Marc Narducci: Doing one job turns into another

Jaime Steward was being diligent, helping some of his players with recruiting when, to his surprise, he became a recruit himself.

Steward, the head baseball coach at Paul VI in 2008, called Rider University baseball coach Barry Davis last month to promote a few of his players.

Shortly after, he received a recruiting pitch that was difficult to turn down.

Rider needed a pitching coach after Jim Carone left for the same position at Villanova in mid-September.

Two days after their initial conversation, Davis and Steward talked again by phone. Davis eventually offered Steward the job of pitching coach.

"I was caught off-guard, and the whole thing kind of stunned me," said the 29-year-old Steward, a former all-South Jersey pitcher from Gloucester Catholic.

Though Steward accepted the offer, he was torn because he spent only one season as Paul VI's head coach. Still, he said he couldn't pass up the great opportunity to teach his craft on the college level.

"I felt like I was bailing out on the kids, and it took me a couple of days to decide," Steward said. "In the end, I knew I had to take it because there aren't many opportunities that come like this locally."

Steward, who is married and lives in Blackwood, didn't want to leave the area, so this job provided the best of both worlds. It also will allow him to continue running his delivery business.

Davis had known Steward from his high school days. From 1990 to 2000, Davis was the head coach at Gloucester County College, where he won four national championships in 11 seasons. Davis then went 137-87 in four seasons at Georgia Southwestern State, an NAIA school.

This is his fifth season at Rider. Last year, Davis guided the Broncs to the NCAA tournament after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

So Steward will work under somebody who knows a little bit about what it takes to field a winning program.

"You can't imagine how much I've learned from Barry in the short time I've been here," Steward said.

Davis understands that while Steward doesn't have much coaching experience, his playing resume speaks for itself.

A lefthander, Steward earned a baseball scholarship to Division I LeMoyne, where he graduated in 2001. As a college senior, Steward went 8-4 with a 2.15 ERA and was drafted in the 39th round by the Anaheim (now Los Angeles) Angels.

He played two seasons of minor league ball with the Angels before being released in the spring of 2003. He later played two years of independent ball for the Camden Riversharks before competing one final season with the Atlantic City Surf in 2006.

"He pitched for a quality high school program, played college in this league, and pitched well and was drafted more on hard work and determination than physical tools," Davis said. "The players can relate to him."

So can Davis.

It took only one phone call for Davis to be convinced that the qualities that made Steward a successful player should translate into his coaching career.