s first game is scheduled for Friday, April 1, at 4 p.m. at home against Lawrence.
