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Coach of
the year
ELDRED — Eldred Central School (ECS) girls basketball
Coach Frank Kean was chosen by the Times Herald Record as basketball
coach of the year. His stellar forward, senior Christine Lizzi,
was named to the newspaper’s third All-Stars team.
Kean, who has been a math teacher at ECS for 29
years, spent 24 seasons with girls basketball, 12 of them as head
coach and 12 on JV team.
“Decisions that I made this year during games were
the right decisions, and made the difference in gaining the victory,”
he said. “The experience paid off.”
He brought the team from a 10-10 record last year
to a 20-4 record this year. The Yellow Jackets were champions of
Section 9 Class D. They lost to the defending state champions, Haldane
High School, in the state championship semifinals.
Kean has also coached football for 25 years at
ECS, and baseball for 28 seasons. His baseball teams won six championships.
What is his secret of coaching?
“I think the girls know I care for them first as
a father, whether they win or lose, and the next day I’m not going
to take it out on them,” he said. “They make mistakes. I make mistakes.
Whenever we lose, I blame myself for the loss. I don’t blame them.”
Kean is a fundamentalist. “I show them basics.
If you know the basics, you can get yourself through any ball game.
Teaching the basics pays off.”
Christine Lizzi attended ECS during her freshman
year, but attended private school for her sophomore and junior years.
She returned to ECS as a senior and became the team’s play-maker
and leading scorer.
“When I returned to the team, I didn’t find it
hard to fit right in again,” Lizzi said.
Lizzi said she knew her team would be successful
even though they lost the season’s first game. “Our first game was
against Ellenville, who won it all last year,” she said. “Even though
they beat us, we only lost by five points, so I knew we were a good
team.”
Lizzi plans to attend either Muhlenberg College
or Susquehanna College next year. “I’m definitely going to play
basketball in college,” she said.
Traveling
‘coach’ class
By CHRISTOPHER FREY
There are no coincidences.
The news of Coach Bob Werneke’s death reached me
via e-mail while I was on vacation. It was one of a series of annual
trips with friends on their sailboat; the task of organizing these
adventures rotates and this year the leader was a hardy, former
Hawaii Ironman triathlete and ski instructor known to one and all
as “Coach.” As gifts for my crewmates, I had had some hats made
up that read “Cruisin’ with Coach--2001.”
The point of this story is that, while ordering
the hats, I was once again reminded that it is impossible to enunciate
the word “coach” without the image of Bob Werneke sneaking back
into my consciousness. I know that for thousands of kids who passed
through the Eldred Central School District (ECS), for their parents,
for other citizens, and for his colleagues, he was the proverbial
sketch in the dictionary that illustrates the word.
Many local folks have eloquently, lovingly and
reverently reminded us of Bob Werneke’s legacy; we all know that
his name has been permanently affixed for years on the part of the
school building that most closely depicted his primary role in the
life of the community. Yet Coach’s influence reached far beyond
the sweaty confines of gymnasiums, team buses and the urgent huddles
of a thousand time-outs.
He was the man who may well have demonstrated far
more courage as a Driver’s Education teacher than he did under fire
in World War II! Not only did he climb in the car with us hormone-impaired
adolescents, buzzing on Yoo-Hoo’s and Hostess Cupcakes (with the
squiggles on top), but he actually taught many of our mothers to
drive.
Transplanted New Yorkers, who had spent their childhoods
slipping tokens into turnstiles, now were settling into this tiny
“upstate” town, and they had to learn to drive unwieldy sedans with
standard transmissions. Gritting his teeth and probably wishing
he were dropping down into the driver’s seat of a tank somewhere
near the Maginot Line, Coach Werneke braved this frightening assignment.
He was also the man who methodically gathered,
cut and stacked firewood for the winter—playing the diligent squirrel
against many of us profligates, who focused on filling immediate
needs. Just driving past the Werneke home was an instant character
lesson.
