Softball: Delaware Valley coach Asa Whitaker ready for more after 42 years and 600 wins
When Delaware Valley High School softball coach Asa Whitaker won his 500th career game in 2016, the milestone came in a contest where the Terriers rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to claim a one-run win over Bernards.
Friday, with Whitaker on the brink of another milestone, there was yet another round of drama, as Del Val played seven scoreless innings at Hamilton West, before scoring a run in the top of the eighth, only to have the home team tie it in the bottom of the frame. The Terriers scored again in the top of the ninth and this time they made it hold up, winning 2-1 and giving their coach victory No. 600.
The win brought Whitaker’s career record to 600-301, which has included 14 conference titles, and he is just the second coach in Skyland Conference history to reach the mark, behind former Hunterdon Central Pete Fick, who won 721 games.
And he’s picked up plenty of wisdom along the way.
“I’ve been fortunate enough and healthy enough to hang around this long,” said Whitaker, whose team finished the regular season 13-12 and will open its state tournament run Tuesday at A.L. Johnson. “I don’t think I could have done it if I wasn’t a person who could make adjustments over my career. I don’t think I’m the same coach that I was when I was coaching in my first or second varsity season. Things were different then. And to last this long, you’ve got to kind of change with the times. The players are different. They have different expectations. And you have to deal with them differently.”
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Unlike Fick, who capped his career in 2012 without having suffered a losing season since the 80s, Whitaker’s teams have had their ups and downs. There’s been plenty of success and some magical campaigns, but there’s also been some rebuilding years, and time and time again, his programs have quickly surged back to the top. After 42 seasons at the Delaware Valley helm, he feels those swings have been part of the experience. Especially when it involves helping a young player develop from obscurity to stardom.
“You have to handle the fact that you’re going to have some great seasons and some not-so-great seasons, and you have to roll with the punches,” said Whitaker, who took the helm in 1982. “If you really enjoy this, you have to enjoy both of those situations. You’re always working with young players and you’re looking forward to seeing them develop into their full potential, which I think is one of those most satisfying parts of it. You might see a person trying out for the first time and you don’t even l know what their name is our what position they might be playing or what kind of ability they have, and then four years later, you’re looking at them and they’re really producing out there.”
The 69-year-old Whitaker retired as a math teacher in 2015, but he has no intention of stepping down from the softball post anytime soon. Whitaker said every year, around Feb. 1, he knows it’s time to start getting his body in shape for coaching. He’ll grab a bat, go out in the yard and start swinging it, knowing in about a month he’s going to have to start hitting fungoes to another crop of Terriers. In years past, he said, he could just show up the first day start hitting, but these days he has to work himself into it a little bit.
Still, he realizes Father Time might ultimately dictate when the last fungo is hit in a career that began two years into the Ronald Reagan presidency. But as long as he’s physically able to do it, he plans to keep ramping things up every February and prepare for another spring on the diamond.
“When I retired (as a teacher), I still wanted to do something, and it was not a matter of getting a job down at the mall or something like that,” he said. “I thought, I really still enjoy the coaching and I’d like to stay connected there because it doesn’t feel like a job. It feels like a lot of fun. And that’s what’s kept me going. And every year, I look forward to the spring coming around and I’ll actually be outside in an active way and not be totally retired and working in the yard or something.
“I’m taking it year to year. At some point, physically, I’m not going to be able to do it anymore. So, we’ll see if that time comes at some point down the road.”
Staff writer Simeon Pincus has been covering NJ sports since 1997, and has been on the softball beat since 1999. He can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Softball: Delaware Valley coach Asa Whitaker reflects on 600th win
