Toms River South's Ken Frank leaves coaching legacy that changed Shore Conference baseball

To reach the rarified air at the summit of Shore Conference coaching requires a long climb that leaves an indelible mark on high school athletics at the Jersey Shore, and beyond.

Like the late Warren Wolf, whose Brick teams won 361 games, secured 25 divisional crowns and 13 sectional titles, while putting Ocean County football on the map. And Shore Regional coach Nancy Williams, who won 839 field hockey games, 563 softball games and more than 2,000 wins across all sports, while ensuring Title IX was a reality in New Jersey. And the late Vic Kubu, who won 263 football games between Middletown North and Manasquan, where the Big Blue went unbeaten six times, won 10 sectional titles, including five straight.

Toms River South’s Ken Frank was already a legend, but officially took his place among this elite fraternity when the 77-year-old announced his retirement after 46 years as the program’s leader Thursday night.

More: Ken Frank retires as Toms River South head baseball coach, marking the end of an era

It’s a career that includes a state-record 934 wins, a Shore-record five NJSIAA Group championships, seven Shore Conference Tournament titles, a record 12 Ocean County titles, and 22 divisional crowns. And, like the others, countless lives impacted.

As a player and then a top assistant coach under Frank for 31 seasons, Mitch Powitz had a front-row season to a Shore dynasty, announcing his retirement along with Frank after a season-ending loss to Delsea.

“You’re at the top of the game. It’s tremendous,” said Powitz. “If it’s college basketball, its Dean Smith. College football it’s Nick Saban, modern NFL it would be Bill Belichick. You’re right there in the foxhole with him, and you’re making sure everything is on path and the trains are running on time.”

Anyone, anytime

When Wolf got the Brick job in 1958, he set about scheduling the top teams in New Jersey, including the likes of Phillipsburg and Montclair, in the quest to build the program into a state power. That was the same philosophy Frank took at Toms River South, seeking to make waves beyond the Shore.

“I picked up Elizabeth, Edison. We played the best teams because I wanted to prove to these kids they could play with anybody, and it worked,” Frank said. “They bought into it and we could compete with anybody and then we started going South and could compete with anybody, and that was the belief.

“We put Ocean County baseball on the map back then because everybody was just playing locally. I said, ‘I’m going to play these teams.’ Then people are like, ‘hey, you just beat Elizabeth.’ We can play. And then the kids start believing it. It’s been that way for 45 years. We took them to Florida and played in the national tournament.”

And it all came together in 1990 when they beat Pascack Hills to win the NJSIAA Group 3 championship, the school’s first state title.

“Probably the greatest moment was 1990, we went up to Princeton and the first state title,” Frank said. “That was all the hard work of playing the best teams and everything else. That was one of five state championship which I’m very proud of. That’s one of the highest. That’s how hard they are to win.”

Lasting bond

For more than three decades, Frank's done it with Powitz by his side, joining the staff in 1994.

“He’s like a son to me,” Frank said. “We talk almost every day in the spring between the weather, the pitching rules, the lineup. Mitch is so loyal, a great assistant coach, a great assistant head coach and he would have been a great coach somewhere, but we stuck together. We enjoyed coaching together. We got that bond and it’s great. Our families get along well and he deserves an awful lot of credit for keeping me going the last few years.”

“We always say jokingly that coach has four daughters, I have three daughters, so these guys are like sons to us,” Powitz said. “You build those relationship so, it’s cool. And we’ve done it together over the past 31 years. It’s been great.

Frank indicated his departure was in part tied to a serious car accident he was involved in last October. But both Frank and Powitz admit that the changing landscape of high school athletics played a role in the decision to step away.

“We kept it in perspective, we played hard and I was tough but fair. But I see a little difference the last couple of years with the increase in parent involvement,” Frank said.

“Even though you think they relate to you and you can relate, society is different and kids are raised different and the emphasis is on different things,” said Powitz.

Now it’s time for Toms River South baseball to head in a new direction, with a foundation for what’s possible already in place thanks to Frank, whose impact on the game, as well as countless lives locally, are part of a coaching legacy that places him among the Shore Conference’s greatest ever.

Stephen Edelson is a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey sports columnist who has been covering athletics in the state and at the Jersey Shore for over 35 years. Contact him at: @SteveEdelsonAPP; sedelson@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River South's Ken Frank leaves coaching legacy second to none