West Boca High School has a new athletic director, Jerry Albert!

Coming from the talented Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami, Coach Albert is looking to lead the entire athletic program into this new and exciting challenge. Even more exciting is the fact that Coach Albert will now be West Boca’s head baseball coach!

I asked him what his main goal as the athletic director is right here at West Boca. He said the following:

“My main goal as the Athletic Director at West Boca is to ensure that every student-athlete in the program has an excellent experience playing high school sports. We are building “Great”… not good or very good… the goal is to be truly great and what I mean by that is we must hire great coaches who put together an excellent high school program for our student-athletes. We do not judge greatness by how many wins or championships we earn. We want every sport to be run at the highest level and every student-athlete to be a part of an excellent program.”

Coming off an 18-11 season, the Bulls varsity baseball team is looking to improve in any way possible. Sitting at 76th in the State of Florida, according to MaxPreps, the Bulls have bright things ahead of them. 

Senior Corey Kling, who had a .378 AVG, .477 SLG and .462 OBP last season with 34 hits, nine doubles, 22 runs, 10 RBIs, and six stolen bases, is committed to USF (South Florida). Kling had a 3.08 ERA last season in nine appearances with a 1-0 record.

The hype is also high surrounding juniors James Litman, Matthew Pagan, and Tyler Litchenburger.

I asked Coach Albert how excited he is for the upcoming baseball season and what his expectations are:

“We are always excited about baseball and the season; the year has different “seasons” and purposes. In the Fall, we look to develop the players physically… we do a lot of movement training, which combines speed, strength, flexibility, endurance and body movements and balance. We also use the Fall to evaluate kids in the Fall leagues.  Our goal is to build each player into the best player he can be… if we do this, then we will be very successful right away.  Our expectation once the spring season rolls around is always the same – win the game at hand, one game at a time… we expect to win every time we step onto the field.”

For the past 11 years, Coach Albert has coached a consistently successful program down in Miami. I asked him how he will translate that success to the program right here in West Boca:

“We have had a lot of success, not only with wins and championships, but also where we have our most gratifying “success” – helping kids find a college program where they can continue their baseball careers. This takes a lot of networking, connecting  and working diligently to get “eyes” on the kids. Most of our players wind up with opportunities to continue to play beyond high school and that is always very rewarding.

As far as bringing what we do to West Boca, we feel that there is a very talented group in place at the school. Now that we are getting to know them a little bit, we are seeing that they truly care about their game and that they are very open to our coaching. The kids really want to get better and they are already working hard at achieving their goals.”

Jerry Albert career coaching highlights:

• Varsity Record – 376-233
• 1st in District/District Champs – 2005, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022
• Regional Champs – 2016
• FACA Regional Coach of the Year – 2009, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2019
• Sun-Sentinel Coach of the Year – 2010
• HSBN Coach of the Year – 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022
• NY City JV Champs – 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998
• Molloy JV Record: 165-25