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Following a Legend: Rankin Wins First Home Game as TR South Head Coach

Matt Manley|April 4, 2025|Last Updated April 8, 2025

TOMS RIVER — Jim Rankin said he took his first job as a head baseball coach with the goal of becoming the Ken Frank of Jackson Liberty High School, where Rankin won 198 games in 15 years as the program’s first head coach before stepping down after the 2021 season. That might have been an overly ambitious standard for any coach to set for himself, but that goal seemed more realistic to Rankin than the one he is currently pursuing: filling Frank’s shoes at Toms River South.

On Thursday afternoon, Rankin found himself bringing out the lineup card to home plate, standing in the third-base coach’s box and running the customary postgame awards ceremony for the first time at Ken Frank Baseball Stadium on the campus of his alma mater. Twenty-nine years after graduating from Toms River South and 18 since coaching his first game at Jackson Liberty, Rankin coached his first home game as the head baseball coach at Toms River South — the first home game at Toms River South without Frank as its head coach since 1977.

“It didn’t set in until today, and I knew that was going to be the case,” Rankin said. “I think my nerves were flowing more today than any game I coached in Jackson. I have coached in a lot of big (games), I was fortunate to coach a lot of really good teams, a lot of really good players, and we were under the bright lights a lot, and I loved it there. But today was special for me and special for these kids.”

Fittingly, Toms River South made Rankin a winner in his home head-coaching debut with a 9-3 victory over Barnegat. By the late innings, Rankin admitted he was less nervous about his team closing out the win than he was about orchestrating his first Toms River South postgame ceremony, which stayed true to the format that Frank created and executed hundreds upon hundreds of times during his 46 seasons as head coach.

“I never thought it would be me up there doing it,” Rankin said. “It’s just funny how this works out. I went to Jackson wanting to be the Ken Frank of Jackson Liberty. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a head coach since the day I played here. I was fortunate enough to get that opportunity in Jackson.

“For 46 years, the same guy did it. I couldn’t do away with that ceremony. I want to keep his legacy alive. I thought that was a good way to do it. They’ll get easier. As the game went on, and I felt good that we were going to win, I felt nervous about that. I’m not going to lie.”

Frank retired as the state’s all-time wins leader with 934, and his résumé at Toms River South is littered with championships: five overall NJSIAA titles, 10 NJSIAA sectional championships, seven Shore Conference Tournament championships, 12 Ocean County Tournament titles and 22 division titles. Those accolades, however, are only a small part of the baseball culture Frank built in his more than 50 years associated with the program as both an assistant and a head coach.

More than the championships, it’s the Toms River South spirit and tradition that Rankin wants to uphold.

“This is home to me,” Rankin said. “I interviewed for the job, and I just immediately felt at home again. This place has a heartbeat. This place has a pulse. There is no other place like it in the Shore. That’s no disrespect to any other school, because there are a lot of great schools, but this place has a pulse.”

Right Man, Right Time

Based on Rankin’s background, it is hard to imagine a more fitting successor to Frank. He was a three-year varsity player for Frank from 1994 to 1996, a sub-varsity coach under Frank for six years right out of college, and his father, Bill, was a longtime assistant under Frank even before Jim was in high school.

On top of that, Rankin proved himself as a head coach outside of Toms River. During his 14 full seasons at Jackson Liberty, Rankin posted a record of 198-116 for an average of 14 wins per season and a winning percentage of .631 for a program that played its first season in 2007 under his lead. Jackson Liberty won six division titles — including four straight from 2017 through 2021 (2020 was canceled due to COVID) — reached the NJSIAA sectional semifinal round three times under Rankin and played in the 2013 Shore Conference Tournament final, which they lost to Toms River North.

Rankin returned to Toms River South in the fall of 2022, when he was hired as a math teacher and subsequently as the freshman coach for the Indians baseball team — which was also the last job he held on Frank’s coaching staff before accepting the head job at Jackson Liberty. Rankin’s returned coincided with Toms River South’s worst stretch by wins and losses since Frank took over. Their losing season in 2023 was the first since 1979 and the 5-18 2024 season marked the first season Toms River South finished last place in the Class A South division standings, as well as its worst overall record during the Frank Era.

Upon accepting the head-coaching job, Rankin set out to break down his players and build them back up.

“I made it a high priority in the offseason to attack their mindsets and instill belief in them, because I believe in these kids,” Rankin said. “They are a damn good team. We’ve got good baseball players. Last year was rough for everybody: players, coaches. Coach Frank never went through something like that, so it was a tough year.

“We needed to build them back up. When they start believing in themselves the way that I believe in them, I think we can stack a lot of wins, because I think we’ve got some really good baseball players.”

Immediate Returns

On Thursday, all the offseason work put in by the players showed up on the field, starting with the first batter of the bottom of the first inning. Junior outfielder Jaden Geremia took one pitch and then blasted a home run on the second pitch that cleared the left-field fence by a good 40 feet. He also slammed an RBI double to the warning track in left-centerfield in the bottom of the second inning to put the Indians ahead, 3-0.

