The friendship of two longtime baseball coaches was shaped over decades in the Catholic League

For most of the year, Jim DiGuiseppe and Joe DeBarberie are standing in opposing dugouts. But for a few weeks each year, they’re on the same team as co-managers for the Catholic League in the annual Carpenter Cup.

It’s an 18-year standing tradition between the pair to put aside their different allegiances — DiGuiseppe to Archbishop Wood and DeBarberie to Bonner-Prendergast — in favor of representing the Catholic League in the tournament.

The Carpenter Cup, a tournament that features the top players from leagues across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, had not seen a PCL win since 2005. That was until June 8, when the pair helped lead the PCL to its first title in 21 years.

The Catholic League team will be honored at the Phillies game on Aug. 4 for its victory.

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“It was a really good mix of players that understood that we hadn’t won in a while, and I think really took it to heart,” DeBarberie said. “There was a little bit of strategy in there, and I think we did a good job of doing that, it just fell the way we thought it was going to.”

DiGuiseppe was head coach at Wood from 1995-2011, having joined the coaching staff a few years earlier when his son was on the team. DeBarberie began as an assistant coach with Bonner-Prendie in 2005 (while it was Monsignor Bonner) and took over as head coach from 2008-18.

Despite sporting different shades of green and gold, the pair are longtime friends off the diamond and share a lot in common.

They both were head coaches for more than a decade, they both saw their sons take over the helm when they stepped down, they both continue to serve in assistant coaching roles, and they share a love for the Catholic League.

When DiGuiseppe’s son, Jim DiGuiseppe Jr., the current head coach at Wood, took over as the general manager for the Carpenter Cup team, he thought that his dad and DeBarberie would serve as unbiased managers for an all-star team.

And even though the two spend most of the year in the backseat, DiGuiseppe Jr. said, the two stepped into the lead role “like riding a bike,” with the background and credentials to support their positions.

“I think our league as a whole genuinely benefits from the structure of that and having guys like that,” DiGuiseppe Jr. said.

Through their many years together, the pair hasn’t rubbed off much on each other in terms of personality. DiGuiseppe is more outspoken, while DeBarberie is quieter. But the dynamic works for them.

“I’m fiery, I usually am on the field running, and he does all the paperwork and gives me all the knowledge that he can impart, but yeah, we’re a little different,” DiGuiseppe said.

DiGuiseppe’s passion is hereditary. Most people warn against working with family, but DiGuiseppe has been his son’s assistant for longer than his son served his dad.

In the dugout, the two get very animated during games, but it comes from a place of love and passion. Last season, DiGuiseppe Jr. became the winningest coach in Wood’s history with his 204th win. His father previously held the record with 203.

“The joke of it is that we struggled early. It took me 17 years to win about 210. He won about 220,” the elder DiGuiseppe said. “[But] you always want your son to do better.”

As for DeBarberie, with the amount of strategy that goes into the Carpenter Cup — making sure everyone is playing the correct number of innings and managing pitch counts — the knowledge he imparts comes in handy.

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His son, Steve DeBarberie, the current head coach at Bonner, said this happens during the season with the Friars as well.

“The knowledge of having him in certain situations is invaluable,” Steve DeBarberie said. “When he’s up on the varsity staff he’ll just have little tidbits for me and put some stuff in my ear, to look out for it, to game plan for later on in the game because he sees stuff that not a lot of people see. He’s very intuitive and is always thinking ahead of the next steps.”

This year, thinking ahead included setting the tone early with highly competitive players throughout the league. DeBarberie said they reminded the athletes that the competition they once harbored during the season was behind them and for the duration of the Carpenter Cup, they were all working toward a shared goal.

DiGuiseppe and DeBarberie served as the exemplars for that.

“Respect among the coaches is also transferred to the players on the various teams, and I think the fact that the Catholic League means a lot to us as coaches, kids also get that vibe,” DeBarberie said. “They understand that yes, you’re going to compete, that’s fine, but there’s no need for animosity — we’re all part of what we feel is the best league in the area.”

There’s a “coaching fraternity in the Catholic League,” says DeBarberie.

Along with DeBarberie and DiGuiseppe, Conwell Egan’s Jeff Manto, Neumann Goretti’s Nick Nardini, Lansdale Catholic’s Brian Ferko, St. Joseph’s Prep’s Jimmy Stinsman, and DiGuiseppe Jr. were members of the coaching staff for the Carpenter Cup.

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Both DiGuiseppe and DeBarberie were PCL Honorary Coach Award recipients for their 10 years of service as a head coach. When DiGuiseppe was honored in 2024, DeBarberie presented the award to him. This year, when DeBarberie received the honor, DiGuiseppe Jr. presented it.

“Their personalities are very different, yet at the same time, they’re extremely close, not just in baseball, but off the field,” DiGuiseppe Jr. said. “Our families get together for dinner.”

Along with the friendship they formed from their time in the league, DiGuiseppe and DeBarberie also share an appreciation for a league that means “everything” to them.

“We think that this is the best league around, just everything about it,” DeBarberie said. “Even when we’re not playing or we lost in the playoffs or whatever, and other teams are going on, I’m rooting for the other Catholic League teams to win. It’s just been such a big part from a baseball standpoint of our lives.”