A new era of baseball has begun at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School (SPFHS). Long-time manager Tom Baylock left the SPFHS baseball program after ending last season’s campaign. He’s leaving with seven seasons as manager under his belt.
With Baylock now gone, the baseball program’s new leader is Joseph Higgins. Higgins looks to take over a team that battled in a tough conference to reach an 11-12 record. Although there is a new change at the helm, the team is in good hands with Higgins.
After graduating college, Higgins went to coach the junior varsity team at St. Joe’s (Metuchen). Recognized for his great work at the private school, he came over to Scotch Plains. After some time with the team as an assistant, it is now his turn to take charge.
“I plan on coaching baseball for as long as I can,” said Higgins. “Now, with many years of experience as an assistant, I wanted to take more of a leadership role.”
Even with the departure of Baylock, Higgins will still implement some of Baylock’s coaching techniques. “I take a lot of what Coach Baylock did in terms of preparing the team with me into my job as head coach.  He was a master of planning practices and having ideas about how to be flexible when situations change.”
While Higgins has been taking notes from his predecessor, he wants to bring a new culture to the locker room, “As head coach, I plan to lead the team with a one-day-at-a-time approach,” said Higgins. “I have high expectations for the players every day at practice.”
What one could conclude from this is that Higgins is ready to make this his team and help guide them toward winning ways.
And what is the best thing about Higgins? His confidence in his team. “I want the players to know that they can trust what I teach them and in turn, that I can trust them to give their best effort,” said Higgins.
Higgins is ready to step into the manager role and lead the team to victory. In his debut season, Scotch Plains isn’t looking to miss a beat.