The drive from Union County, New Jersey to Manhattan isn’t an easy one. Josh Osit knows as such — it was one he made every day. When the New Jersey native stepped in as an assistant coach at Columbia in 2015, he spurned the option to move nearer to the City. Instead, he drove through heavy traffic every day, crossing the Hudson River and cutting into Manhattan.

That journey — sometimes taking up to an hour — was worth the congestion for the coach that never wanted to leave New Jersey.

And now, he won’t have to. On July 12, Osit was announced as the head coach at nearby Seton Hall. It’s a far friendlier commute, and perhaps more importantly, an opportunity for Osit to mold a program closer to home.

“I'm a Jersey guy. So I grew up here, I lived here my entire life,” Osit said “So I think anyone who's from New Jersey and loves it, you take pride in the universities in your state doing well.”

Osit has kept those Jersey connections alive throughout his career. He attended NJIT as an undergrad, a two year starter for the Newark-based school. His coaching roles have all been in or near the confines of the state, too. Since 2011, Osit has been involved in PDA, one of the best club setups in the country. This job, then, is the next step in Osit’s New Jersey career, one he can make his own.

July is an unusual time to accept a coaching job. Conventional wisdom says that it’s too late, too close to preseason. There’s little time to evaluate a squad, and assuming a role without getting a glance during a spring season is supposed to be something of a risk. It’s a poor time for recruiting, too. Seton Hall’s incoming class is mostly set and top level club play has come to an end.

That didn’t matter to Osit when athletic director Bryan Felt reached out. A phone call became a campus visit, the hiring process eventually sealed within three weeks of original contact.

“It got to a point where I wanted it if it was offered to me,” Osit said.

And despite being in the job for less than a week, the work has already begun.

Osit has an expansive network in the New Jersey soccer scene. He can ring up coaches at PDA and other top clubs in the area, asking about a specific player. He can talk to club directors to get a sense of who might be coming through the ranks. And then there are the connections he made while on the recruiting trail at Columbia, where he held copious conversations with parents and players.

So, when he accepted the job, the phone calls started. He reached out to some familiar faces and also received some messages in return. It’s the beginning of what he hopes will be a New Jersey pipeline, with some of the best players statewide turning their eyes on Seton Hall.

There are, indeed, other states where Osit can recruit from. Nearby New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania all have excellent club setups of their own. In New Jersey, though, Osit doesn’t have to go far for quality. PDA, Match Fit, Cedar Stars and STA are all among the top clubs in the nation — and send scores of players to the college game every year. The high school scene is equally rife with prospects.

“You're a Big East program, in a state like New Jersey, you have the wealth of talent in your own state, you're almost doing the program disservice by not going after those kids,” Osit said.

He’s aware that he won’t turn the head of every recruit. Seton Hall’s success on the pitch has been jarringly limited, and it hasn’t mustered a winning season since 2011. Add to the fact that the best players in the state disperse across the country for their college ball, and getting his top choices every single cycle will be difficult. Still, Osit is counting on the lure of the Big East conference, the opportunity to stay home.

There's a method involved, too. Simply picking up the best players from the state might not work. For any college program, recruiting is a mixture of talent and fit. That’s especially true for a program looking to rebuild, and lift itself out of the depths of one of the nation’s most difficult conferences.

For that, Osit has a vision. He wants to put together a team that will fight, one that will dispel the notion that Seton Hall is an easy three points every year. And working within the boundaries of a state he knows so well, that mantra could soon become reality.

“No longer are people going to look at Seton Hall as a win on their schedule, they're going to have to show up with their toolbox and their hard hat, and they're gonna have to work for it,” Osit said.

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