Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Diamond Diary by Kevin Cooney
11/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nov. 7, 2002
Parents and Alumni Weekend
Our annual Parents and Alumni Weekend was held last week. The Fall is the normal time for this event, however last year's was held in February because of the Sept 11th tragedy. If you are an alum and did not get contacted, I apologize and encourage you to send me your email address. Send it to kcooney@fau.edu. This has become the easiest and most effective form of communication.
Friday afternoon saw an intra squad game played in front of a good sized crowd of parents and families. For some of these families, it was the first look at their kids in an FAU uniform. I was trying to find Rick Pignatello's Mom in the crowd. She was dating one of my players back in my very first year of coaching and I wasn't real confident that I would recognize her. Luckily for me Rick drilled a home run late in the game and a roar went up from five people in the stands. As they stood and cheered, they were also on cell phones relaying the good news back to NJ. It was easy to spot Carol thanks to Rick.
That evening we hosted the Alumni in the Founders' Room at the Oxley Center. Dickie and Mac secured us food and beverages for the evening and a good time was had by all. We showed the highlight video of the regional on the big screen tv. It was a good night. I was pleased with the turnout of former players. It's good to see that they enjoyed their stay at FAU and made good friends. That's what college is about.
It was good to see Tom MacLane, L.J., Gabe, Pat Murray, Scott Scrivner, Nick Presto, Tommy Murphy, Carmen and Joe Cali, Brent White, Garry Kamphouse, Rich Ozarowski, Mick Celli, Whit, Casey McGuire, Daron Balducci, Kevin Connacher, Matt Freeman, Brennan Hervey, Dickie Hart, George Roig, Nick Mattione, Dan Jackson, Jim Cooney, Anthony Doudt, Regan Samaniego, Clint Conway, Zack Roper, Tim Harikkala, Mike Gavino, Tony Von Doltren, Scott Hansen, Ryan Humphrey, Jeff Blair and Ryan Withey. I'm sure that I am leaving someone out.
The Alumni Game brought rain again, but it was brief. We managed to get the sun to come out and get things started on time. The Alumni jumped out to an early lead, but we kept fighting back and eventually tied it in the eighth. I thought we were going to have to play extra innings, but we managed to scratch out a run against Brent White. It was probably the first run ever scored off Brent in an Alumni game. He had given me a $1000 check prior to the game, but said he would cancel it if we beat them. I deposited it during batting practice and haven't heard from the bank!
Tony Von Doltren provided his usual comic relief. No girl's bathing suit this time. But his wig, beard and hat drew laughs from the crowd.
Dan Jackson showed us that he is a big game pitcher capable of throwing on limited rest. (hours not days )
Dick Hart (Dickie's skinny father) challenged me to bat against my son Jim. It was my first trip to the batter's box since 1973. After one ball whistled over my head, the catcher told me what pitch was coming and I managed to hit the ball. Unfortunately for me, it was in the hole at second and forced me to run hard trying to beat the throw. My hamstring still hurts!
Nick Presto hit a bomb to left and after kissing his son in the dugout, proceeded to call all his scout friends who were working at an all star game.
The best pinch hitter of the day was trainer Andrea Harrison who drilled a two strike single to right and then tried to pull the stumble play at first base!
Saturday night our dinner was held in the live Oak Pavilion on campus. We got started a little late because we couldn't get people out of Wackadoos, the campus bar. Eventually we got started on feeding the 207 people in attendance! No matter how hard you try it takes time for a buffet dinner to get done. We ran out of chicken, but got the chef back and put out more. I need to give special thanks to Andrea Harrison, Dawn Elston and this year's trainer Elaine Coetzee, along with Katie Roig for their help in setting up the room and selling the hats and t-shirts.
It was a special night because we were honoring a lot of people.
Nick Presto received the annual Doc Schneider Alumni Award. Doc is a loyal supporter of our program. He lives and dies with each win and loss,and bleeds FAU Blue. That is what we look for in a recipient. Nick has been all of that for us. A great player and a great alum. His scout friends joke that Nick moonlights as the FAU Owl at the football games! He is always talking to Mac about prospects for us, and constantly talks up FAU in the baseball community.
Tim McNab was the choice by his teammates for the Most Valuable Pitcher in 2002. We chose to honor the late Edwin A. Nelson by naming this award after him. Edwin was an outstanding pitcher at Brown University and was a real student of the game. His family attended and his daughter Andrea Elias gave a touching account of her Dad and his feelings for baseball and for FAU.
The Most Valuable Player Award went to Gabe Somarriba. He had a real consistent year for us, with only one bad weekend. His play in the A-Sun Tournament helped raise the level of the entire team at a critical time.
We annually award a Teammate Award. The criteria is the type of kid who best represents the attitude and effort that the ultimate teammate and member of the program should. He is the type of person that others look at and wish that they could measure up to his level of work. Gabe has been that and more throughout his career. The award will from this day be the Gabe Somarriba Teammate Award. Now we have something tangible for our kids to emulate.
The 2002 NCAA Regional Champions were then honored by President Rick Osburn with the presentation of championship rings. As I introduced each player, I tried to say something about them. I purposely tried to keep it light and humorous because I didn't want to expose my emotional side any more than I already had.
These rings are beautiful. They will remind these guys each day of the rest of their lives of the special time they spent with each other. If you have read this story all year, you know all the highs and lows. It was a great year and I am proud that I was here when the wheel went round.
I would like to thank all the alums, parents, friends and especially the parents of alums who attended. It was great to see all these people with the common bond of FAU Baseball. KC
