Jersey City, NJ - Saint Peter's College Director of Athletics William A. Stein announced that Derek England is the new head baseball coach.
England, who has experience as a Division I player and assistant coach, comes to Saint Peter's after five seasons as a successful high school head coach. He replaces Jimmy Walsh, who resigned recently after three seasons as head coach of the Peacocks.
A product of nearby Hoboken, NJ, England graduated from XavierHigh School in Manhattan. He went on to Columbia University, graduating in 1994 and later earned his master's of education from Columbia in 1997. At Columbia, he was a four-year member of the baseball team, playing regularly as a junior and starting fulltime in the outfield as a senior.
From 1997 to 1999, England was an assistant coach at Columbia,where he worked to develop the skills of the players at Columbia and was involved in the nationwide recruitment of prospective players for Columbia.
For the past five seasons, he has been a high school head coach in Jersey City, producing a career record of 74 wins and 48 losses. He coached County Prep to a combined 21-21 record in 2000 and 2001 and then led Hudson Catholic High School for three years, with a combined record of 53-27. His teams reached the Hudson County championship game each of the last two seasons, defeating Bayonne for the 2004 HCIAA crown a year after losing the 2003 title game to Memorial of West New York. Hudson Catholic was 19-10 this season after posting a 20-7 record in 2003. He was selected by the Hudson Reporter as its 2004 Coach of the Year.
Employed by the Hoboken Board of Education as a social studiesteacher, England has spent his summers since 1999 as the Hoboken Connie Mack Baseball (age 17 and 18) head coach. His teams have won five straight Connie Mack District titles and they were the New Jersey state Connie Mack champion in 2002.
Saint Peter's, which this year celebrated the 10th anniversaryof its 1994 MAAC baseball championship, finished the 2004 season with an overall record of 8-34 and finished tied for ninth in the 10-team MAAC with a 4-23 conference record.