Judge skipper having
a year to remember

By Joe Mason
Times Sports Editor

Tim Ginter knew this year would be special.
He had no idea how special it would turn out to be.
Ginter, the athletic director at Father Judge High School, got married in June. It was a special day for the 1994 Judge grad, but it also would prove to be the first of three special events.
During the fall, Ginter learned that he and wife Deirdre will have a child in June.
Then last week, Ginter was named the head coach of the Crusaders’ baseball team.
It took roughly eight months for Ginter’s good life to become a very good life.
"It’s hard to say, because I’m now thirty, that this will be the best year of my life, but I can’t see how another year could top this one," said Ginter, who will step down as athletic director at the end of the school year. "Everything really fell into place this year. I’m not sure I could be much happier than I am right now."
Even during his days playing baseball and football at Judge, Ginter had his eye on coaching. Upon graduation from high school, he enrolled at the University of Scranton, where he majored in education and continued his baseball career.
Ginter, who also teaches sophomore and senior history courses at Judge, has been an assistant baseball coach at his alma mater for six years. For the past three years, he served as a varsity helper under Joe McDermott.
McDermott had been the Crusaders coach for 31 seasons. He won 350 Catholic League games before retiring last year.
Ginter knows he has huge shoes to fill. He also comes in with a lot of confidence, thanks mostly to his mentors.
"I’ve been lucky to be around some great guys," Ginter said. "I started out helping Mike Lake, the old coach at Ryan. I spent a few years there, and then I came back to Judge and worked with Joe.
"Working with both of them and working under them, I learned so much," Ginter continued.
He now has close to 10 years of experience coaching baseball. But he’s been around the game his entire life, so he knows when to steal, when to call for a fastball and when to instruct his batters to take a pitch.
Those are just some of his strengths.
Unlike most athletic directors in the Philadelphia Catholic League, Ginter didn’t have a ton of seasoning when he stepped into that role. But it didn’t stop him from working hard and coming up with different ideas to improve the league.
Two years ago, Ginter was the catalyst behind revamping the current Red and Blue divisions in football. He helped spearhead a plan that would have called for the divisions to be divided by city schools and suburban schools.
This year, while he was working as the Catholic League baseball moderator, he helped devise a new schedule that will see teams play each other in three-game series. Last year, each team played league rivals just twice, and the games weren’t consecutive.
So he’s a proven baseball guy and he’s not afraid to make decisions. But a third quality might be the one that ultimately got him the coaching job.
"Who else would you rather have coaching your son?" asked Father Judge president, the Rev. Joe Campellone. "Tim is a great story because he really wanted to coach the Father Judge baseball team. We had a lot of candidates, some really good candidates, but in the end we felt like he was the perfect guy.
"He’s done a great job as the athletic director," Campellone said. "He’s also a great teacher. And most important, he can relate to today’s kid. He’s helped a lot of kids during his time here, and now he’s in a position to help a lot more."
While coaching the Father Judge baseball team truly was one of Ginter’s dreams, he also enjoys teaching.
"I didn’t major in education to become a coach, but it was something I certainly thought about," Ginter said. "I love teaching, I love working at Father Judge, and I’m extremely excited to be the baseball coach.
"The old saying goes it’s tough for a great baseball player to become a coach," Ginter added. "That’s never been a problem for me because I was never a great player. I’m just a guy who loves the game. This is the perfect situation for me." ••
Sports editor Joe Mason can be reached at 215-354-3035 or jmason@phillynews.com