Bloomfield's Policastro Resigns
After 2 Decades As Head Coach

BLOOMFIELD- It’s not as if Mike Policastro has decided that he is done coaching the game he loves. It’s just that his 2-decade reign at his high school alma mater has now come to a close.

The longtime Bloomfield baseball coach, who will remain at the high school as a special education math teacher, has officially resigned from the coaching position he has held since 2007 after the Bengals completed a 7-20 season this spring.

The storied Essex County diamond program went just 22-57 over the past three seasons but also had a pair of North 1, Group 4 state sectional finalists in the past decade with the 2023 squad that finished 20-10 and the 2019 team which was 20-9.

The Bengals did send Policastro out on a positive note in this season's final week as the team reeled off three consecutive victories beginning with a, 7-4 win over Union City on Wednesday (May 20), a come-from-behind 10-8 triumph at Montclair Kimberley Academy on Thursday (May 21) and a 6-1 victory vs. Newark Academy in the season finale on Friday (May 22).

Policastro guided Bloomfield to two straight state sectional finals in his first two seasons at the helm, first in 2007 (before the Bengals fell to Randolph in the N1G4 final) and in 2008 (defeating Memorial of West New York for the state sectional championship before falling to North Hunterdon in the Group 4 state semifinals).

Bloomfield reached five state sectional finals in his 19 seasons at the helm (2007, 2008, 2014, 2019 and 2023) and advanced to five GNT Final 4’s (2007, 2008, 2014, 2019 and 2022) and one championship game (runner-up in 2022), while also winning four conference division titles (2007, 2008, 2019 and 2023).

“I never take credit for winning which can’t happen without the players I’ve been fortunate to coach here through the years,” said Policastro, who has a career record of 315-326 in 24 total seasons as a head coach at three different schools, including 264 wins in 19 seasons at Bloomfield. “I put the lineup out there, I don’t play, but I always try to do my best to coach the kids ‘up.’

“What defines these past two decades with the players I've had at the high school - including with some who I had since when they were second graders at our summer camp - are relationships built through the years.

“I’ve been to their weddings, and am called ‘Uncle Poli.’ I have no regrets and I've had a great time coaching the kids at Bloomfield where I feel I’ve been able to touch a lot of lives.

“I’ve also been blessed to have so many great coaches who worked alongside me through the years.

“And, while I am stepping aside now at Bloomfield, I still have the desire to coach, and I will certainly consider returning if the right situation comes along.” 

The impressive list of assistant coaches during Poli’s reign includes two men who have had two different tours of duty with the Bengals in Rich Adams and Liam Penberthy, with the latter being a former Bloomfield All-Essex outfielder who also guided Glen Ridge to a state sectional title as the Ridgers’ head coach.

Other Bloomfield assistant baseball coaches in Poli’s reign have included Steve Tice, Mike Carter, Jr., Mark Amato, Kevin Miller, Tommy Petrillo, Mike Bruno, Joe Azzolino, Mike Aldiero, Sean Downey and Danny Marroquin, who is the former head coach at Memorial (West New York).

Carter, Jr. is the son of former Bloomfield baseball coach Mike Carter, who remains as the school’s longtime football coach. The younger Carter who was on the staff at New Jersey City State University this spring, was a hitting machine with the Bengals during his high school days before going on to star for coach Fred Hill at Rutgers University. 

Policastro, who will turn 55 on Dec. 4, began his long and varied high school coaching assignments in 1993 fresh off a Hall of Fame college playing career at Fairleigh Dickinson University where he starred for legendary coach Dennis Sasso. His first role was as a 22-year-old JV coach at Wallington on the staff of highly-regarded, 400-win coach Jimmy Kondel.

Policastro was then a head coach for the first time at age 25 at Manchester Regional where he spent two seasons (1996-97) before a 3-year run as the head man at Saddle Brook (1998-2000).     

An important and impactful stretch of his still-burgeoning coaching career came next as an assistant on head man Mike Hamburg’s staff Union High School from 2001-2005. He was part of a staff that guided the Farmers to a Group 4 state championship in 2002 along with receiving The Star-Ledger Trophy as the state’s No. 1 ranked team.

“Coach Hamburg was a great mentor who taught me a lot about how to communicate with kids, and how to not always approach each player in the same way," he said. “I had always been a fiery player who gave 110 %, but he showed me that there can be a different way to talk to kids in order to bring out the best in them.

“I had a great experience and learned a lot during my time at Union.”

After one season on the staff at New Brunswick in 2006, Policastro was selected to be Bloomfield’s new head coach for the 2007 season beginning a 20-year run and 19 seasons with covid wiping out the 2020 campaign.

The last three seasons have been tough ones after some good ones throughout his two decades at the helm with an 8-19 record in 2024 (3-8 in the Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division), 7-18 in 2025 (1-9 in the SEC’s third division, the Colonial) and 7-20 (3-7 in the Colonial) this spring.

“Coach Policastro has been a dedicated member of our school faculty and has been a hard-working coach with our Bengals baseball program,” said Bloomfield Athletic Director Steve Jenkins. “We appreciate the efforts he has put in through the years and wish him the best moving forward.”

NOTES- 'Poli' was inducted into FDU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. He played first base and finished with 25 home runs and a career .342 batting average during a storied career with the Knights. He still holds the FDU single-game record for RBIs with 9… He and wife Joelle, a former softball standout at Belleville, and a longtime North Jersey softball coach, reside in Wayne with their two children, Giuliana, 16, who is a sophomore at Passaic Tech where she is a member of the Wayne school’s JV softball team, and son Dante, 12…Poli, a 1989 graduate of Bloomfield High School, worked alongside legendary coach Joe Cucuzza in helping to guide the Bloomfield American Legion team to a third-place finish in the Legion state tournament in 2008…When Poli took over as head coach at Bloomfield High School in 2007 he followed Mike Cowan, who had been the head coach the previous five seasons after taking over the diamond program after Mike Carter stepped aside to concentrate fully on his duties as head football coach.