While Zoe Totaro was searching for the right college fit, she was building an impressive statistical resume on the softball diamond.
College coaches, however, are rarely impressed with a high school athlete’s statistical accomplishments. They more routinely trust what they see in a player with their own eyes.
Totaro’s training and experience — since the age of 10 with the Finch’s Aces program out of Diamond Nation and playing for Hunterdon Central High in the rugged Skyland Conference — was what was truly preparing her for the next level.
What attracted Wagner head coach Glenn Moore to Totaro were the same things the people around the talented shortstop had been saying for years; she’s athletically gifted, a hard worker, leads by example, a team-first player and is always working to improve.
As Totaro matured noticeably as a player the past two years, she also began to take on the look of a Division 1 player. Zoe, rather, was focused on the fit, rather than the level of play a college offered.
“I was originally looking at Muhlenberg and Dickinson,” said Totaro of the two Division 3 programs with excellent academic reputations. “I really liked Dickinson but they didn’t have my major.” Totaro began, at that point, to expand her search, quickly landing on Division 1 Wagner.
“I had talked to Caldwell (Division 2) earlier before Muhlenburg and Dickinson offered me,” said Totaro. “Then I reached out to Wagner by email.”
The Staten Island-based college quickly turned its head toward Totaro as a mutual interest took root.
Wagner, coincidentally, is the alma mater of Diamond Nation’s assistant general manager Ami Iwicki, who also had a terrific softball career at Hunterdon Central (‘04) before shining collegiately at Wagner (‘08). Iwicki has been providing Totaro lessons for nearly 9 years.
Zoe Totaro batted .418 for Hunterdon Central last spring and boasts 72 career hits.
“I didn’t influence Zoe’s decision about Wagner,” insisted Iwicki, who more accurately prepared Totaro for that level of college ball with her hitting and fielding instruction. “Zoe is very hard working. I’ve watched her grow into a great young player. It’s very rewarding. I had a great experience at Wagner and I know she will, too. They play a great schedule. She’ll be close to home and close to the city.”
It’ll be an easy trip to Wagner for Totaro’s family.
“I’ve worked with Ami at least once a week since I was 10,” said Totaro. ”It’s been a constant. We’ve built a really good relationship. She’s always there to help, whether it’s hitting or fielding. I even text her videos of me playing and she points out what I’m doing wrong.”
All of that tutelage from Iwicki, Totaro’s Aces coach Scott Cahill and her high school coach Kelly Rieder have helped polish a player steadily focused on simply getting better.
Totaro’s most recent eight months of softball, beginning with her junior season at Hunterdon Central last spring, have been both impressive and a period of glaring improvement. It’s as if Zoe responded to her commitment to Wagner in May as an opportunity to double down on her commitment to the game.
Totaro led perennial Skyland Conference power Hunterdon Central with 38 hits and batted .418 as the team rallied from a slow start to win the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex championship and reached a fourth straight NJSIAA sectional final in 2023. The team finished an uncharacteristic 15-11, but went 13-5 after a 2-6 start. More importantly, Rieder will return almost all of that resilient group for the 2025 season.
Shortstop Zoe Totaro batted .412 in the summer and .537 in the fall for the Finch’s Aces.
“We are hoping to start this year off with a bang,” said Totaro. “We had to learn how to play together last year. We only had four returners, but we really pulled it together. It was such a fun season and we enjoyed being around each other. Once we learned each other’s skill set, we began to click.”
A lot of that chemistry can be attributed to the leadership of Totaro and Red Devils pitcher Emily Van Cleef, the team’s captains in ‘25. Totaro was the team’s lone captain as a junior. “I’m very excited to have Emily as my co-captain this year,” said Totaro.
Van Cleef, by the way, led the team with a .472 batting average last spring and, after returning from injury, pitched to a 2.20 ERA and struck out 70 batters in 63⅔ innings. She is committed to Boston College.
Totaro gained valuable time on varsity as a freshman, becoming the starting shortstop fairly quickly while batting .294 in sporadic appearances at the plate — she was often DHed for in deference to that deep 2022 Red Devils lineup.
She quickly became one of the centerpieces of a 23-6 Hunterdon Central team as a sophomore in 2023, playing both ways in front of older sister, Celia, a senior who patrolled center field before heading off to star at Scranton University. Celia earned All-Landmark Conference last spring as a college freshman. Zoe batted .358 that sophomore season when she and Celia combined for 60 hits and 35 RBI.
Always a strong and talented shortstop, Zoe Totaro’s consistency on defense has elevated.
Rieder retells a story when Zoe caught a cleat to the lip covering a steal attempt at second base in a HWS semifinal game against High Point in 2023. “She cut her lip wide open, got a quick bandage to stop the bleeding and went right back out there,” said Rieder.
Totaro was barely distracted by the injury.
