Blair Baseball and Coach Stone

Blair’s baseball program has the tradition of turning out highly competitive teams each year. Blair plays a 24 game schedule while competing in the very strong Mid Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) that consists of rivals: Peddie, Lawrenceville, Hun, Hill and Mercersburg. Blair fills out the rest of the schedule with top public high schools from New Jersey and then finishes the season with the New Jersey Prep “A” tournament. Blair also has a JV team consisting of freshmen and sophomores that plays a 16-18 game schedule.

For the past 14 years, the program has been led by Head Coach Jim Stone, who has accumulated a 179-133 record during his tenure. Coach Stone was a four-year player at the University of North Carolina and also played two summer seasons in the Cape Cod Collegiate League. Stone also was an assistant coach for the Hyannis Mets of the Cape League for three years before becoming Blair’s Athletic Director.

Coach Stone’s philosophy is to be as fundamentally sound as possible. Each day of the season the team concentrates on proper mechanics for each phase of the game and then incorporates them into game situations. There is no detail too small to work on. Stone stresses that players must be ready to play every pitch for the team to be successful. Blair teams are always well prepared and are in the hunt for the MAPL and NJ Prep Championships every year. In 1996 Blair won the NJ State Championship by defeating Peddie twice in the finals.

Blair begins its season indoors in the gym and then takes a 13-day spring training trip to Vero Beach, Florida during March break. The team practices five hours a day and plays six-eight exhibition games vs. the likes of: Taft School – CT, Choate – CT, St. Lukes – CT, Berkshire – MA, St. Joes – MD, Shadyside – PA and occasionally a Florida high school. Blair then returns home to play on one of the finest high school baseball fields in the state.

Through the Blair baseball program, many of its players have developed and gone on to play at the collegiate level at schools such as Univ. of Virginia, Creighton Univ., Univ. of Massachusetts, Rollins College, Rider Univ., Widener Univ., Wofford Univ., Ohio Wesleyan, Ohio Univ., Lafayette College, Trinity College, Union College, Middlebury College and Dickinson College.

For more information on Blair Baseball, contact Coach Stone at (908) 362 – 6121 x. 5651 or email stonej@blair.edu.

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