Former Morning Call player of the year gets ES South post

Nice to see a great player from the past put in a position to give back to his sport.

So it is with former Stroudsburg High star and 1999 Morning Call player of the year Rich Baker who has been approved as the new boys basketball coach at East Stroudsburg South.

Here's the official release from athletic director Mark Brown on that hiring and a new coach for the East Stroudsburg North girls.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This evening, at a special meeting of the East Stroudsburg Area School District Board of Education, the hiring of two new basketball coaches was approved.

--RICHARD BAKER was approved as the new HEAD BOYS' BASKETBALL COACH at EAST STROUDSBURG-SOUTH. Mr. Baker is a graduate of Stroudsburg High School, having starred on the Mounties 1999 Mountain Valley Conference and District XI AAAA Championship basketball team. He then attended Rider University on a full basketball scholarship, later transferring to, and completing his college basketball career at East Stroudsburg University under Coach Jeff Wilson. He has spent the last 2 years as an assistant to Coach Brad Pensyl within the highly successful program at Pocono Mountain West. Coach Baker takes over for Joe Jacobs who chose not to return to the position. Coach Jacobs' 8-year record as the Cavs' head boys' basketball coach was 57 wins and 132 losses.

--TIM HARRIS was approved as the new HEAD GIRLS' BASKETBALL COACH at EAST STROUDSBURG-NORTH. Mr. Harris is a 1978 graduate of East Stroudsburg High School, having been a record-setting place kicker on (then coach) Dick Merring's football team. Tim has spent more than 30 years as an assistant basketball coach on the staffs of several extremely successful teams and coaches, the last six as the varsity assistant girls' basketball coach at East Stroudsburg-South on Adam Cole's extremely successful 3-time MVC Championship program. Tim was also an assistant boys' basketball coach (on Mark Brown's staff) at East Stroudsburg High School for a team that would later win two Centennial League Championships, and the 1994 District XI AAAA Championship. He also was a member of the late Jay Effross' staff at Stroudsburg in the late 1980s, for a team that would later win 2 Centennial League Championships. Coach Harris takes over for Scott Moskovitz who chose not to return to the position. Coach Moskovitz' 1-year record as the Lady T-wolvess' head girls' basketball coach was 6 wins and 16 losses.

From Keith Groller