After winning 68 percent of its basketball games under Jan Cocozziello the past five seasons, St. Joseph of Metuchen has decided to seek greener pastures under new leadership.
He has been informed that he would not be rehired for the 2024-25 season and that “A search for the next head basketball coach will begin immediately,” according to a press release distributed late Monday afternoon.
“It’s not my decision, it’s theirs, so I guess they can do whatever they see fit,” said Cocozziello, who compiled an 88-40 record. “We won a lot there and we sent some guys to college, which I’m happy for. I thought we did some good things in the (uptempo) style I wanted them to play.
“I just wanted to challenge guys and get them ready if they wanted to play in college,” he said.
St. Joseph was 19-9 this past season, reaching the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals, where it lost to St. Thomas Aquinas, 56-51. The Faclons also reached the quarterfinals in the South, Non-Public A tournament, falling to Paul VI, 64-59. Cocozziello’s Falcons had defeated St. Thomas Aquinas in two regular-season games prior to their GMCT clash.
“We thank Coach Cocozziello for his contributions to the storied Saint Joseph basketball program and wish him much success in his future endeavors,” said athletic director Bill Tracy in the same press release.
Cocozziello said he had no immediate plans of pursuing another coaching position in the immediate future, but would not discount a return at some point. He is head golf coach at Union, where he is has worked the past four years as a physical education instructor. He was at Science Park in Newark before that.
Cocozziello began his coaching career shortly after his 2008 graduation from Division 3 Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., where he was a four-year starting guard on the basketball team. He was an all-Empire 8 Conference honoree for all four seasons, and he stands No. 3 on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,868 points. Cocozziello was inducted in the Hartwick Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.
Prior to Hartwick, Cocozziello starred in football, basketball and baseball at Westfield before graduating in 2004. One of his baseball teammates was Mike Murray, who hired Cocozziello in the summer of 2019 while he was school’s athletic director. Murray is still the baseball coach at St. Joseph, but Tracy, also the head football coach, recently became athletic director.
“Mike Murray is the one who gave me a shot, and I’ll always be appreciative of him, and I’ll always be appreciative of the people who coached with me,” Cocozziello said.
Cocozziello was an assistant at St. Joseph under Mike Thompson for two seasons before his appointment as head coach. He also had served as an assistant at Watchung Hills and Westfield.
Cocozziello did not surmise as to the specific reasoning behind his dismissal, though perhaps it because the Falcons did not win either a GMCT championship or South, Non-Public A title in his five seasons. They reached the South A final in 2023, where they were defeated by Union Catholic, 86-72. Union Catholic went on to win the overall Non-Public A title.
“I wish we would have won that sectional title last year. That was always my goal,” he said, “to win a state title in my first five years. We came up short.
“We didn’t win a title, but I met some great kids and some great people here,” Cocozziello said. “I still have relationships with the guys I coached in my first year (the Falcons were 19-9). I still talk to them a lot and see how they’re all doing in college or work. That kind of thing is special.”
Cocozziello had some strong teams, but nowhere near the level of individual talent that graced St. Joe’s lineups in the several years before his arrival – such NBA great Karl-Anthony Towns, Wade Baldwin, Marques Townes and Tyus Battle.
This past season’s star, guard Jeremy Clayville earned third team All-Non-Public honors and will continue his career at St. Joseph (Pa.). The only other Division 1 athlete in Cocozziello’s five seasons was 2023 graduate Joshua Ingram at Lehigh. Ethan Simmon, a 2022 graduate, is at Division 2 New Haven, and 2021 grad Elijah Barlow plays at Division 3 Ramapo.
Mike Kinney can be reached at [email protected].
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