Certainly most of the Werneke legend sprang from
his work with the Physical Education classes and virtually all the
ECS sports teams for many years. In the 1963 baseball season, we
were treated to a preview of Coach’s frugality and discipline. We
were happily marching toward the Western Sullivan League (WSL) championship
on the strength of Jim Purcell’s dominant pitching arm, and Coach’s
scheduling prowess that allowed Jim ample time between games to
recover and thus pitch them all!
Toward the end of the season we began to notice
that the baseballs were getting dirtier and more ragged. Coach kept
sending us deeper into the woods to retrieve foul balls, and opposing
teams were getting embarrassingly close to taking up a collection
for us.
We finally realized what he had been up to when
we arrived at the Werneke home for the post-season picnic. There
in his backyard, just a few yards from the orderly woodpile, the
newly crowned WSL champs got to autograph a box of brand new shiny
baseballs for each other and create cherished mementos of that unique
season. Coach had seen to it that we got a little something extra
without breaking the sports budget.
Through the years, generations of eager students,
occasionally in mis-matched ECS uniforms, put Coach’s stomach to
the test. I have a few vague memories of his hard-earned “ulcer”
and his jacket pocket full of antacid pills. What I know for certain
is that Bob Werneke had grander plans for us than could have been
delineated by that ancient time clock with the sweeping hands and
the burned-out bulbs that was suspended behind the team bench.
There are no trophies in the cases that testify
to that vision, but we all carry them within us. I was once again
thankful for Bob Werneke’s legacy the other day when I sat on a
boat in the bright sunshine and tipped my hat in farewell toward
the heavens.
It was no coincidence that it was a baseball hat
and it said “Coach.”
Local
teams make the grade
DELMAR — The New York State Public High School
Athletic Association, Inc. (NYSPHSAA) announced its State Champion
Scholar/Athlete Teams for the winter 2000-01 sports season. Teams
earned the title State Champion by having varsity team members earn
the highest academic average in their sport.
Many area schools competed for these titles. Each
received NYSPHSAA awards for teams who achieved an average of 90.0
percent or greater during the winter sports season.
The program is in its 10th year and continues to
receive sponsorship by the Pupil Benefits Plan, Inc.
Local Section 9 teams are listed below with their
sport, number of team members and average GPA.
Port Jervis High School, Wrestling, 10, 91.220;
Monticello High School, boys skiing, 7, 95.000; Sullivan; West Central
School District, girls basketball, 8, 92.627; Tri-Valley Central
School, girls basketball, 7, 91.637; Roscoe Central School, girls
basketball, 7, 91.193; Port Jervis High School, girls basketball,
7, 90.500; Monticello High School, girls basketball, 8, 90.429;
Liberty Central School, girls indoor track, 10, 91.300; Monticello
High School, girls indoor track, 9, 90.333; and Monticello High
School, girls skiing, 12, 99.143.
The top NYSPHSSA Scholar/Athlete teams in Section
9 were the Monticello High School girls skiing team with a team
GPA of 99.143 and the Monticello High School boys skiing team with
a team GPA of 95.000.
Doherty
wins St. Paddy Pace
MONTICELLO — The St. Paddy Pace at Monticello raceway,
an event for Irish-American drivers only, saw Mike Doherty, son
of the famed Jim Doherty, rein Southern Justice to a length victory
over Jim McCormack, driving Mystical Wizzard. Third place went to
Kiko Jay, handled by Mickey McNichol.
With the eight-horse field shortened to seven with
the late scratch of Jimmy Morrill, Sr.’s pacer, Southern Justice,
the odds-on favorite in the race, was hustled to the front by Doherty.
Once comfortable in the lead, Doherty kept his pacer rolling and
was never challenged until the stretch when McCormack closed the
gap and made a run at the leader. Southern Justice was up for the
challenge and held off McCormack’s Mystical Wizzard for a 2:04:1
victory for owners Mark and Phyllis Liebowitz.
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