Boca Raton Welcomes North Broward’s Rick Clagett As New Manager

Former North Broward Prep pitching coach Rick Clagett has accepted the job to become Boca Raton’s new baseball manager.

Clagett replaces Jeff Rosa, who recently resigned after one season to return to his former team at Gulf Coast High in Naples.

It is the first head coaching job for Clagett, who also has coached for many years at the collegiate level with Utah, Villanova and Lafayette College.

“This is a great opportunity and I’m very excited,” Clagett said. “My time at North Broward Prep was great, but this was an opportunity I could not pass up. North Broward treated me great and it was tough to leave there after bonding with those kids. My experience there was tremendous and I got to be a part of our state run two years ago, so I know what it takes.”

The Bobcats are coming off of a 10-17 season in which they advanced to the Class 8A regional quarterfinals, and Clagett is eager to build off of that success heading into his first season at the helm. The school’s junior varsity team also had a very strong season, and he is excited to infuse some of those new players with Boca’s returning starters.

Thanks in large part to the efforts made by the program’s booster club the school is also in the process of constructing a new field at nearby Boca Middle School. After the Bobcats were forced to bounce around between nearby Sugar Sands Park and Florida Atlantic University, they are eager to have a field they can call their own which is also just a few minutes drive from the school campus.

This past season was often compounded by last-second changes that occasionally forced the team to play home games on the road, such as against Dwyer and Spanish River.

“The booster club and the school did an outstanding job of getting the money for it,” Clagett said.

Clagett’s first order of business will be to get acclimated with his new players, as well as assembling his coaching staff.

“I am only as good as the people I surround myself with,” he remarked.

His former boss at North Broward Prep, Coach Brian Campbell, has all the confidence in the world that the team will be successful.

“He’s a great baseball guy and I’m sure he will do a great job,” Campbell said. “He’s family; he’s a brother of mine. I sure hate to lose him, but we’re all very happy for him.”

The two schools had played each other this past season, and Coach Campbell is especially hopeful that they will continue this tradition now.

“I’ve got to play him now,” Campbell joked. “He’s one of my best friends, so I have got to go out there and try to beat him now.”

These same playful sentiments are shared by Coach Clagett, who admitted that although the match ups will be friendly and fun he also knows that both teams will go strong at each other due to their relationships. Many of the players also share similar friendships, as the two schools are not located very far away from one another.

“Coach Campbell gave me a great opportunity at North Broward,” Clagett said. “To be around guys like them and get that kind of experience to coach and learn with them, and to be a part of a state run is something I’ll never forget. All these experiences will benefit me tremendously at Boca.”

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