Back to the roots for hardwood coach

Highland Park athletes will tell you that there’s something contagious about playing sports at the school. It’s a sense of familiarity that stays with you long after graduation and can be a factor in luring you back home. This is the case for 2002 graduate Tim Stark HPHS '02, who has returned to the Stockman Gym as assistant coach of girls basketball.

“To me, it’s familiar because this team is in the same spot I was in during my time here,” Stark said. “They’re competing for the lead in the Blue Division and preparing for a deep state tournament run. I’ve had the chance to learn a lot from [head coach] Erin Washington and the kids. In the end, I make decisions but they do all the work on the court.”

Growing up in the borough, Stark was always involved with sports. His mother and father ran the “Parents of Athletes” organization for years. They also set up the girls' recreation program in town during the early '90s (sister Jen graduated from HPHS in 2000) by calling every girl in the Friend Finder at the time.

“I was always around the girls programs because of my sister and friends,” Stark said. “Half the time I was in the gym playing ball it was after or during a girls practice. I listened to their coach [Ernie Vejda] and his teaching helped me develop too.”

 

As he collected nine letters across three varsity sports in his time at the high school (cross country, basketball and baseball), Stark was somewhat of a renaissance man. He participated in pep band, choir, plays, Yearbook and Honors Society in addition to working basketball clinics, after-school programs and summer camps since the age of 15.

 

He believes that there’s a common mindset that unites all current and former HP athletes.

“Highland Park has 400 kids and we’re good at stuff,” Stark said. “Look at the girls tennis program over the years and football this year. Other schools that we play are not as small and they can’t stand the fact that we’re good. We take pride in the underdog role.”

During his time at HPHS, Stark was known as a three-point shooter on the hardwood (playing against the nation’s top team in Saint Anthony as a junior and senior) and an outstanding lefty hitter on the diamond. While batting near .390 in high school, he collected over 100 hits, 10 home runs, and 100 runs scored.

“I had skill and ability but I lacked a certain amount of fire,” Stark said. “It’s interesting now because you want to see that kind of determination in your players. You can’t teach that heart, hustle and fire aspect. The hardest part of coaching is motivating that mindset everyday.”

Stark’s baseball prowess was on display in the summer before his senior year. On July 1, 2001—while at Rutgers baseball camp—Scarlet Knights coach Fred Hill approached Tim’s father and said he wanted Tim to play at RU. He enrolled at Rutgers as a preferred walk-on in the fall of 2002.

After being cut during his freshman year due to a logjam in the outfield and a hitting slump, Stark wasn’t going to give up the game he loved.

“I played five years of club baseball at Rutgers,” Stark said. “I was president for two of those years and it gave me my first coaching experience. Giving tips, setting up drills, motivating people to come out and making lineups were all a part of the process and I got a lot from it.”

 

Stark graduated from Rutgers in the spring of 2007 with degrees in Sport Management and Communication. Entering the job market during a tough recession, he worked at The Studio at 808 fitness center in the borough for a while, before succeeding in an electronics sales position with Bose.

 

“Up until then, my only jobs had been with teachers and helping people,” Stark said. “I realized that was more of what I was looking for because you can go home most days and feel like you really accomplished something.” Currently pursuing an alternate route teaching degree for physical education at The College of New Jersey, Stark is excited about what the future holds.

“My dream job is to teach physical education in a school,” Stark said. “Coaching anything would be a bonus to me.”

 

In his second go-around at Highland Park High School, Stark has been able to learn a lot while being a part of the girls basketball program. His fond memories of Owls athletics stay with him to this day.

 

“I remember watching [current NFL tight end] L.J. Smith play basketball and it inspired kids my age to take the steps to try to get where he was,” Stark said. “I’d love to see kids from Bartle and Irving come out to the games and get the chance see what Highland Park sports brings to the table.”