Daniel Olear, the former head baseball coach at Division I-Saint Peter’s College and a two-year standout baseball student-athlete for the Gothic Knights in the early 1990s, enters his second year of his second stint as an assistant coach with the New Jersey City University baseball program in 2005. In addition to his duties as assistant coach, he serves as the club’s recruiting coordinator.
Olear joined Ken Heaton’s staff in time for the 2004 campaign. He served as the head coach at SPC from 1998-2001, winning 22 games in three years, despite taking over a Peacocks program that hadn’t recruited well for years before he was appointed. Olear made strides to turn the SPC program around, winning 10 games in 1999, while recruiting many young players to the program during his tenure.
Olear was hired at Saint. Peter’s after rebuilding the Union County College program when he coached at the Cranford, NJ school from 1995-98. He amassed a three-year ledger of 38-54. UCC went 9-21 in 1995 and 12-21 in 1996, before his rebuilding efforts paid dividends when he led the Owls to a 17-12 record in his final season in 1997.
Olear also has held assistant coaching positions at Roselle Catholic High School (1995) and Marist High School (1993). At Marist, he guided the freshman team at the Bayonne-based school to a 10-12 mark in his first coaching position, and performed scouting duties for varsity head coach Mike Hogan during the state tournament. He previously served a year as an assistant for Heaton at then-Jersey City State College in 1994.
After playing one season of intercollegiate baseball on the Division I level for Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, (1985-87), Olear transferred to JCSC and played the final two years of his career for Heaton from 1991-92, and did his talking at the plate.
Olear graduated as one of the top hitters in school history, and currently ranks eighth in school history in career batting average. A lifetime .342 hitter for the Knights, he went 79-for-231 with 42 runs, 10 doubles, a triple, and 38 RBIs while playing in 64 games, and starting 63 of them. He also walked 17 times, and was 7-for-9 in stolen base attempts. A terrific contact hitter, he struck out only 16 times in his career—or just 6.5 percent of his total plate appearances. An unselfish player, Olear also contributed six sacrifices.
As a junior in 1991, he hit .351 (34-for-97) with 17 runs, three doubles, 16 RBIs, three steals (3-for-4) and 11 walks, while starting 30 games.
His production increased his senior year in 1992. While hitting .336 (45-for-134) and starting in 33 of 34 games, he scored 25 times, and added seven doubles, one triple, 22 RBIs, six walks, and four steals (4-for-5), striking out just seven times.
After his playing days ended at JCSC, Olear had the rare opportunity to land his first post-collegiate job in professional baseball—at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. He spent four months as an intern with the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Library as a research librarian.
A 1994 graduate of JCSC with a B.S. in Business Administration, he has taken graduate courses at both SPC and NJCU, and is in the process of completing requirements towards his master’s degree.
Olear is a 1985 graduate of Roselle Catholic, where he was a four-year letter-winner in baseball and soccer. While playing baseball with the Lions for coach Jeff Ryan, he earned All-Metro honors by batting .410. He also spent more than seven summers playing for the Cranford Rockies in the semipro Essex County Baseball League.
When not coaching, Olear, 37, is employed as a teacher of the handicapped at Jersey City’s Dickinson High School, where he has worked the last three years. An avid New York Yankees fan, Olear’s hobbies include baseball and skydiving. He currently resides in Union, NJ with his wife, Susan.
