HERKIMER — Herkimer College has dipped into the area’s high school coaching ranks and brought back an alumnus to guide its softball program.
Dan Stalteri, an assistant coach for Herkimer’s 2013 NJCAA championship team, was announced this week as the next head coach of the Generals who will be bouncing back from uncharacteristic competitive struggles.
Herkimer finished 4-18 in 2024, ending streaks of Mountain Valley Conference titles dating back to 2011 and Region III championships started the following spring.
Meanwhile, Stalteri’s New Hartford Spartans went 13-7, earned a No. 1 seed for Section III’s Class A playoffs, and were beaten in the finals by Tri-Valley League rival Camden for the second year in a row.
Stalteri was the head coach at Herkimer High School for nine years following the death of Missy Lasowski under whom he had worked as an assistant. He took the New Hartford job for the 2000 season and won a Class A sectional title in 2022
Stalteri also served as an assistant coach at Herkimer College from 2012 to 2018, a period during which the Generals won 275 games, averaging 39.3 per season with a high of 46 in 2016. In addition to winning the program’s one Division III national championship in 2013, with a coaching staff that also included current Rome Free Academy coach Emily Cowell, the Generals were four-time runners-up during Stalteri’s previous tenure.
The 2013 coaches received the NJCAA’s coaching staff of the year award.
“We’re thrilled to welcome coach Stalteri back to the Herkimer College community as our new head softball coach,” said Don Dutcher, the school’s director of athletics, in a release announcing the hiring. “He has a deep understanding of our program’s tradition and values and brings a passion for development and competition that will elevate our student-athletes on and off the field. It’s always special when someone knows what it means to put on and represent the Herkimer College athletic uniform. We’re excited for what’s ahead under coach Stalteri’s leadership.”
Herkimer won the Region III-A championship under Louie Friend in 2024 and finished seventh at the national tournament. The 2023 Generals finished third at nationals.
The team failed to qualify for its regional tournament this spring.
Stalteri, a town councilman and deputy supervisor in the town of Herkimer, earned his associate’s from what was then Herkimer County Community College in 1985 and his bachelor’s from Utica College of Syracuse University two years later. He is the vice president of Hummel’s contract furniture division, and also offers private batting instruction through Performance .420 CoachStalteri LLC. He formerly cached the Utica Lady Comets’ 16U and 18U teams, and currently oversees player development for the 8U through 16U age divisions.
There are plans to turf the Generals’ home field ahead of next season, and Hekimer was awarded the national tournament for three more years last October. The tournament has been hosted by Herkimer at Carrier Park in greater Syracuse since 2021 and will remain there through at least 2028; the 2024 tournament was played in Tennessee.
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Herkimer College hires New Hartford’s Dan Stalteri as its new softball coach
Reporting by Jon Rathbun, Herkimer Times Telegram / Times Telegram
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
