Leaving the nest

Macholsky confirms he’s not returning as Pennsville’s basketball coach, just didn’t feel a connection to the team last season 

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – While many high school basketball teams are in the midst of summertime workouts, Pennsville’s program is in the midst of a coaching search.

Colorful Pennsville coach Joe Macholsky confirmed to Riverview Sports News Monday that he would not be returning to direct the Eagles’ program when school starts in September. He will remain a teacher at Penns Grove’s Carleton Elementary – he’s been a teacher for 29 years – and serve as an assistant for Pennsville’s boys soccer team “probably” one more year, but the hoops gig is over.

“I still haven’t snapped back from the devastation of the (last) season,” he said. “The juice was no longer worth the squeeze.”

Macholsky, 50, told Pennsville athletics director Jamy Thomas of his intentions back in April so the administration could start the process of finding a successor, but not many others knew. 

He had been the Eagles’ head coach for eight difficult seasons, never winning more than 10 games in any year, but the strain of a 2-22 campaign last winter that came with myriad challenges was the breaking point. And the prospects don’t look good going forward, even with a softened schedule.

“I just like it too much to put myself through that misery again,” he said. “It was the first time in my career I didn’t feel a connection to the team.”

Additionally, he had a health scare in late May that hospitalized him for five days. Two blood clots, believed to have formed after he took a wild warmup pitch off his shin walking to the first base coach’s box during Penns Grove’s baseball season, broke off and traveled to his lungs.

This story will be updated.