Geremia led Toms River South with seven extra-base hits in 2024, but all of them were doubles. Monday’s first-inning blast was his first home run and the first homer by a Toms River South player since the 2023 season. Over the last two years, that 2023 homer by Donovan Wilkinson is the only home run Toms River South has hit. According to Rankin, Geremia’s home run is both a tribute to the offseason work in the weight room and an example of why that strength training was so important for the program.

“There’s not many harder workers than (Geremia),” Rankin said. “I told him in the weight room all offseason: you might not look different, you might not feel that different, but when something like that (the home run) happens, you’re going to see what we did all offseason paid off. All those crazy lifts coach has us doing in there, it works.”

The first-inning home run was the first of 13 hits and five extra-base hits by Toms River South in the game — a welcome development after Barnegat held the Indians to three hits in a 2-0 win on Tuesday in Barnegat. Even in that game, though, Geremia checked in with a double for the game’s lone extra-base hit by either team, giving Toms River South extra-base hits on six of its 16 hits so far this season.

One advantage for the 2025 Toms River South team heading into the year was the return of 2024 ace Aiden Lynch. Despite his team’s overall struggles, Lynch was a dependable No. 1 starter as a junior, posting a 1.83 earned-run average and 55 strikeouts against 15 walks in 46 2/3 innings. He also earned three of Toms River South’s five wins on the mound while being saddled with six losses.

On Thursday, Lynch overcame some shaky Toms River South defense — four errors and two passed balls — to pitch five solid innings. Lynch allowed three runs, but just one was earned, and he struck out five while allowing six hits and only one walk. A pair of sophomores followed Lynch on the mound, with left-hander Aiden Moylan striking out the side around a walk in the sixth inning and starting third baseman Christian Mascarao closing it out with a scoreless seventh, sending Toms River South to the handshake line with “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra playing over the public address system.

While the defense was mistake-prone, it also delivered in key moments as well. Rightfielder Karsin Migliori was not in the batting order, but left his mark on the game with three plays in the field, including a diving catch near the rightfield line for the final out of the second inning. Shortstop Ruben Febres made a first-inning error and catcher Chase Tworkowski committed a passed ball that helped Barnegat score its first run in the third inning, but the two combined for a caught-stealing in the third in which Tworkowski placed his throw to the front of the second-base bag and Febres made the pick and quick tag for the out.

Lynch also picked up his shortstop by picking off the runner at first base immediately after Febres committed the error in the second inning.

Lynch, Febres and Tworkowski were all integral parts of Toms River South’s hitting attack on Thursday as well. Lynch ripped an RBI double to give Toms River South a 2-0 lead in the second, Febres cracked a double to deep left-centerfield and scored a run, and Tworkowski singled home a run during the Indians’ five-run fifth inning.

Senior first baseman Ben McEwan and junior centerfielder Ryan Randall each added two-run hits in the fifth inning. Randall made it 7-3 with a single and McEwan capped the scoring — and his perfect day at the plate — with a double to the left-center gap. McEwan was hit by pitches in each of his two plate appearances, then collected a pair of hits to complete a 2-for-2 day in the batter’s box.

Junior designated hitter Brett Rankin also had a strong home opener, finishing 2-for-3 with two runs scored and reaching base in all four of his plate appearances, including once on an error and another via a walk. Jim Rankin is Brett’s uncle, and the emergence of Brett — also a key contributor for the Toms River South football and wrestling teams — underscores the family element of the Toms River South operation.

“Brett has earned his way into the lineup,” Rankin said. “He earns everything he gets. He is such a hard-worker and such a good kid, he makes it easy on me. When we’re out here, I don’t think of him as my nephew. I think of him as a hard-working, gritty, baseball player, wrestler, football player – like I look at the rest of them.

“After the game I’ll give him a hug that’s different than what I would give other players, but the kid’s a hard-ass worker, and I love what he’s doing. It brings my brother out, my family out for multiple reasons. Coach Frank always said, ‘Family first.’ To surround myself with family on this ride too is fantastic.”

It remains to be seen to what extent Rankin can restore the consistent winning and regular championship contention that was prevalent throughout Frank’s tenure up until the last two seasons.

The Indians face what figures to be the easiest schedule they have ever played this season thanks to a move from the traditional Class A South division to a Class C South division that is occupied by seven teams coming off losing seasons in 2024. That puts the possibility of a division championship in play, but when it comes to adding to the 12 OCT titles, Shore-Conference-record 10 NJSIAA sectional titles and seven SCT titles, Rankin is taking it one day at a time while honoring the man who set those lofty standards in the first place.

“It’s definitely a challenge I embrace. I can’t look at all those balls on the wall and say I’m going to do that,” Rankin said. “I’ve just got to do one thing at a time. I can’t think about putting more balls on the wall, although I’d love to. I’ve got to think about one win at a time. Today was win number one, and I’m pumped for these kids.”

 

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