Fox Chapel grad Noro set to step in as new coach of Cal (Pa.) baseball team

When Fox Chapel grad Joey Noro got into the baseball coaching ranks, he, naturally, received a few words of wisdom from veteran coaches.

One piece of advice was to be choosy about who he married. After all, being a coach doesn’t entail a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday schedule, so it takes a patient, understanding woman to live that life. Noro found that in his wife, Taylor, who grew up as the daughter of a coach and knows the drill.

He also was told to make sure he took some time for himself. That’s a nugget he took from Cal (Pa.) coach Mike Conte, whom Noro served under for nine seasons.

And there has been plenty of baseball information handed down as well. Noro will get to put all of these on- and off-field lessons into practice as he assumes the role of head coach at Cal. Conte announced his retirement in May and officially will step away Aug. 11 after 29 seasons and 802 career wins.

“I think it’s a unique challenge,” Noro said about following Conte. “A lot of times when these jobs come open, it’s because the program hasn’t been trending in the right direction. So it’s a unique challenge in that (I) don’t have to rebuild a program. It’s kind of already in place.

“So you just do the best job you can do to keep it going in the right direction and keep recruiting really well and maybe put your spins on it here and there.”

Noro said he got the itch to coach after his playing career at Montevallo, where he was a pitcher, was finished. (He played two seasons at the Division II Alabama school after two years at an Alabama junior college.) And it didn’t take long for the itch to strike. Noro said he didn’t even make it through the summer right after graduation before he started missing the game.

He spent three seasons as an assistant at Calhoun Community College, where he played, before moving on to Lawson State Community College in Birmingham. He returned to Western Pennsylvania in 2014 to coach for the Pittsburgh Diamond Dawgs travel ball organization.

“It’s so different when you have to try to teach it, and maybe (the players) have been taught something different,” he said about his early challenges of being a college coach. “So it’s just trying to learn what other guys know and how to teach it and convey it.”

Noro said it also is important to know that, even though he is in the role of a teacher, he can never stop learning.

“I think the most important thing is understanding you don’t know everything,” he said. “I think being open-minded to a lot of different things and trying them out. … (Conte) had (coached) for so long, but he was so open-minded to different ideas, different techniques and maybe different practice stuff.

“I think that helps out a ton. It brings some new life to everything.”

What Noro doesn’t have to bring new life to is the Vulcans. Cal is coming off a season in which it went 38-15 (19-8 PSAC West). The team, in fact, hasn’t finished under .500 since 2017, and with Noro already having been on the staff, there will be a comfort level between him and the players.

Several underclassmen who were key players this spring include outfielder Ikon Jones (.323, 22 RBIs, 15 SBs), utility player Connor Evans (.330, 20 RBIs), pitcher Michael Valente (10-1, 3.15 ERA) and reliever Jake Kramer (4-1, 3.00 ERA, 11 saves).

Noro has met with the players who are scheduled to return and is eager to hit the ground running in his new job. He is optimistic he can keep the Vulcans near the top of the conference.

“We have a very blue-collar mentality,” he said. “Year-in and year-out, (we’re) kind of a gritty team that’s going to be really tough to play against.”