A vital cog in the revival of the Rutgers University-Camden baseball program, Josh Copskey enters his fifth season as an assistant coach on Dennis Barth’s Scarlet Raptors staff. In his four seasons, that staff has transformed the program from a losing record to four straight winning years, including a 2014 campaign that earned the team’s first-ever New Jersey Athletic Conference regular-season championship and maiden berth in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship tournament. The 2014 team posted a stellar 30-13-1 record, only the second 30-win season ever for Rutgers-Camden baseball.
The Scarlet Raptors repeated their NJAC regular-season championship in 2015.
Success has followed Copskey everywhere he has been on the baseball diamond, as a pitcher at Gloucester Catholic High School and with the Brooklawn American Legion team, to his career at Siena College and his coaching days.
Nothing changed in 2013 when the Magnolia, New Jersey, native joined the Rutgers-Camden coaching staff. He helped to engineer a turnaround season as a first-year collegiate assistant coach with Head Coach Dennis Barth. The Scarlet Raptors’ 23-19 record was their first winning season since 2010 and only their second winning season since 2006.
For good measure, Copskey also helped Barth lead Brooklawn to back-to-back Senior American Legion national championships during the summers of 2013 and 2014.
A 2000 graduate of Gloucester Catholic High School, Copskey helped the Rams to a pair of Parochial A state championships in 1999 and 2000. The 2000 team also earned the national high school championship in polls by
USA Today, Baseball America and
Collegiate Baseball.
An All-Tri-County Conference and All-South Jersey baseball player at Gloucester Catholic High School, Copskey also earned All-South Jersey and Second Team All-State basketball honors for the Rams.
A four-year starter at Siena College, he appeared in 54 collegiate games, making 35 starts, and hurling 226 innings. He tied for the team lead with five victories and led the club with 70.1 innings as a freshman and compiled a 1.91 ERA as a senior. He graduated from Siena in 2004 with a degree in Marketing Management.
Copskey started his coaching career as an assistant for Barth in 2005, working with both the Gloucester Catholic and Brooklawn Senior American Legion programs. He helped Brooklawn earn a World Series berth and finish fifth nationally that season.
Copskey served as the Rider University Pitching Coach from 2006-08 and also has coached with the Brooklawn Junior American Legion (2008-2010) and Senior American Legion programs (2011-2013). Teaming with Head Coach Barth, he helped Brooklawn win state and regional championships in 2011, 2012 and 2013, earning a berth in the World Series each seasons. Brooklawn finished fifth nationally in 2011 and was the national runner-up in 2012 before winning everything in 2013.
Copskey also has served as a baseball instructor at the Sportz Central Academy in Bellmawr since 2008.
