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Ezzi comes by coaching naturally Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008 By Harry King LITTLE ROCK - Near the end of the congratulatory call, Tim Ezzi said something that was his dad through and through. "If you're not playing because you enjoy it, you shouldn't be playing," said the coach of the Class 6A state champion Catholic High Rockets. A volunteer coach at St. Patrick's in North Little Rock for years and years, Santo Ezzi articulated the same by example. To him, the competition was about fun first and foremost. In the parochial league basketball games, he encouraged all of the players to take shots. That was particularly irritating to one of his assistants who subscribed to a different philosophy - keep the ball out of the hands of the no-shooting youngsters in the fifth through eighth grades. Listening to Tim explain the Rockets' four options on an inbounds pass at the end of the 46-44 victory over Conway in the finals, I smiled about the way his dad did things and thought every kid-leaguer should play for a man like Santo Ezzi. In football, Santo's practices were about 98 percent scrimmage. After all, he reasoned, that's what kids liked to do - run plays, particularly double reverse pass plays. Opponents on the basketball court, young men from two Catholic schools joined to field a football team. They would gather at the baseball-softball complex, make one lap around a big open field, and then divide up. Ezzi had a first team and all, but if somebody wanted to give it a go at quarterback, he would get his chance. He was a little stricter during the game, but not much, and only after his too-early death in 1983 would an assistant fess up to some sideline shenanigans. For instance, Ezzi's team might be ahead 6-0 in a game with championship implications when he would send in the second team and increase heart palpitations of his helper. Subterfuge is the only way to keep some first-teamers on the field, but that's possible when there are wholesale substitutions. Undercutting the head coach was a little more difficult on offense. From his own 5, Ezzi might send in one of his favorites - the double reverse. The assistant, who also happened to be the father of the quarterback, would wave it off, put up four fingers, and then two for 42 - fullback over right guard. On second down, Ezzi would add pass to the double reverse. The assistant would signal counter and, dutifully, the quarterback would fake 42 and give it to the right halfback over the left side. Asked "What was that," the assistant blamed the quarterback and promised to talk with him after the game. It was that same assistant who stuffed the blocking dummies into the VW bug as soon as Ezzi, a lifelong railroad man, departed on a week of fall vacation. At that point, fun scrimmages gave way to two-on-one blocking and tackling drills. Ezzi's kid-league sports-should-be-fun philosophy didn't soak in until the assistant's son was out of high school and now he would not tolerate anyone yelling at the 5-year-old blonde on the Purple Princesses or the 8-year-old brunette on the Pink Panthers. Santo's style was rooted in his love for the kids. "That's why he did it," Tim said. "To him, it was all about having fun. To him, it was just like sandlot." Tim swears it was the same approach during the years he played basketball for his dad. Tim was 28 before he began coaching. Out of college, he didn't think he wanted to teach and he managed sporting good stores in Fort Smith and North Little Rock for a few years. Brother Tony was teaching at Catholic High and helping Ronnie Tollett with basketball and Tim would hang out there. "Every time I'd see them, I was envious of what they were doing," Tim said. In the early 1980s, he was on Tollett's staff at Cabot. Eventually, he talked with Catholic High principal Father George Tribou, who told him he could return to the school, but that he couldn't coach for the first year. Seventeen years ago, he became the head basketball coach. His son, Todd, has been his assistant for four years. "I guess it's in our blood," Tim said. That's a good thing. ------- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
