Karpell Stepping Down As Shore Regional Baseball Coach

Jeff Karpell said he has stepped down as head baseball coach at Shore Regional High School to spend more time with his family after a six-year stint in which his teams won five public division titles and reached the NJSIAA Group II final in 2009.

Karpell has two young daughters and another child due in October with his wife, St. John Vianney head girls basketball coach Dawn Karpell.

"It's time to be home,'' Karpell said. "You don't want to be cutting practice short or short-changing the kids when you want to be somewhere else. My mind was somewhere else at times this year, and family is where you've got to be.'' 

March was often an extremely hectic month as Karpell would be getting ready for the baseball season, while his wife is usually coaching deep into the state playoffs with the perennial power Lancers. 

The Blue Devils finished 6-15 this season after losing several key players to graduation. In 2009, they won the Central Jersey Group II title and reached the Group II championship game before bowing to Pequannock and University of North Carolina pitcher Jordan Tabakman.

Karpell started as an assistant for one year at his alma mater, Middletown North, and then was an assistant under Kevin James at Rumson-Fair Haven before taking the head job at Shore Regional.

"I look back on it as a great experience,'' he said. "The kids took everything we were trying to do, and we put some nice runs together. I'm not going to close the door on coaching, but at least for the next few years I might actually have a spring break for the first time since elementary school.''

The Blue Devils also won four Class B Central public titles, finishing behind St. Rose in each of those years, and won the Class A Central public title in finishing behind Red Bank Catholic in 2009.

A possible successor to Karpell at Shore could be assistant Pat O'Neill, a 1999 Shore Regional graduate who played football and baseball for the Blue Devils.