It has been a summer of goodbye for Gotham area college baseball, as two long-time Division III head coaches, Jeff Albies of William Paterson, and Rick Dell of The College of New Jersey, have stepped down from their positions. Albies has announced his retirement, while Dell has taken a position with Major League Baseball.
It has been a summer of goodbye for Gotham area college baseball, as two long-time Division III head coaches, Jeff Albies of William Paterson, and Rick Dell of The College of New Jersey, have stepped down from their positions. Albies has announced his retirement, while Dell has taken a position with Major League Baseball.
Albies, a member of both the ABCA and the William Paterson University Alumni Association Athletic Halls of Fame, the 26-time Coach of the Year honoree finishes his career ranked eighth overall and sixth among active Division III coaches in victories (862), and 21st overall and 20 th among active coaches in winning percentage (.680). The only New Jersey Division III coach to earn 850 career victories, he is one of just three Garden State college baseball coaches to reach that milestone (Mike Sheppard, Seton Hall, 1973-2003, 998-540-11; Fred Hill, Sr., Montclair State/Rutgers, 1977-present, 935-578-8).
Albies led the Pioneers to the 1992 and 1996 NCAA Division III national championships, six NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional titles (1982, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999) and the 1985 NCAA South Atlantic Regional crown. Seven times a participant in the College World Series (1982, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999), William Paterson qualified for the NCAA Tournament 18 times during Albies’ tenure (1977, 1981-89, 1991-93, 1995-99) and won 11 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) championships (1982-83, 1986-89, 1991-93, 1996-97).
Twenty-eight of his former players earned All-America status by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), and 31 Pioneers went on to play professionally, including former New York Yankee Dan Pasqua (’82) and former Baltimore Oriole Bruce Dostal (’88). Six NJAC Players of the Year, five Pitchers of the Year and three Rookies of the Year benefited from Albies’ instruction, while seven different Pioneers were named the New Jersey College Baseball Association (NJCBA) Division II/III Player of the Year and five earned the organization’s Pitcher of the Year award.
Dell announced his resignation from the TCNJ to accept a position as the Director of Baseball Operations in Asia for Major League Baseball and will be based in Bejing, China. Dell will assume his new role on September 1, but will continue working on international programs throughout the summer in China.
The 2007 season marked the 25th full season for Rick Dell as head coach of TCNJ’s baseball team. In the summer of 1995, Dell had been the head coach of two of TCNJ’s most successful men’s athletic teams: the men’s soccer and baseball teams. Dell has accumulated over 800 career wins at TCNJ, having accumulated 19 NCAA Tournament berths. He was already the College’s all-time leader in baseball, and ended his men’s soccer coaching career as the College’s all-time victory leader having produced a 182-60-23 record during his 14 seasons at the helm of the program. He served as the Lions’ skipper for 1049 games including the 2007 season.
Since 1989 Dell has spent his summers instructing baseball players in abroad training amateur and professional teams in Italy, Germany, Estonia, Australia, and New Zealand with the United States Baseball Federation and Major League Baseball International. Ten years ago, Dell was named the director of the Greater Philadelphia Christmas Baseball Camp. In 1996, Dell added Indonesia to his list of travels while working for USA Baseball.
In 1999, he traveled to the Philippines and New Zealand, while serving as a coordinator for game development in Asia/Pacific for Major League Baseball. Six summers ago, he became the first representative from Major League Baseball to go into China, while serving as a coordinator for game development in both Asia and the Pacific. Ten years ago, Dell was selected to serve as a clinic leader for Major League Baseball International European Tour, which was held in Scandinavia in 1997. Three years ago, he became the first Major League Baseball representative to go to Uzbekistan and India and did extensive work in India.
Two summers ago, he was selected by Major League Baseball as part of the European Elite Academy with Jim Lefebrve, Bruce Hurst, Lee Smith, and Rod Carew. He also led MLB’s trip to Cambodia in July of 2005 and this past year traveled to Tirrenia, Italy for three weeks on the staff with the Major League Baseball European Academy. He also traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam to meet with political and university officials. He finished the trip by conducting a summit meeting in Manila, Philippines for the country’s baseball leaders.
The NJAC is not going to look the same without Dell and Albies patrolling the dugouts in 2008. Personally, WPU baseball without Jeff Albies is like the Yankees without pinstripes, it just does not look, or feel right. Having worked with Coach Albies when I was a student at WPU back in the early 1980s, I saw first-hand the talented teams he put together. WPU will never have a coach do a finer job between the lines.
In covering college baseball, Gotham Baseball relies on the help of the men and women of the Sports Information offices at the various schools we cover. St. John’s University’s Dustin Hockensmith, an assistant who was GB’s primary baseball contact, has resigned his position to go into private enterprise, which includes, opening his own fantasy sports website www.fantasysports101.com.
The site, which has not yet had its grand opening, will compete for readership to some extent with Gotham Baseball. But that does not stop us from wishing Dustin the best in his new endeavor. There is always room for online for a little competition from a class act.
