22/07/2024
Merritt back in the game as Pennsville’s girls basketball coach
By Al Muskewitz/Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE — The Pennsville girls basketball team will have an active Hall of Fame coach calling the shots next season after the system’s school board approved longtime and retired Salem coach Steve Merritt to run the program Monday night.
His appointment fills the second of two head coaching vacancies created when Sam Trapp left in March to become athletics director at Triton Regional High School. Casey Slusher was approved for Trapp’s girls soccer vacancy earlier this summer.
Merritt, who has won nearly 500 games across multiple sports with multiple sectional titles in girls basketball before leaving the sidelines in 2022, is slated for induction into the Salem County Sports Hall of Fame on Aug. 22. It wasn’t immediately known if his resumption in coaching will impact that status as many Halls of Fame require inductees to be out of their field for a period of time before enshrinement.
In 19 seasons at Salem, his basketball teams went 257-220 with three South Jersey Group I titles, back-to-back state runner up finishes and four 20-win seasons. In his last season at Salem (2021-22), the Rams were 12-14 and beat Schalick in an opening round game in the South Jersey Group I playoffs. They lost in the next round at Woodbury.
While he hasn’t been coaching for the past two seasons he stayed close to the game as a high school basketball official, which he said served to “perpetuate” his interest in the game and coaching.
“I won’t lie,” he said. “I missed the excitement of being on the bench.
“This opportunity at Pennsville I never expected to present itself and I’m thrilled to be part of a program I’ve always admired for its competitive nature — of all their teams, even when I coached against them.”
Merritt already is familiar with at least one player on the current Pennsville roster, having coached Nora Ausland her freshman season at Salem. Ausland’s father, Mike, was an assistant coach on that team.
Nora Ausland, now a senior, is on track this season to become the 43rd girls basketball player in Salem County to surpass 1,000 career points, the eighth in a Pennsville uniform, and join the elite 1,000-point/500-rebound club.
She scored her first 462 points at Salem, 283 for Merritt and her dad. She also has more than 100 3-pointers, assists, blocked shots and steals.
Her Pennsville teammate, junior Marley Wood, also is on track to become a 1,000-point scorer this season. The prospects of coaching one of most dynamic duos in South Jersey has Merritt excited.
“Truth be told, I have already begun to have restless nights thinking of the season’s possibilities,” he said. “I’ve awakened in the midst of a scheduled slumber thinking about drills, game plans and team meetings. I love it.
“Four months prior to our first practice, I’ve studied our schedule, scouted our opponents’ past seasons, their stats, their potential returning rosters, considered defensive matchups.
“My wife just keeps shaking her head. She openly wonders if I need to seek therapeutic counseling and insists that I undergo a full, complete medical exam. ‘You’re not well.’”
The Eagles, of course, are hoping he’s just what the doctor ordered.
This story will be updated at the Riverview Sports News website.
