FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
The High Point University baseball team has added Joe Mercurio as a volunteer assistant coach, head coach Craig Cozart announced Monday. Mercurio was an All-Conference catcher at the University of Maine and spent last summer coaching the Glens Fall Golden Eagles in the New York Collegiate Baseball League.
“We are very excited to have Joe join our staff,” Cozart said. “We have known him for many years as we recruited him out of high school and we are happy he is beginning his college coaching career with us at High Point University. He comes from a tremendous family with a long history of being involved in baseball at various levels and he will be a great addition to our staff.”
Mercurio will serve as the first base coach this season while working with the outfielders. He will also work with associate head coach Bryan Peters and assistant coach Rich Wallace as a hitting coach. Mercurio will be in charge of the team’s travel and daily maintenance of the program while helping to further the Panther Baseball Camps.
“I am really excited to have the opportunity to coach at High Point University,” Mercurio said. “Coach Cozart has a great staff here and I will be able to learn a lot from them.”
Mercurio was a three-year member of the Maine baseball team after playing his freshman year at Illinois. In his senior season he hit .363 with 12 home runs as the team’s everyday catcher. He was a two-time America East Player of the Week and earned All-Conference and All-Tournament honors. Mercurio was also named to the ABCA All-Northeast first team, ECAC first team and All-New England first team.
He was an assistant coach for the Glens Falls Golden Eagles of the NYCBL last summer and previously was an assistant coach for the World Yacht Clippers during the summers from 2007-2010. Mercurio has experience working camps as well, having coached at the Collegiate League Baseball Camps, the University of Maine Youth Camps and the Dynamite Diamonds Baseball Camp in Brewster, N.Y.
Mercurio earned his bachelor’s degree in Communications from Maine in May 2010. Mercurio’s younger brother Mike is a sophomore on HPU’s baseball team.
