Since moving from assistant to head baseball coach in 2012, Kevin Kerins has had a powerful effect on the team. Over the past four years, Mercer’s season records have steadily increased from 29 wins in 2012, to last season’s record-setting 40 and 8, which included a trip to the Division Two World Series.
Currently sitting at 25 and 9 on the year, this season’s group is making the success continue.
“We have several games coming up as well as the postseason,” said Kerins, who is, himself, a former Mercer student athlete.
After graduating from Steinert High School, Kerins attended Mercer in 2000 and played on the baseball team during his only semester on the West Windsor campus. After leaving Mercer, Kerins attended The College of New Jersey where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Technology Education, and later obtained his masters degree from Ball State University in 2007.
Now working as a teacher at Edison High School in Edison, New Jersey, Kerins told The VOICE in a recent interview that he believes being a former student athlete as well as an educator gives him a unique perspective on those he educates.
“I understand the academic components necessary to be successful and the challenges student athletes face.” Kerins said.
Subsequently, Kerins has been able to use teaching models from both in the classroom and on the field to further help the student athletes he associates with,
“Our baseball program and academic plan is constantly evolving, and player specific.” said Kerins.
“Over the past two seasons, we’ve had a 97 percent academic retention rate in our baseball program.” Kerins added.
But Kerins’ hard work on and off the baseball diamond has not only had a positive effect on the team’s overall success, it has also earned him some hardware.
Following Mercer’s 2014 season, Kerins took home his second straight Region 19 Coach of the Year award, as well as the Northeast Coach of the Year award.
Kerins’ success as coach has garnered the attention both from his competitor teams and from his own home athletics department.
“He has first-hand experience of how the team should be run,” Mercer Athletic Director John Simone told The VOICE. He continued, saying: “He has a good vision of how he wants the program to be viewed and maintained, and works hard and pays attention to detail.”
Kerins says coaching the team is his dream job.
He says, “As a player and coach, my experiences here have taught me to challenge myself everyday, and constantly build and grow towards the future.”
