Loy Norrix baseball says goodbye to coach Brian Neel as he resigned in the fall of 2015. Now Loy Norrix is welcoming new coach, Rob Pincus.
Pincus is very respected man. He was in law enforcement for 14 years. He worked for the Atlantic city police department. Also he worked as an undercover narcotics officer and a homicide officer. Pincus said he had many fears for his safety and others. He never wanted anyone to get hurt on his squad or on the other side they were trying to arrest. Pincus worked as an officer for 14 long years. He resigned due to injury to his neck on an upper vertebrae and his lower back during a drug raid.
Pincus has learned a lot from being a homicide officer has helped him as a teacher and coach today. “I understand where a lot of students are coming from. Some students come from a bad home life and that helps me see successes in every little thing. It also gives me a lot of patience with students,”  said Pincus
Pincus has had a lot of experience coaching whether it be baseball, football or teaching. He has been coaching baseball for 8 years at Portage Northern High School as an assistant coach. He is also the head football coach for Maple Street Middle School and helped out former head baseball coach Brian Neel when needed.
“I’ve had quite a bit of experience, and I’ve always felt it’s better to have a coach in house,” said Pincus. He thinks it’s important to have a coach that teaches at the same school the players attend.
“I like Pincus as the new coach, and I think he has done a good job trying to change the program. He has put a lot of effort in, and I think he will do a good job in the future,” said senior outfielder Grant Mitchell.
Becoming a new coach for a varsity high school sport can be very tough. You will run into many roadblocks, some of them being fears of players lacking commitment, respect, and the pressure to win games.
“I don’t have any fears going into the upcoming season. The only concern I have is a buy-in from players,” said Pincus.
One of Pincus’s favorite things about being a coach is being able to watch his players grow from freshmen to seniors and then graduating to go off to college. Pincus loves the relationships that he makes with players and the personal friendships that he gains along the way.
Loy Norrix has had the privilege to have Pincus as a teacher for 10 years, as a special educator for all grades. The reason he started to teach at Loy Norrix was to grow closer with his son. He has more free time as a teacher than a police officer because he gets off work at a certain time everyday. As a police officer Pincus was called into work whenever they needed him.
The whole school is curious to see what coach Pincus can bring to our baseball program and to this school. We’ll all have our eyes on the baseball team this year as they kick off their season with a record of 6 wins and 7 losses as of May 2nd.