On Saturday morning I received a phone call from a good friend that my former HS baseball coach had passed away earlier that morning of a sudden heart attack at the age of 65. I spent alot of time with this man. I was fortunate to start for him at SS as a freshman and experience playing for some great teams under his leadership. We appeared in two regional finals and set a valley record for wins my sophomore year in 1990 going 26-1, our only loss was our last game in Canton's Munson Stadium against a hot Austintown Fitch team. In the paper for the preseason preview he sarcastically predicted "we will be lucky to win 4 games this year". That was his demeanor. Never let your head get too big and in the way of what needs accomplished. So, even though we knew we had a great team ready to go, he tried to keep us grounded and task oriented.
He also served as an assistant for our Steubenville Post 33 Legion team for my four years there and we won the state title my 15 year old year in 1989 and finished runner up in the Great Lakes Regional in Ilinois.
I couldn't even get away from him in the fall as he was also my QB coach in football. There were times I wanted to kill him. He was very demanding and as a Kid, I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now.
We had some very talented players on that 1990 baseball team. 5 of the seniors that year went on to D1 schools to play (The Citadel, Mercer, Wright State, Ball State, Akron, and Penn State), but it took him to hold us all together and keep us all level headed.
Heck, I even got to work with him for my first 10 years as a teacher since he was our Phys Ed teacher at the junior high. We ate lunch together everyday for those 10 years until he retired 3 years ago.
It's funny how we forget to thank those who have an important impact in our life until it is too late. Actually, it's not funny at all... it's pretty damn sad. I never thanked him properly. For that, I am ashamed, but I think he knows the important impact he had on my life and many other athletes he encountered.
Here is a local news tribute to him. I thought you guys might want to see it since I'm sure you have at least one coach in your life that has a tremendous impact on who you are today as well. Enjoy...
http://www.wtov9.com/videos/news/reflections-on-the-local-sports-contributions-of/vpLHb/