Chuck Jeroloman prepares to make a catch in his final season of professional baseball with the York Revolution in 2010. (Photo: Blogtoblogchamps.com)
Jeroloman Had a Plan on Way to Joining Gators
Friday, August 30, 2019 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Steady reminders of his former player's career climb were never far from earshot for Chris Finwood, who for the past eight years has been head baseball coach at Old Dominion University.
As an assistant coach at Auburn in the early 2000s, Finwood recruited a middle infielder at Wellington (Fla.) High named Chuck Jeroloman. Not only did Jeroloman sign with the Tigers and become one of the Southeastern Conference's top shortstops, he and Finwood became close friends despite their coach-player relationship.
"Me and him kind of hit it off,'' Finwood said recently. "He was just a solid, solid guy. A great competitor and tough-minded kid, and as good a defender as you could ever ask for in a college shortstop."
The 36-year-old Jeroloman shares a similar regard for Finwood.
"He had a really big impact on my life,'' he said.
As their baseball careers set them on different paths for the better part of a decade – first as a professional player and then as a college coach for Jeroloman – the two men spoke regularly. And when they didn't, Finwood would hear about Jeroloman from others.
Sometimes from unlikely sources.
Following his freshman season at Auburn, Jeroloman spent the summer of 2002 playing for the Peninsula Pilots, a collegiate summer-league team in the Coastal Plains League operated by longtime associates of Finwood, a native of Hampton, Va. The Pilots are based in nearby Norfolk and compete with the Cape Cod League and other summer leagues around the country for players. Jeroloman's first baseball card as a minor-league player.
Regardless of where Jeroloman has been since he started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Texas Christian eight years ago, he would help the Pilots fill out their roster when he could.
"They still talk about him,'' Finwood said. "He stays in touch with those guys and they still talk about what a favorite guy of theirs he is. He is very good networker, which is why he is a very good recruiter."
Jeroloman's reputation earned him an unexpected call from Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan in June. Shortly after finishing his second season at USF, where he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, Jeroloman was at the Palm Beach Classic prospect showcase scouting players. During a rain delay, he went back to his hotel. That's when O'Sullivan called.
O'Sullivan, who as a Clemson assistant coach faced Jeroloman's Auburn teams three consecutive seasons and now knew him as a fellow coach, had a simple reason for calling: he wanted to know if Jeroloman would be interested in joining Florida's staff. Not long afterward, Jeroloman was on another recruiting trip in South Florida, this time for the Gators.
"It's been unbelievable, honestly, what Sully has done to take this program to the next step,'' Jeroloman said. "Year in and year out you kind of know what you're getting on the field. The success they have had in the program, you honestly couldn't ask for a better situation in the country if you ask me."
Jeroloman's ties to the SEC stretch back to his playing days at Auburn, where he played from 2002-04 prior to being drafted in the 21st round by the Boston Red Sox following his junior season. When he was a junior at Auburn, his younger brother Brian was a freshman catcher for the Gators. The two former teammates at Wellington High shared a memorable weekend in May 2004 when Auburn visited McKethan Stadium.
The Gators swept the three-game series. The competition each time Chuck stepped into the batter's box was equally intense.
"We were just going back and forth,'' Chuck told reporters at the time. "The umpires loved it. They were laughing the whole time."
The Jeroloman brothers grew up around the game in large part because their father, Charles Jeroloman, was an accomplished athlete before becoming a policeman. The elder Jeroloman was an all-state basketball player at Suffern (N.Y.) High and later became an All-American softball player at the ASA National Fast-Pitch Tournament.
When the family relocated to South Florida when the brothers were kids, they played baseball year-round. One of their neighbors was big-leaguer Luis Alicea, St. Louis' first-round pick in 1986 who played in more than 1,300 games for five teams from 1988-2002.
A middle infielder who played at Florida State, Alicea would give Jeroloman gloves each season to use. Rita Jeroloman, a nurse and her sons' biggest fan, helped deliver two of Alicea's kids. Their lives revolved around the game, with Rita spending countless hours in the stands as her husband worked.
"They did everything they could for us to be at a baseball field every single day growing up,'' Chuck said. "We had a cage in our backyard. I haven't really known anything other than baseball except during pro ball in the offseason I worked at Macy's and Circuit City at one point."
Following college, Jeroloman embarked on a professional career in the Red Sox's organization. His first team was the Lowell (Mass.) Spinners in the New York-Penn League. His first manager: Luis Alicea. Jeroloman made it as high as Triple-A Pawtucket on two occasions, the last time in 2006.
He continued to play until 2010 when at 27, he finished his career with the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League. The Revolution delivered a closing chapter to Jeroloman's career that he cherishes.
Gators assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman spent the past two seasons as an assistant at South Florida. (Photo: Courtesy of USF Athletics)
"The last game I played we won the Atlantic League championship,'' he said. "I played with a bunch of guys I got to know very well. It was the last time I laced up cleats instead of turfs."
With a wife and young son, Jeroloman began preparing for the future by finishing his college degree online in the offseason. He already knew what he wanted to do after playing. He wanted to have the same kind of impact that Finwood had on him.
When he got an offer from TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle to join his staff as a volunteer assistant in the fall of 2011, Jeroloman took it. He had to start somewhere. That led to a full-time job at Jacksonville University and then a two-year stint at USF, where to continue the Jerolomans' baseball odyssey, he got to work last year with Brian, the Bulls' volunteer assistant coach.
For Chuck, the plan has paid off with a position that reunites him with Gators assistant Craig Bell, an assistant coach on the 1999 Wellington High state championship team Jeroloman played on.
"I knew that when I was done playing I wanted to coach, and I knew that I wanted to coach college baseball,'' Jeroloman said. "When I got my degree in the offseason and Schloss over at TCU offered me a volunteer job, I jumped on that. It was honestly the best thing for us."
Meanwhile, Jeroloman's former infield coach at Auburn expects to hear more about his ex-pupil now that he's with the Gators and has an opportunity to impact some of the top young players in the college game.
"I'm excited for him,'' he said. "He's a good communicator and he's likable. Those are two things that are pretty key in teaching these kids today. He'll listen and get them on his side and he'll be able to instruct them because of that.
"I've made some calls for him and tried to help him out whenever I could and he's done the rest. It's not surprising he's at a place like Florida by now. He understands the week-to-week grind that that league is, so none of that is going to surprise him."
