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Legacy of love

Emotions and memories abound as Dick O’Neill’s storied career approaches its end

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONTICELLO, NY - It was Dick O’Neill’s night all right: replete with a plaque commemorating his 23 years of coaching at Monticello, photos to document his final season and a jersey bearing his old number from Chester High School, where his basketball career began.

The evening’s proceedings, attended by his family and old friends and defined by deafening cheers from the packed crowd, flowers, speeches and gifts, weren’t O’Neill’s idea.

Rather, it was a widespread expression of love and gratitude prior to his team’s final home league game against Cornwall, the Division III champion team coached by his dear friends Tom Howe and Glen McGinnis.

For O’Neill, what mattered most took place later in the locker room following the game, when he freely expressed his feelings about his team’s past and present and how much he has cherished the opportunity to coach.

About to exit the career that has in great part defined him, O’Neill reflected, “The two greatest moments were when I got the job at Burke and here at Monticello.”

These past 36 years have brought great success made notable most recently by the surpassing of his 400th victory at the start of the season. But for O’Neill, coaching has always been more about people than numbers.

Although the score on this night would be strongly in Cornwall’s favor with its 76-32 win, O’Neill’s numbers as a coach are extremely impressive.

With a record of 406-186, following the team’s sectional-berth-clinching win over Saugerties on February 16, the Panthers extended an unprecedented quarter-century-plus streak of qualifying for the big dance. Few Section Nine teams, if any, can lay claim to a similar run.

But many hours before as the day dawned, a sense of melancholy had begun to seep in, as O’Neill anticipated his last big night in “The Pit.”

“I never got over having to cut a kid from the team. I lost some kids along the way and sometimes I think I could have been more patient back then,” he admitted. O’Neill lamented that some kids, who stuck it out, never got enough playing time. “I wish there were more minutes in the game and that we could play more than five of you guys at a time,” he told his players.

But in the end, despite harboring some regrets, O’Neill echoed Frank Sinatra, and most recently Bobby Knight, to say, “I did it my way.”

“I celebrate all of you,” he told his players, past and present. “You’ve got a piece of my heart and what you’ve given me, I can never give back.”

A cadre of his former players, including former Albany All-American André Duncan, who journeyed from New York City, gathered to honor O’Neill. O’Neill’s first captain, Chris Patt, also made the trip from the city.

Words spoken by Richard “Moon” Ellis, Kenny Sanders, Patt, Kenyon Holland and Shabbani Davis amounted to an elegy to the man who provided them with lessons that have helped them to become successful in their divergent journeys.

To his former players, O’Neill is a friend for life.

“When I left high school and was playing at Mount Saint Mary, I wanted to give up,” said Davis, who played for O’Neill from 1991 to ‘93. “I wasn’t playing a lot and I was frustrated. Then I’d turn around and there was coach sitting at my practice.

“I really didn’t understand it until I was an adult. The lessons he teaches you will be with you for the rest of your life,” Davis told O’Neill’s current charges. “Sure, it was tough love at times, but he did so much for his players and this community. He cared about what we did both on and off the court.”

Others who understand O’Neill’s impact include Antonio Simmons, a standout guard who was part of the 1994 championship team, who came back to coach the team’s junior varsity, and assistant coach Chris Russo, who will take over the varsity reins next year following O’Neill’s departure. They’ve borne witness to O’Neill’s way with kids. They’ve learned that it is only by reaching out to students on a personal level that trust and respect are earned.

Unquestionably, the legacy of love and life lessons imparted by O’Neill will continue to resonate for generations to come. While many of O’Neill’s former players couldn’t make it to this special evening, many called to wish him well. If you gathered all the people whose lives were empowered by O’Neill, you’d need to displace the Lakers for one night to fill the Staples Center.

“People thought I was nuts,” O’Neill said about leaving Burke, but on those occasions when his Burke teams played Monticello, the coach saw something in the eyes of the young Monties. “I knew they wanted to be coached, that they wanted to play and that they wanted to win.”

And so for personal reasons, not the least of which included being able to afford the impending costs of a college education for his daughters, Dana and Lori, and to one day have a pension from a public-school system, O’Neill made the quantum leap from Burke to Monticello and numerous lives were immeasurably changed in the process.

Once at Monticello, O’Neill quickly established the new world order that gave rise to years of success. The first season he was there, the team made sectionals and the rest is history.

To ensure his team’s success, O’Neill reforged a work and behavior ethic that he first learned from his tough high school coach, the late Jim Brownley.

He took that with him when he graduated from high school in 1964, brought it to bear when he played as an All-American on national champion Kentucky Wesleyan and finally recycled it with his players at Burke and Monticello.

Prior to the game, Tony DiMarco gave O’Neill the Chester jersey and announced that the Chester school board was naming O’Neill to the Chester High School Hall of Fame. O’Neill holds similar honors at Burke and with the New York State Basketball Coaches Association.

In support of DiMarco’s recent release from his post as principal at Port Jervis, O’Neill and friends sported t-shirts that read “Team DiMarco.”

DiMarco, the former coach of Sugar Loaf, described O’Neill’s teams. “They out-hustled you and out-played you defensively.” That description still applies.

O’Neill presented Walt Saunders with a basketball commemorating his 25 years of service. “I came in with him and I’m leaving with him,” quipped O’Neill, who then gave a ball to announcer Evan Williams for his 40 years of service to the Monticello athletic department.

Once the varsity players gave flowers to the cheerleaders and seniors John Hernandez, Kyle Wigfall and Dior Jackson gave flowers to their parents, the lengthy pre-game ceremony ended and the teams took to the floor for a game that quickly became a one-sided affair. The Panthers had to play without Jackson, now lost for the year with a broken arm suffered against Goshen.

Cornwall (16-1, 6-0 OCIAA) will no doubt be a big story as they seek to defend their Class A Section Nine title.

They led in this game by the score of 14-9 at the end of the first quarter before moving out to a 39-16 lead at the break that swelled to a 54-25 margin by the end of the third quarter.

Howe deployed all 15 of his players, both in an attempt to give them minutes and to keep the score in check. Monticello is now 7-13 (2-4 OCIAA). They made sectionals by going 4-4 against Class A schools.

The Cornwall game was a subtext to the real story: the legacy of Dick O’Neill.

“It was a privilege to wear that Monticello jersey. Always carry yourself proudly and say I played basketball for Monticello and for coach O’Neill.” Davis told the 2008 squad, many of whom looked sad as they contemplated the meaning of the moment.

Patt summed what many of those young men learned in their brief tenure with the coach. “He treated us like men.” Then Patt turned to embrace O’Neill and said, “I love you. I thank you. You’ve been my coach and my friend. I care about you and I love you to death.”

Players past and present gathered around their coach for one final moment of unity. Moments come and go but it’s safe to say that what they felt when they joined hands will stay with them for a lifetime.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of pictures from the ceremony and the game.