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Sunday, May 18, 2003     Page: 3C

Finally our senior year arrived and it meant the last time to shine with
our golf careers in high school. Before the season started, there was a little
problem that occurred. Our coach, who was with us since the program had
started at GAR, was unable to return for his third year. This left the team
struggling to find someone to replace him.
   
The searching ended when Mr. Robert Rushton decided to take the job out of
the goodness of his heart. He took the offer to coach so the seniors, Anthony
Cibello and myself, Holly Shubilla, wouldn’t have our senior year ruined. Mr.
Rushton knew that our team wasn’t going to be expecting a Wyoming Valley
Conference Championship, but that didn’t affect his decision.
    I admire him for taking the opportunity to coach Anthony, myself, and the
rest of the team. If it weren’t for Mr. Rushton we might not have had the
Grenadiers competing in the 2002 season.
   
Mr. Rushton taught us a few things throughout the three months such as
responsibility, discipline, respect and, the most important, to have fun. A
few members of the team were new to the sport and this meant he would have to
have a lot of patience.
   
Both Anthony and I look up to Mr. Rushton not only on the links, but also
in the classroom. Mr. Rushton happens to also be our senior class English
teacher. I can personally say that he has affected my life in more ways than
one. He happened to be part of my District Championship that I attained this
past season.
   
As for what he has done for both Anthony and I this year, he has taught us
the importance of golf. He made us both see that this is more than a silly
game, but the love for a game. We both agree that he has made us understand
the value of the sport and also how much it really means to us. Mr. Robert
Rushton deserves everything for all the time and effort he had done for us
this past season.
   
Holly Shubilla
   
Wilkes-Barre Township
   
Anthony Cibello
   
Wilkes-Barre
   

   

   

   

   
Courage, faith, and that never-say-die attitude all play a huge part in a
high school coach’s personality. Berwick varsity baseball coach Bill Martz
shows a great amount of each of these characteristics. In Berwick, football is
praised daily, while other sports are overshadowed sometimes. Berwick football
coach George Curry has built one of the winningest programs in the state, and
is recognized frequently. In my mind, it is not the wins or losses, or even
the amount of championships they’ve posted. It is those three characteristics
that make a high school coach’s legend live on.
   
Courage – The first week of the high school baseball season the Berwick
baseball community lost a great person and friend. Bill Martz’s son, Jonathan
Martz, passed away after a six-and-a-half-year battle with cancer.
   
With only four seniors (one returning starter), and nine varsity
inexperienced sophomores, the season looked dreadful from the beginning, and
now any parent’s worst nightmare made the challenge even harder. Coach Bill
Martz and son/player Ben Martz both took the season as a crutch to walk them
through this long tough journey. It took great courage for both to come back
in the following days, and work hard at what both of them do best. Play
baseball!
   
Faith – As if the start of the season didn’t have enough to say how the
season looked. The Berwick varsity baseball team would lose seven games by
four runs or less throughout the season.
   
In most cases it seemed as if the team looked unstoppable, and hardly
looked like a young, inexperienced team. “I do not know what we have done to
anger the baseball gods,” jokingly said coach Martz after a 6-5 loss to
Lake-Lehman, in which Berwick had a 5-2 lead going into the last inning. Yet
he had good faith toward every player each and every day. He always praised
that the hits would soon fall in, and we would be on the other side of luck.
Instead of giving up on us, he had much faith in each individual player, and
the team. Maybe that was what turned the season around from that point.
   
Great players have a short memory, and they also have that never-say-die
attitude. After a half inning, Pittston Area seemingly closed what looked like
the end of Berwick’s season with a smothering nine-run first inning. Bill
Martz gathered his players together and responded, “This is what we’ve worked
for, now let’s see what we’re made of.” After an hour-long slugfest, Berwick
was up 12-9, and it didn’t stop there. The Berwick and Pittston players
battled it out for seven innings.
   
At the beginning of the year the ideal situation for the Berwick pitching
staff was to get into the fifth or sixth inning with a lead, and bring in hard
right-handed throwing relief pitcher, Frank Jankowski. Unfortunately that
situation had backfired more than planned. Frank Jankowski fed off Bill
Martz’s determination and closed out one of the best games this season in the
Wyoming Valley Conference.
   
“We told you guys in the beginning of the season that we would stay with
you, and work hard each and every day,” coach Martz said. That game seemed to
be one of the few shining moments in the season, but it wasn’t just one game
that made coach Martz the great coach that he is. He always expects the best
out of you, pushing you to the limit, and striving hard to succeed.
   
Through a frustrating, struggling season, the Berwick baseball coach has
shown some of the greatest characteristics a high school coach should possess.
He may never win six state championships, or be named the Wyoming Valley
Conference coach of the year. As a player I have learned many things from him
these past two years, and even though it’s been a bumpy road, he never stopped
playing and coaching the game he loves. That’s what a high school is all
about.
   
Tyler Bloom
   
Nescopeck
   

   

   

   

   
In response to your question about which high school coach is best. I’d
have to say Coach Marjorie Adams of Dallas. She coaches middle school cross
country in the fall and high school track in the spring.
   
She is an amazing coach because she really knows a lot about the sports she
coaches and she is so kind to her runners while still encouraging them to push
their limits.
   
