Higgins Turning Reins Over To Rovetto At C.S. Charter

When Mike Higgins took over as manager of the Coral Springs Charter baseball team following Jerry Albert’s departure after the 2011 season, he knew he was doing so only until he could bring in the right man for the job.

Higgins believes he has just that in Dan Rovetto, who joined the program last summer to help run the fall team. The plan was to have Rovetto transition into the manager role by the end of the spring season. That timetable has been moved up a bit as Rovetto will assume the manager duties after the 10th game of the season. Higgins broke the news to the team Wednesday afternoon.

The move will allow Higgins to focus more on his other job at Charter, being the athletic director.

“I think it’s the right thing, the fair thing not only for [Rovetto] but for the team as well,” Higgins said. “Dan is such a hard-working coach that I just felt now once we get to about 10 games, I’d like to turn it over to him. Dan is a coach who should have been a head coach five years ago, and he didn’t get that opportunity and now is the right time.”

Higgins plans to be an assistant coach through the end of the season and is hoping he can help the team advance farther in the regionals than it did last year, losing in the semifinals against Monsignor Pace.

“This is a very special team to me because it’s my last team,” he said. “It’s not about me, it’s about these kids. It’s about the program. I just want to do the right thing for the program and give us the best opportunity to win.”

The fall season has given Higgins an opportunity to evaluate Rovetto as his replacement.

“The fall fell back on me,” Rovetto said. “It was a nice experience from the conditioning and the weight room to the onfield stuff. [Higgins] saw I was ready. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.”

Rovetto spent five seasons as an assistant coach to Pat McQuaid at Nova, the school he starred for in high school, leaving as the all-time hits leader before going on to play at Lynn University. As assistant, he helped lead the team to back-to-back state titles in 2004 and 2005. Rovetto then moved on to coach for three seasons at Chaminade-Madonna under Paul Herfurth. Those coaches helped groom him into the leader he is today, Rovetto said. Herfurth especially helped show him how to run a program day to day, he said.

Higgins said Rovetto has a good rapport with the players.

“They know the leadership I bring,” Rovetto said. “They’re excited to have to me. I give them some energy. I’m ready to compete and go to battle with them, and they respect that. The kids know my background. I think that gives you some credibility. It’s the way you relate to kids that’s my strong suit.”

Rovetto said he hopes to maintain the level of success the school achieved under Albert and Higgins.

“It’s all about building and continuing the tradition, and it’s about getting kids into college, and Jerry and Mike did a good job of that,” Rovetto said.

To that end, Rovetto will maintain a “college-style atmosphere from practice to the conditioning, and that’s what the kids want.”

Rovetto said he values the administrative support he’s gotten at Charter, and it helps to have an athletic director such as Higgins who will work to help keep the baseball program thriving.

As athletic director, Higgins plans to continue the strong athletic program Charter has in place overall.

“I’ve always wanted to be an AD,” Higgins said. “This is my second year. I’m going in really enjoy the role of being AD because I feel I can mentor the coaches, and I get a kick out of seeing some of the younger coaches work and succeed. And we’ve got some fantastic coaches at our school, and I see my role as supporting these coaches. I want them to feel that it’s important to me and Coral Springs Charter School as a whole because we want to have a great program across the board.”

Higgins said he knew taking on the role of baseball manager was only a short-term job.

“I knew that I was only going to be head baseball coach a year, possibly two,” he said. “I knew I was going to do it until I had the right person. Now I know I have the right person baseball-wise. I want to support all of my coaches and all of my programs and want to have a family atmosphere around the coaches office.”

This year will wrap up 30-plus years of coaching baseball and football for Higgins. Within that time, he was the baseball manager at American Heritage from 1996-2000. He led the Patriots to the state title game in 1998 where it lost to district rival Westminster Academy in Rich Hofman’s first year there.

Higgins moved on to Charter in 2001 and spent five seasons as the head football coach.

“Now it’s time for me to hang up the cleats,” Higgins said.

Before he does, he hopes to see his team hoisting a state title trophy. Again, it will be all about the kids.

“I’m too old for accolades,” Higgins said.

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