HS baseball notes: Providence Day’s longtime head coach to step down after long career

Providence Day coach Jim Cerbie will be coaching his last stretch of home games this week. After 36 years at Providence Day, Cerbie is retiring — at least from coaching high school baseball.

“It’s going to be different,” Cerbie said. “It is always a tough decision when you decide what I am going to do next. I’ll stay in baseball in some capacity in some youth leagues. I enjoy working with the kids, particularly the younger kids around 13, 14 or 15.”

Jeff Lucia, Cerbie’s top assistant, has been with the veteran coach for all 36 of his years at Providence Day, longevity not often found among head coaches, never mind assistants. It’s rare for a tandem of coaches to remain in one place for so long.

Lucia will also be retiring after this season.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have quality assistant coaches along the way,” Cerbie said. “It is a really great group of coaches, and I appreciate all the hard work that they put into the kids and it has been paying off this spring.”

Despite the obvious emotions surrounding his final week of regular-season games, Cerbie remains focused on one thing — winning baseball games.

“We are going to go into these games with the approach we have all of our other games,” Cerbie said. “There is a certain type of ball we play depending on our abilities or lack thereof. There are some things that we do well and some we don’t, so we try to harp on the things we do well and make people beat us.”

Providence Day is 16-8 this season and plays Carmel Christian (6-15) at home Thursday.

After 36 years, though, Cerbie isn’t as concerned about the wins and the losses as he is about the legacy he’s left not only at the school, but also with his players. He wants to make sure he left Providence Day in a better place than he found it, and he wants to make sure the kids he has coached have successful futures.

“It is more about the relationships that you develop with these young fellas,” Cerbie said. “Right now they really don’t know which direction their life is going to go. So, I just try to get them to do the right thing and make good decisions.”

Cerbie has coached at Providence Day since 1988. His teams won state titles in 1988, 1997 and 1998, and have won seven conference titles. He has won more than 500 games in his career.

Key results from last week

▪ After the Providence Panthers took round one against rival Ardrey Kell, the Knights found a way to bounce back last Saturday in a 4-0 win. This was head coach Sean Thomas’ first win against Danny Hignight, for whom he used to work at Providence.

▪ The Hopewell Titans won both of their games against the Hough Huskies last week, earning them the Queen City Athletic Conference regular-season crown. This is the first time the Titans have finished the regular season atop their conference since 2010. Lake Norman and Mooresville were still a part of the conference back then, and Hough opened the following fall.

▪ Myers Park defeated Olympic twice last week solidifying the second seed in the SoMeck 4A conference tournament — behind Ardrey Kell.

▪ Providence Day and Charlotte Christian split their two-game series last week with the Chargers of Providence Day winning 6-5 in Game 1 and Charlotte Christian taking Game 2, 12-2.

Upcoming Games of Note

▪ Providence Day will face Covenant Day on Friday, May 5, at 7 p.m. This time the game will be at Covenant Day. The Chargers fell to the Lions, 3-2, on Tuesday, so they will be looking to split the series with a win.

▪ The public schools are starting to play their conference tournaments this week, so there promises to be some competitive games toward the latter part of the week.

The Observer’s Sweet 16

Dropped Out: Sun Valley (4A, 14-10). Also receiving consideration: Northwest Cabarrus (3A, 13-9); Mount Pleasant (2A, 13-8)

This story was originally published May 4, 2023 at 6:30 AM.