I know that as a cross country runner she taught me that our sport is an
honorable one, and that the whole team matters, not just the top five runners,
who score. Coach Adams is the ideal high school and middle school coach, and
in my opinion, the best coach in the world!
   
Anonymous
   

   

   

   

   
I have been following the process of the way we hire local coaches in this
area and when I look in the newspaper and see that a coach’s record over a
three-year period is 5-25, why would you continue to keep torturing the
players and the parents of these children with a man quite obviously who does
not know how to build a program?
   
Guess it is like everything else in this system we call hiring the most
qualified. In reality, the school is taking it out on the innocent young boys
who come out and give blood, sweat and tears for this game we all love. Do you
think it is in the best interest of the program that a realistic search for
the most qualified person continue so the kids do not lose interest in
becoming the best they can be?
   
This game is about molding and shaping young men and to develop them and
their character. Let’s stop catering to the tune of nepotism and racism and
give these kids a chance to be all they can be.
   
Anonymous
   

   

   

   

   
I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to claim that Rollie Schmidt is the best
coach that this area has ever produced. But, I will say, unequivocally, he is
right up there on a short list of the truly outstanding ones.
   
As a very good friend of his since our high school days at Coughlin, I
could be accused of being biased, but that is not the case. I was very close
to the program and saw firsthand what transpired and can be very objective
concerning it.
   
His record as head football coach at Wilkes speaks for itself. In the 1960s
the team had a 32-game winning streak, with 11 of those wins being shutouts.
Under his guidance, and with the help of his loyal coaching staff, 65 players
earned spots on the Middle Atlantic Conference All-Star squad, and another 10
spots on the Eastern College Athletic Conference All-Star team. His teams won
two Lambert Bowls, symbolic of Division III Eastern Football supremacy. In
1968 the Colonels also were named winners of the “Timmil” Award, symbolic of
the Most Outstanding Small College Football Team, by the Washington Touchdown
Club.
   
He had all of the necessary qualities to be successful. He knew the X’s and
O’s; could evaluate and place talent at the proper position; could motivate;
was a fierce competitor; paid attention to details, and was willing to accept
input from his assistant coaches. When you add the skills of organization,
planning and preparation, you can see why he was successful.
   
I might add that there were many games that Wilkes won during Rollie’s
tenure where the other team had more talent. One example was Ithaca College.
Wilkes was able to beat them a few times despite being outmanned. I remember
one particular game versus Ithaca in which Wilkes lost a very close game.
After the game in the coaches’ room one of the assistant coaches was bemoaning
the fact that the staff and the team had worked so hard during the week
preparing for the game and just came up a bit short. Rollie in his own
inimitable way said, and I paraphrase, “Look at it this way, if we didn’t work
so hard, they would have blown us off the field.” He meant, of course, that’s
how much more talented they were.
   
Rollie also coached baseball and golf at Wilkes and was successful in both
sports. As baseball coach, he guided the Colonels to their very first Middle
Atlantic Conference Championship in 1968. As golf coach, he led the team to
over 200 wins and three Middle Atlantic Conference Championships. His 1976
team had a 16-0 record and a 14th-place finish in the NCAA Division III
National Championship.
   
To sum it up, he was the type of coach who could “take his and beat yours,
and then take yours and beat his.”
   
P.S. Aside to Joe Long: Jimmy Atherton certainly does belong in the elite
category of Valley coaches.
   
Bill Stavishak
   
Wilkes-Barre
   

   

   

   

   
The best coach ever without a doubt! George Curry – Berwick High School.
   
A) Winningest coach in PA history – 359 wins.
   
B) Six state championships.
   
C) 27 championship seasons.
   
D) Over 2 million dollars in scholarships for his players.
   
Anonymous
   

   

   

   

   
The coach that influenced my life in high school was Kathy Healey of Seton
Catholic High School. I was fortunate enough to not only have her coach me
four years in basketball both as an assistant coach and head coach, but also
had her as coach of girls softball for four years.
   
As a freshman, I was coerced into the sports program with the help of my
late father who also played multiple sports in his high school days during the
late 1940s. Due to the many exciting funny stories I heard from him growing
up, I joined the basketball and softball teams being an inexperienced wannabe
athlete. At that time, I did not even know the difference between offense and
defense.
   
Kathy took much time and effort to teach me the unique intelligence behind
the games played on the court and diamond, which helped me create some
unforgettable memories and stories of my own. Practices were sometimes tough
and tiring, but this strictness helped me learn that nothing comes easy in
life. She taught me that you have to give respect to earn respect.
   
Kathy Healey explained the reasons behind the challenges and
competitiveness that come along with the game. I still practice her philosophy
of competitiveness and take on challenges in my life today whether it be
through my job, relationships with family and friends, or through every-day
activities.
   
Kathy brought out my strong athletic talents and helped me strengthen my
weak skills whether those skills were physical or mental. She made me out to
be a better and more confident person.
   
It is because of Kathy Healey I still enjoy hearing the swish sound a
basketball makes flowing through the net, the squeaking of sneakers on the
court, or the cheers of fans yelling for their home team. It is because of
Kathy Healey I still savor the crack of a ball hitting the bat and the feeling
of my spikes digging into the dirt of the diamond anticipating catching a fly
ball. Thank you to Kathy for having that special influence and helping me to
challenge the games of my life.
   
“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the
credit”.
   
Marcia Tomaszewski
   
Dupont
   
Seton Catholic High School Class of 1992