Allentown High School girls softball team does a double take

BY GEORGE ALBANO
Staff Writer

Probably the last thing Mary Ellen McCarthy, the Allentown High girls field hockey coach, and Bob Dubina, the Redbirds’ girls basketball coach, ever expected to be doing this spring was coaching the AHS girls softball team.

But thanks to an untimely set of events, that’s exactly what the two successful coaches are doing, acting as interim co-head coaches of the 2005 Allentown girls softball team.

When Rob DiBernardo, the Redbirds’ head softball coach for the past five seasons, abruptly quit a few days before the preseason was scheduled to begin, the AHS athletic department was left scrambling and looking for a new coach.

PHOTOS BY DENNIS SYMONS, JR. Above left, Allentown’s Caitlin Ryan slides under the tag of Hopewell Valley’s Becca Rhebergen during a recent game in Allentown. Above, Allentown pitcher Katie Sansouci prepares to fire a strike to the plate. Or as it turned out, two new coaches.

“When DiBernardo left, it was only four or five days before tryouts,” Dubina explained. “You’re not going to find a softball-only coach at that point. So the athletic director asked Mary Ellen and me if we would take it.”

“He went to both of us and asked if we would take it over,” McCarthy added. “They needed us to help so we said we’d do it this year.”

The new coaching tandem got off to a good start, too, as Allentown blanked Hopewell Valley Central 8-0 in its season opener last Monday, but then fell to Notre Dame 2-1 last Thursday and to Steinart 2-0 this past Monday.

Of course, neither McCarthy nor Dubina is a stranger to coaching, or to the girl athletes at Allentown High, for that matter. McCarthy has been coaching field hockey at the school for the past 10 years, recording 160 victories, a number of division and conference championships, and a state title in 1997.

Dubina, meanwhile, just completed his fourth season as the head coach of the Redbirds’ girls basketball team.

“We already know a lot of the girls,” Dubina pointed out. “Almost all of them have played for at least one of us in our own sport, so it was a pretty easy transition.”

Making the transition even a little easier was the fact both McCarthy and Dubina had coached girls softball before.

“I coached it for eight or nine years at Spotswood High School prior to coming to Allentown,” Dubina noted.

McCarthy, meanwhile, coached the Allentown team for three seasons, from 1997-99, prior to DiBernardo taking over. The Redbirds were in the Shore Conference back then and won the C South Division title all three years McCarthy coached, while advancing to the finals of Monmouth County Tournament in 1998 and ’99. DiBernardo took over the following season.

And even though both co-coaches have been away from softball for several years, their background in coaching field hockey and basketball should also help.

“Coaching is coaching,” Dubina said. “The mental part of the game is the same, and the way you run practice is the same. It’s just a matter of incorporating softball drills into practice. When you’re coaching at this level the structure is kind of the same.”

McCarthy agreed.

“There are definitely coaching techniques you have to have to be successful in any sport,” she said. “I think they carry over to other sports, too.”

The transition should be even smoother given the fact the Redbirds return several key players from a team that went 26-6 last year and won the Colonial Valley Conference Patriot Division championship. They also advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercer County Tournament as well as to the Central Jersey Group II state finals.

“We also have about 10 kids between varsity and JV who play travel softball,” Dubina said. “That makes it pretty easy when you have players who really know the game.”

Like senior co-captains Ally Walsh and Caitlin Reardon. Walsh, who played third base and DH last year, has moved to first base, while Reardon, who started at second a year ago, has switched to third base, giving the Redbirds a pair of leaders on the corners.

“Ally is doing very well at first base,” McCarthy said. “She’s a good leader, too, very vocal. And Caitlin has a terrific glove at third. She’s also a great leader and works well with the younger players.”

Margaret Ryan, the team’s No. 1 pitcher the past two seasons, graduated, but her younger sister, Caitlin Ryan, is back and will be one of the Redbirds’ top pitchers. Ryan, a junior, throws right-handed, while lefty Katie Sancouci, another junior, will share the pitching duties with her.

“We’re fortunate to have enough good pitchers,” McCarthy admitted. “Amy Ballo, who plays the outfield, also pitches. So we have so many pitchers if we need to go to them.”

Meanwhile, sophomore Erin Kelley returns to shortstop, where she started as a freshman.

“She’s very quick and hits the ball well,” McCarthy said.

Jen Richard, another sophomore, has moved from the outfield to second base, while another starter back is junior catcher Carly Machiz.

The outfield is young, but experienced with the return of Ballo and fellow sophomore Brittany Bakacs. Two more sophomore outfielders, Tiffany Roth and Stephanie Stabulis, are both up from the junior varsity ranks, while freshman Tricia Rakowski could also see action”

I think they can do well this season,” McCarthy said. “They have the mindset to do well, they’ve set their goals, and they’re working hard. They want to go for everything they can get. They want to be division champs again and they want to go to the county playoffs and state tournament again, so they’re working very hard.”

“We just need to hit the ball,” Dubina added. “We won our first game, and then we gave up only four runs in the next two games, and two were unearned, but we lost both games. So our pitchers are pitching well; they only gave up two runs in each game. But we didn’t hit. In our last two games we got only one run and five hits. If we hit the ball, we could’ve won both games.”

Of course, the softball coaching job will be open again after this season.

McCarthy has already said with field hockey and her busy schedule, she won’t be applying. But Dubina was noncommittal.

“I don’t know to be honest with you,” he said. “I hadn’t coached in a while, and the first six or seven days of practice we were in the gym because of the weather. I didn’t like it that much, but then when we got outside, I started liking it and now I’m really enjoying myself. So I might go for it next year. I’m going to leave the door open.”