It took six months, but earlier this week Notre Dame High School was finally able to name its sixth head softball coach in the past eight years when it hired Mike McQuarrie to take over the program. A graduate at Notre Dame in 2013, McQuarrie was previously part of the Notre Dame softball program for three years, including two as an assistant for Marty Schafer. A guidance counselor at the Bordentown Regional Middle School, McQuarrie then served as an assistant softball coach in the Bordentown High softball program before coaching the Bordentown Middle School baseball team. Now he is the coach of one of the real heavyweight programs in New Jersey softball and one that won two state championship when legendary long-time coach Artie Kearns was in charge. As has been well documented over the years, he is also now in charge of a program that’s often been plagued by in fighting and parental interference. As far as McQuarrie is correctly concerned, that’s all in the past. For him, it’s all about optimism and moving forward. “I’m going into this with a clean slate and looking to bring stability to the program,” said McQuarrie. “l love coaching girls. This is a dream job for me.” There’s no need at this time to rehash why it recently wasn’t a dream job for others in a program that has changed softball coaches seemingly as often as people change socks. Suffice it to say, things reached rock bottom last year when Chris Jackson quit as the head coach two weeks into the season and made it very clear at the time he was stepping down because of conflicts with parents. Jackson’s career record when he resigned was 28-3, and despite the controversy and chaos, Notre Dame still managed to go 25-2 last year and finish as the second-ranked team in the state. Considering McGuarrie comes across as a good guy and brings a lot of youthful enthusiasm to the program, it’s understandable why people will hope he does well. One thing that should definitely help him in terms of settling in is expectations will be lower this year. The Irish do have some very capable returning players, but they also got rocked by graduation. Among the departed is all-state pitcher Rylee Michalak, who is now throwing for the University of Houston. As for his coaching strategy, McQuarrie said he will take a wait-and-see approach. “I’m not familiar with the players,” he said. “I did meet with them and it seems like we have a good mix with four seniors to go along with the underclassmen. We will see what the players do well and hopefully execute that on the field.”