New Jersey City University Athletics

Jeremiah ‘Jerry’ Smith, Jr. has brought a personable, positive, energetic and strategic approach to collegiate baseball since being selected as the 11th head baseball coach in New Jersey City University history prior to the 2012 season. Since taking over the reins, the Gothic Knights have produced very competitive teams, award-winning players and generated a number of major upsets. Smith has surrounded himself with a dynamic combination of veteran and young and hungry assistant coaches and has extended NJCU’s recruiting base to include a large Central Jersey contingent to compliment the program’s traditionally fertile North Jersey reach.
 
In his first four years, the Knights won 60 games and been in nearly every outing. Pitching and offense has flourished under his watch. In 2013, Wendell Rodriguez became the program’s all-time winningest pitcher (15). In 2014, Delio Coutinho, a year removed from Tommy John surgery, surged into national prominence and onto potential draft boards when he struck out 78 batters (26th most in the country) while ranking sixth in Division III in strikeouts per nine innings (11.83). Coutinho became the first NJCU pitcher on record to have three efforts of 10+ strikeouts in a game in the same season.
 
Meanwhile, the 2015 club won 17 games and posted remarkable team and individual offensive numbers. The team scored 25 and 22 runs in games during the season. On April 29, 2015 in a 22-10 rout of CUNYAC champion Staten Island, NJCU amassed one of the greatest hitting performances in Division III history, annihilating the single-game school record for hits with 30—four more than the previous program record of 26, set in 1991 and matched in 2004. NJCU had 13 extra-base hits in the game including 11 doubles. Both are also single-game school records and the 11 doubles are one shy of the NCAA game mark. NJCU and Staten Island also broke the NCAA Division III single-game record for doubles by both teams with 16 (11 NJCU, 5 CSI). The previous record was 15, set in 1999 and matched in 2005.
 
That game was the epitome of the season as a whole. NJCU ranked No. 2 in the nation in stolen bases per game (3.03), 10th in stolen bases (112), 13th in walks (193), 18th in on-base percentage (.415) and 25th in scoring (7.8 runs per game).
 
Senior utility player Michael Martucci became NJCU’s all-time career hits leader with 199 and junior catcher Andrew Niech annihilated the previous career standard for doubles in just three seasons with 40 and counting. Meanwhile, senior first/third baseman Alex Weinstein enjoyed one of the finest individual seasons in school history, crushing generation-old records for doubles (22) and RBIs (50). Weinstein was a two-time NJAC Player of the Week and one of three players to claim D3baseball.com National Team of the Week distinction.
 
Smith’s staff has helped produce three All-Region selections, six All-New Jersey Athletic Conference picks and 13 New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association (NJCBA) All-Staters (two First-Teamers). The Knights have claimed 20 weekly NJAC awards and four Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Metro Player of the Week winners. The strong recruiting has been demonstrated by 14 players earning NJCBA All-Rookie Team accolades in the first four seasons of his stint in Jersey City.
 
The 2014 club had 20 of its 38 games decided by three runs or less, including 16 that resulted in a two-run or fewer margin and eight one-run games. Among the more notable results was a pair of 1-run road losses to then No. 6/7 ranked Kean University, including game two, which reached the 12th inning at a 0-0 deadlock.
 
The 2013 club won 17 games—only the ninth time in the first 66 years the club has won at least 17 contests before the 2015 season saw the feat repeated. Meanwhile, NJCU became the first Gothic Knight athletic program to ever knock off a team ranked No. 1 in Division III in any sport when it upended #1 Kean on April 13, 2013. For good measure, Smith’s club downed No. 19/21 Ramapo College later that season, 3-1. In all, 14 games were decided by two or less runs with seven by a single run.
 
The 2012 club played competitive ball from the first pitch. Of 39 games, 21 had the outcome decided by three or less runs with 19 by two or fewer and an eye-popping 10 one-run affairs.

Pre-NJCU
Smith, made the jump to the college level after seven successful seasons at JFK Memorial High School in Iselin, NJ, where he posted a 120-70 record (.632) from 2005-11, culminating in capturing the 2009 New Jersey Group III state championship and the North II, Group II state sectional crown. The 2009 Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) and 2008 Home News Tribune Coach of the Year, he guided the Mustangs to GMC division titles in 2008 and 2009.
 
Prior to taking the helm of the JFK program, he coached alongside his father, Jeremiah Smith, Sr. for four seasons from 2001-04 as JFK captured a pair of GMC division titles (2001, 2002). His father, now the athletic director at state powerhouse St. Joseph’s (Metuchen) High School, coached the program for 15 years and the father-son tandem combined for 366 wins in 22 years. Smith also served as the head varsity girls’ basketball coach at the school for four seasons (2007-11).
 
He has also enjoyed notable success coaching summer baseball. In six years as head coach of the JFK American Legion squad from 2000-05 he recorded a 124-52-3 record (.701 percentage). In 2001, he guided the club to a #2 ranking in the state while finishing third in the national regional tournament. He was named New Jersey’s American Legion Coach of the Year in 2001 for his efforts.
 
Smith is the former head coach of the Toms River Hurricanes of the ABCCL College Summer League, posting an 11-1 mark in his only season before coming to NJCU. He also had a stint as assistant coach at Union County College in 2000.
 

As a collegian, Smith played three seasons at Kean University from 1997-99 for former coach Jim Casalino and current head coach Neil Ioviero, playing right field, third base and first base. In 1997, he earned Honorable Mention All-New Jersey Athletic Conference honors as an outfielder and was a runner-up for the league’s Rookie of the Year. That season he batted .356 with 53 hits in 149 at bats in 39 games (39 starts), while scoring 28 runs and driving in 23 RBIs. He added 19 extra base hits (16 doubles, one triple, two homeruns) and 77 total bases with 15 walks, finishing with a .425 on-base percentage, .517 slugging percentage and .971 fielding percentage as Kean went 21-18. In 1998 as Kean began rising to prominence, he played in 22 games (15 starts) as the Cougars reached the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 1988 and only the second time in its history to that point in Ioviero’s first season at the Union, NJ school. Smith batted .268, adding 15 RBIs and a .433 on-base percentage as Kean posted a 25-9 record. After his junior season in 1999, Smith completed his active playing career to pursue coaching. Overall, Kean chalked up a 65-44 record in his three seasons with the program.
 
The 1996 graduate of JFK Memorial, he played four seasons of baseball and basketball for the Mustangs. As a three-year varsity player for his father, Smith was a two-time All-GMC Conference selection (1995, 1996) and established a single-season school record with 15 doubles. He helped JFK win league titles in 1994 and 1996 while guiding the club to the 1994 state sectional finals. He also played in the New Jersey All-Star game and in the 1995 GMC Final Four.
 
A December 2000 graduate of Kean with a bachelor of arts in Mathematics Education, he currently possesses a BA+18. Smith has works as a mathematics teacher for the Woodbridge Township Board of Education and has also contributed as a SAT prep teacher. He notes his favorite part about coaching is teaching life skills.
 
Born July 29, 1978, Smith resides in Manalapan, N.J. with his wife, Michelle, and their two children — son J.J. and daughter Parker Charlotte.
 

GET TO KNOW COACH SMITH
Hobbies:	College football
Favorite part about coaching:	“Teaching life skills”
Hero:	His father
Favorite sports team:	New York Yankees
Favorite song:	--
Favorite music artist:	Tim McGraw
Favorite movie:	‘Remember the Titans’
Favorite food:	Pizza
Personal attributes and other facts:	Native American…All family members have names of J.S., which is why his son his named J.J…Loves numbers (math, baseball stats)…Approaches life with a sense of humor