1991 World Series team

Ewing, NJ ... Head coach Dean Glus, Associate Vice President for Development Pete Manetas, and Director of Athletics John Castaldo led a ceremony honoring the 1991 Trenton State College baseball team that finished runner-up at the NCAA Division III World Series. This year marked the 20th anniversary of that magical season.

A contingent of players from the '91 team joined their head coach Rick Dell to unveil the new monument that will stand just outside the backstop at George Ackerman Park. Dell currently works for Major League Baseball as Director of Baseball Operations in Asia. He flew in from China to attend the event.
“I've likened that season to the Robert Frost poem, 'A Road Not Taken',” said Dell, who was the head coach of the Lions' baseball program for 27 years. “We were in unchartered territory that year having never been to the World Series before. It was a very positive and progressive experience for us all and a common bond that we all still share to this day.”

Prior to that 1991 season, the Lions baseball program had come close, but never reached the Division III World Series. TSC advanced all the way to the championship game before falling to Southern Maine in the fnal.

The Lions finished with a season record 34-15-1. They played William Paterson, eight times that year, matching up with the Pioneers in a total of six post-season games. They defeated their conference rival in the regional final to advance the programs' first-ever World Series.

Six players earned All-American honors that season and a total of eight players from that roster were All-Americans during their tenure as a Lion.

“We had a lot of talent on the team,” noted Ed Yaris, who remains an assistant coach on The College of New Jersey baseball staff. “But even with all the good players we had, coach Dell really helped get us over the top. He was an outstanding motivator. He always knew exactly what to say at the right time and that's something I try to do to this day as a coach and teacher.”

The '91 team cemented the Lions' baseball program as one of the very best in the nation, a standard that continues today.

Glus was an assistant on that staff and coordinated the ceremony that included Joe Camillone, who was the athletic trainer and Manetas, who was then the school's sports information director. The event was scheduled to take place between games of a conference doubleheader against WPU, but poor weather conditions postponed the games.

During his career at the College, Dell compiled a career coaching record of 890-391-33.