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Longtime high school and college baseball coach Jerry Ricucci was named Northwood High's new varsity baseball coach last week, replacing Ed Pikor, who passed away in September.

A 1962 Blair graduate, Ricucci may already have the most baseball experience in the county. After pitching for four years at George Washington University, where he also played football, he played several years in the Philadelphia Phillies' farm system before going into coaching.

"When I put on my job applications why I stopped working at my last job," Ricucci said, "I'd put down ‘I lost my fastball.'"

Dating back to the late 1960's, Ricucci has over 35 years of coaching experience. He coached at Whitman for a year, helming the junior varsity football team and serving as a baseball assistant during the spring. His next stop was his high school alma mater, where he assisted on both the diamond and the gridiron.

Shortly afterward, he became the defensive coordinator for Bowie State's football team while also assisting with the Bulldogs' baseball team, jobs he held for four years. After serving as head football coach and a baseball assistant coach at Frederick High School, he served as defensive coordinator at Howard.

Recently, he was an assistant at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, where his son, Mike, has been the head baseball coach for the past five years. In fact, the Pioneers' recent success — they won the United States Collegiate Athletic Association National Championship last season — is responsible for the elder Ricucci's return to the high school scene.

"We used to be one of the bottom dwelling programs and now we're one of the top two programs in the country," said Ricucci. "So what happened was, we started travelling to play tougher teams and it got to be more than I could handle. We used to play Gallaudet and local schools, and last year we went to Alabama, Ohio and Tennessee. I told my son I'd step away from it this year, and it just so happened he heard about this opening at Northwood and wanted to know if I'd be interested."

Riccucci met with Northwood athletics director Marco Fuggitti and several Gladiator players to interview for the position, which had only previously been held by Pikor. After three years as head coach, Pikor, 56, died in his sleep in his native Connecticut on Sept. 24.

Pikor had led the Gladiators to its first three varsity wins last season, a step Fuggitti expects to continue in 2009.

"He's got a very extensive background in just the overall baseball industry, and we let the kids ask questions," said Fuggitti. "He came up as being pretty much the right choice for all parties."