“I didn’t notice (the cut) at first but our third baseman Grace Griesler saw it after the next pitch and called the trainer over,” said Totaro. “They let me get cleaned up and I went right back in to play short. After the inning, (trainer Jeff Paszkewicz) taped up my lip so I could finish the game. I went to Urgent Care after the game and got six stitches in my upper lip.”
On top of all the grittiness, says Rieder, “Zoe is versatile. She can play most positions and will play wherever needed to do what’s best for the team. She’s smart, competitive and has a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality. She’s a very determined player, is committed to her teammates and coaches and knows what needs to be done to win.”
Totaro’s hard work and determination began to reap even bigger dividends in 2024, setting the stage for both her commitment to Wagner and the promise that lies ahead for the 2025 season.
“I was keeping in touch with Wagner (last winter) by email,” said Totaro. “I kept getting notifications that they were reading my emails and watching my videos. In March, they reached out to coach Cahill to set up a phone call with me.
“I talked with coach Moore and we had a great conversation. He’s such a good guy. He’s a new coach. It’s only his second recruiting class. We set up a visit for mid-April.”
Totaro quickly felt at home on her visit. “I knew Wagner was a small school, but it doesn’t feel small. One of the assistants showed me around. I watched the team practice, met the girls and saw the dorm rooms. And, of course, Wagner boasts a strong elementary education program that fits Zoe’s desired career path.
The maturing approach at the plate that Rieder and Totaro’s Hunterdon Central teammates saw in the spring continued to blossom in the summer and fall with coach Cahill and the Finch’s Aces
“As proud as I am of all Zoe has accomplished on the softball field, I’m mostly proud of the person she has become,” said Cahill. “Zoe is a coach’s dream and checks all the boxes as a player and a person.”
Zoe joined the Finch’s Aces as a 10 year old at the same time sister, Celia, then 12, joined the organization. So this summer and fall would be critical toward her development. She batted .412 during the 30-game summer campaign with 11 extra-base hits and 19 RBI. But Totaro felt there was more significance to other improvements she realized in her game.
“I feel like my fielding got a lot more consistent through spring and summer,” she said. “That was my main focus, staying consistent in the field.” She also has taken Cahill’s advice on focusing on the good and letting the bad fall away. “Coach Scott has helped me to learn to turn the page when things don’t go well. You have to be able to forget.”
Having the fortitude to overcome the inevitable negatives every softball player encounters can be a lethal weapon in a player’s arsenal.
Part of Totaro’s preparation for the 2025 season includes significant time in the Hunterdon Central fitness center under the direction of Hunterdon Central’s strength and conditioning coach Paul Kolody. “Zoe is very focused in our training sessions,” says Kolody. “Her intent is to get better every day and that shows in the way she goes about her business and the way she holds teammates accountable for their actions. I think that transfers well for her leadership role this spring.”
Zoe Totaro (12) and Emily Van Cleef (15) are the Hunterdon Central captains for the 2025 season.
Totaro’s fall season with the Aces revealed an even more dangerous hitter fortifying her skills just in time for that all important senior high school season. Zoe batted .537 with 29 hits in 23 games. But as gaudy as those numbers are, the more impressive development was found in the details.
“Most of my hits were in the gaps,” said Totaro. “I’m hitting the ball harder and centering it more, so I’m hitting more line drives. I really felt more of an improvement at the plate in the fall. I’m hitting different kinds of pitches more consistently. I’m so much more confident at the plate.”
She’ll enter her senior season with 72 career hits, well in reach of the coveted 100-career-hit plateau. “I wouldn’t say 100 hits is my main focus, but I find it very important to set personal goals for myself and that’s a big one. But I value my team’s success even more than my personal achievements.”
Totaro and the Red Devils certainly have bigger goals in mind, including continuing their dominance in the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament and trying to pin down the school’s first sectional softball championship since 2015, Rieder’s first year with the team.
Everyone knows the sectional championship goes through the Skyland Conference and no one knows that better than Hunterdon Central, which has lost in the sectional final four straight years to conference foes Watching Hills (twice) and Hillsborough (twice). The Red Devils also fell in the sectional semifinals to Montgomery in 2018 and ‘19.
“It’s very important for our team to win the sectional tournament this year,” Totaro says. “Our team has talked about it a bunch and everyone is just very excited because we have basically the whole team returning.”
It takes an awful lot of winning to reach so many championship games. Rieder enters her 10th season at Hunterdon Central with a 183-56 career record that reflects a gaudy .766 winning percentage. She, Totaro, Van Cleef and company are looking forward to that championship chase.
“We are very ready to get to work and hopefully end the losing streak in the sectional finals,” she said. “I’d say winning the sectional this year is at the top of our team goals.”
And, as Rieder says about Totaro, “When she wants something, she is determined to get it.”