When Catasauqua’s Connie Mack program made its comeback last year, John Pushkar was happy to be an assistant coach on the team.

Pushkar, a baseball purist who would rather see the traditional summer baseball leagues flourish instead of the contemporary ones, enjoyed the ride.

It was the first time since 2018 that Catty fielded a Connie Mack team, and that team advanced to the state tournament in Limeport.

When former head coach Jason Fotta stepped down before this season, Pushkar entertained the thought of taking over the team. His work schedule would also work well around it.

With a 1-1 record through their first two games this season, Pushkar is optimistic that the team can find its niche along the way, with its share of growing pains. He will be assisted by Dan Lopez and Colin Hawk, the latter who was helped coach the JV team this spring.

“We’re very young,” he said. “We have two boys who were on the varsity last year, and a large number of players who were on JV, or just coming into the program.”

His son, John Jr., a junior, and freshman Reese Lopez handled all of the pitching duties in the team’s first two games. Both players pitched at the varsity level this past spring.

Other players who were part of the varsity program this past spring were Braden Bartholomew, Luis Collazo, Macks Gillette, Lincoln Moore, and Evan Reed. They all are expected to be key contributors throughout the season.

Pushkar expects to develop more pitching as the season quickly begins to pick up the pace.

“We have had a number of games rescheduled because of teams being in the district playoffs,” he said. “There will be one week where we will have three, four or five games. We know we have to work on our pitching. We think we have some boys here that can help us.”

With a group willing to learn and adjust, Pushkar likes his team’s chances.

“We have a good group of kids,” he stated. “We only had one practice before our first game, and everyone found their spot. We only lost 2-1 to East Stroudsburg, and we played well.

“We figure out more in the coming weeks, but we believe we can have a good run.”