A coach is part teacher, part parent, part student, part mentor, and part guru. He must possess a stern hand and a comforting touch-and the wisdom to discern when each is needed. Each decision he makes is a part of a perilous high wire act that can propel a team forward or send a season tumbling downward. But when does a coach truly become a coach? Is it after some athletic director looks across the desk, offers his hand, and says, "Congratulations, you've got the job? " Is it after that first win? That first championship? Or is it when all those nagging questions in the back of the mind finally stop nagging? Scott Illiano, head baseball coach of the West Essex High School Knights, chronicles his incredible journey from waiter in a chain restaurant to veteran coach in Our Time. Discover how an unproven coach and a patchwork group of underdogs battle injuries, biting cold temperatures, and fierce competition in their quest to win the Greater Newark Tournament, the oldest and most prestigious baseball tournament in the state of New Jersey. Twenty kids and four coaches share a dream and a whole lot of heart. Through their journey, in victory and defeat, struggle and success, readers will find out when a coach becomes a coach. Carraturo was born, raised and still resides in Tuckahoe, an Italian-Irish community in Westchester County, New York. He has spent over twenty-five years working on Wall Street. Married with three daughters, he is also an avid poker player.

Our Time

A High School Baseball Coach's JourneyBy Scott Illiano

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Scott Illiano
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-2756-9

Contents

Foreword.......................................................................ixIntroduction...................................................................xiii1. A Tiny Three-by-One-Inch Ad Can Alter Your Life Forever.....................12. Meet the Parents............................................................93. Daddyball...................................................................194. Let Me Tell You a Story.....................................................305. Cancers.....................................................................356. Prom Night..................................................................447. A New Balance...............................................................538. The Road to Heaven Goes through Seton Hall..................................599. Impossible Is Nothing!......................................................6710. It's in Our Covenant.......................................................7511. Two Slings and a Neck Brace................................................8212. Who's on First?............................................................8813. Safe Is Death!.............................................................10214. Rise Above It..............................................................10715. Poodles....................................................................11416. Torn Asunder...............................................................12517. You've Still Got Value.....................................................15018. It's Impossible, But I'll Do It!...........................................15719. If You Have a Big Enough Why...............................................16520. Cuidado de los Detalles (Attention to Details).............................17721. He's Got the Same Agent as A-Rod...........................................19322. Do You Believe in Miracles?................................................19723. How Am I Not Wet?..........................................................20224. Sunblock for a Night Game?.................................................21125. The Struggle Is within the Self............................................21326. Hold onto the Rope!........................................................21727. Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky......................................................23228. The Journey Is Better Than the Inn.........................................23729. Swimming Upstream..........................................................24530. It Will Be Difficult. It Will Be Worth It!.................................256Around the Horn: Seton Hall Preparatory School.................................261West Essex High School.........................................................263Glossary.......................................................................265List of Quoted Sources.........................................................267About the Author...............................................................269Acknowledgments................................................................271

Chapter One

A Tiny Three-by-One-Inch Ad Can Alter Your Life Forever

I suppose if I had gotten the job I wanted at Montgomery Ward, I never would've left Illinois. —Ronald Reagan Fortieth President of the United States

"Corner!" rang out from the hallway. My mind was somewhere back in Melbourne, Florida, where I had recently attended a tryout with the Florida Marlins. It was March of 1994.

I'm not sure which came first: the smell of the sizzling fajitas or the beckoning sound of "Corner!"

Screaming "corner" was a mandate from the higher-ups at a well known chain restaurant where I worked so the waiters and waitresses could avoid a collision while carrying fajitas. The management had insisted that servers sprint the fajitas out to the customer's table so the sizzle could be appreciated—but we'd better not bump into anyone along the way!

"Corner!"

"Eighty-six the quiche."

"Ixnay this."

"Ixnay that."

"What station are you? Early or late?"

"Pick up forty-eight; I'm in the weeds!"

How much of this could I really take? How much longer could I listen to the lingo and put up with obnoxious customers? How much longer could I tolerate the two-headed managers? You know the kind. They had one set of rules for me and another set for the female waitresses. These restaurant managers had a key principle that they adhered to in their management style: the prettier they thought you were, the fewer rules you had. Amy and Lisa, for example, had carte blanche, while I would have to make sure there wasn't a drop of ketchup on the bottom of the Heinz caps before getting signed out for the evening.

"Hey, Scott!" Collin, the manager, screamed out.

"Yeah, Collin," I answered.

"Scott, I don't think that seventy-year-old woman really asked for the Ranger game to be put on the TV near your section. If your food's not up yet, go run someone else's."

"You really think she's seventy, Collin?" I quipped.

"At least!" he yelled in disdain.

"Well, she might be seventy, Collin, but she was just saying `Mess is flyin' out there tonight.'"

"Mess" of course was Mark Messier. The New York Rangers were my team, and as a long-suffering fan, I believed in "The Curse." Legend had it that the Rangers' founder, Tex Rickard, had burned the deed to the old Madison Square Garden inside the Stanley Cup back in 1940. From that point on, they were supposedly jinxed, and I, for one, believed it. But there was something different about Messier. He wasn't like all those other big-name guys who would eventually turn into a bust. He had a look about him—and a tone in his voice. He talked openly about "slaying the dragon," which was his assurance he would end the curse. And, boy, could he play! For the first time in my life, he made me think that the Rangers actually could win. Messier's belief that curses simply didn't exist had a profound impact on me for years to come.

At my tender age of twenty-two, part of my motive for waiting tables was to pay for my mini-season ticket plan at the Garden. If this were to be the Ranger's year, I wasn't going to miss it. My other motive was that I had graduated from Ramapo College in December, and I didn't have a clue what I really wanted to do. Slowly, I was putting together a résumé. I convinced myself that I was entitled to enjoy the spring, and then I would get serious about finding a real job. In the meantime, I would keep hanging out with my friends, chase after girls, and follow the New York Rangers.

Some of that was my way of dealing with what had just happened in Melbourne.

Former University of Florida and current New York Yankees organizational guru, Pat McMahon, once said, "The game is always taken from you before you are ready."

The game was about to be taken from me. Hundreds of players had attended the Marlins' tryout in Melbourne. We had all run the sixty-yard dash and thrown from our positions. Only twenty-two players advanced to the next phase of the tryout. I was included in that group.

One of the coaches called us in and said, "Some of you are really...