O’Brien takes over Panthers baseball
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Ray O’Brien is no stranger to the Princeton Day School baseball program.
Over the last six years, either or both of his sons — Dan and Clint — have been players in the program. In addition, O’Brien himself spent the last three years as an assistant to head coach Bruce Devlin.
This year, neither of the younger O’Brien boys are still around as players, but their father is the new head coach for the Panthers.
”I’ve been involved with the school the last six or seven years, and the last three I have been an assistant coach,” said O’Brien, a Cranbury resident. “I feel like I know the kids pretty well and they know me. So it has not been that big of a transition for me or the kids.
”I started with this year’s seniors when they were freshmen.”
O’Brien’s team will open the regular season on Wednesday against Blair at home. The Panthers got a chance to see where they stand over their spring break, when they played six scrimmage games in South Carolina.
”I thought that went OK,” O’Brien said. “We went 3-3 down there and played some good competition. Hopefully it will help us get ready for the season. We have some tough teams right at the start. We play Blair and we also have Manalapan and then we’re in the Hillsborough tournament with Hillsborough and Phillipsburg.
”We have a pretty tough schedule. That’s something we want to have. We want to play quality teams.”
While this will be O’Brien’s first head coaching job at the high school level, he is no stranger to leading a successful baseball program.
”I had the Central Jersey Express travel team for five or six years,” O’Brien said. “We had kids from three or four different counties on that team. In fact, there were eight or nine kids on the Carpenter Cup team last year that had played on our team when they were younger.”
There will be one difference this year for O’Brien this year, he won’t have one of his sons on the team.
”I’ve always been coaching baseball in the summer and the fall,” he said. “So in the fall, when Clint would have football, he would not be around for baseball. This will be like coaching one of the fall teams.”
O’Brien is taking over a program that has been successful the last few years. And he’s hoping that continues with a new coach in charge.
”We had some very good seniors last year,” O’Brien said. “But we also have a strong group back this year, especially with the junior class. And I have a new assistant working with us as well, Tony Vlahovic, who pitched in the Boston Red Sox organization. He’s been helping out.
”I think we can have a good season. We’ll see how it goes.”

