Pitt Coach Narduzzi Learned Toughness, Love Of Football From Father:
When Youngstown State coach Bill Narduzzi walked through the door of his Fifth Avenue home after practice, he was tired from a long day but sure of this:
• Angie, his wife, would have supper ready, even if it was past 9 o'clock.
• Pat, his middle son, would be seated at the kitchen table, eager to hear about his father's day.
"She'd bring out dinner, and we sat there and just talked," said Pat Narduzzi, who grew in his father's image and now is the head coach at Pitt. "It was meant to be, I guess. You never know how or why."
The three Narduzzi boys - there also are three sisters - played football, but Pat is the only coach. Bill Jr. is a financial planner in Roseland, N.J., and Brad has an architectural degree from Columbia University and is a freelance artist in Mexico City.
"He lives across from a pyramid," Pat said. Narduzzi said his father instilled a work ethic in his six children in many ways, including waking them early on Sunday mornings. There always was work to do. "Whether it was chopping trees or cutting wood," he said. "Delivering newspapers. We did that, too."
Not everyone was eager to leave a warm bed. "There was always somebody who wouldn't get out of bed. 'My tummy doesn't feel good,' " he said, mimicking an unnamed sibling. "I was the guy who was up and in his back pocket all day." Narduzzi learned football and - of all things - construction and home maintenance from his father.
"Every house we moved into, I redid the basement," he said. "Building things. That's what we are going to do with this program. You're building it. Going to put it together."
Narduzzi, who opens Pitt's spring drills Sunday, is aware of the growing pains involved when a new coach arrives with his staff. Yet it's nothing compared to what his father endured for eight years after he was diagnosed with the Hodgkin disease that took his life in 1988 at age 51. For the first three years of Bill Narduzzi's battle, no one in the family, other than Angie, knew. "He couldn't tell us," Pat said.
But the children couldn't help but ask questions when Bill came home after chemotherapy with a Band-Aid on his neck. He explained he merely cut himself shaving. "He had a couple of big lymph nodes removed from his neck," Pat said. "He didn't say a word."
Former Youngstown State trainer Dan Wathen said Bill Narduzzi never missed a day of work. "He'd be running a meeting," Wathen said, "and he'd be writing on the chalkboard and say, 'Excuse me,' grab a trash can, throw up and continue on with the meeting like nothing happened."
Pat saw it, too."We'd be driving down Fifth Avenue, and he'd pull over to the side and throw up and keep going. He was a tough son of a gun." From all accounts by those in Youngstown who knew both men, Pitt's coach acquired similar toughness and a love of football from his father. "(Bill) was very tenacious," said Jeff Bayuk, who has known the Narduzzi men since he was Pat's seventh-grade basketball coach at St. Edwards. "He was very, very passionate. Pat got that passion from his father.
"He was born to coach. He was born to compete." Bayuk said he knew immediately Pat was an athlete. "His motor is going all the time and still is. He was always very competitive in the classroom, very competitive on the basketball court," Bayuk said. "He was definitely a football player playing basketball. When we needed to get a rebound, when we needed a force inside, he was the guy."
Bayuk also was an assistant at Youngstown Ursuline High, where Pat starred as a defensive end. "Whether it was Monday night (at practice) or Friday night (at games), he had that same look in his eye," Bayuk said. Bayuk remembers grading film after a game when an opponent ran a sweep away from Narduzzi's side.
The coaches believed there was no way he could have made the tackle, so they kept rewinding the film. "We couldn't figure out who to give credit for the tackle," he said. "Finally, we said, 'That's Narduzzi.' We couldn't believe it. He was playing the other side. Every down was like that." Off the field, Narduzzi set an example.
"Teachers would come up to you and say, 'He really represents your football team well.' In the classroom, in social situations, he was a guy who always could be counted on to do the right thing." Bayuk said. Bayuk, now the head coach at Warren (Ohio) JFK High, last coached Narduzzi in 1984, but time hasn't dulled their relationship.
"To this day, he stops in my classroom whether I have any (prospects) that he is interested in talking to or not," Bayuk said. "He brags to the secretaries and teachers that I was his coach. "He has a real gift for how he treats people." Narduzzi said he acquired the trait from his father. "He treated his players like you'd treat a family, maybe even better," Narduzzi said of his dad. "I don't know if it was that Italian heritage or what.
"I get calls from his former players all the time." One player who suffered from the same affliction as Narduzzi's father wrote Pat a letter, which he keeps in a drawer in his desk. "Kids looked at his dad as their dad," Wathen said. "I think that's a lot of what this business is about," Narduzzi said. "If you treat them well, they are going to treat you well."
Narduzzi admits, however, that his father played no favorites with his son when he played linebacker for him as a freshman at Youngstown State. Talk about pressure: Bill was his son's position coach, defensive coordinator and head coach. "He didn't want to play me (as a freshman)," Pat said. "The rest of the coaches had to talk him into it." But he started, along with classmate Jerry Pacifico, and set a YSU freshman record for tackles (159) that stands to this day.
"(Pacifico) would screw up, and nothing would happen in the Sunday night meeting," Pat said. "I'd screw up, and I got just ripped. "That's the way it was, coach's kid. Usually, he's going to be a little harder on you. It made me better. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Jerry DiPaola is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at @JDiPaola_Trib.
Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/college/pitt/7892717-74/narduzzi-pat-coach#ixzz3UUIvIqpd
This post was edited on 3/15 4:32 PM by CaptainSidneyReilly
When Youngstown State coach Bill Narduzzi walked through the door of his Fifth Avenue home after practice, he was tired from a long day but sure of this:
• Angie, his wife, would have supper ready, even if it was past 9 o'clock.
• Pat, his middle son, would be seated at the kitchen table, eager to hear about his father's day.
"She'd bring out dinner, and we sat there and just talked," said Pat Narduzzi, who grew in his father's image and now is the head coach at Pitt. "It was meant to be, I guess. You never know how or why."
The three Narduzzi boys - there also are three sisters - played football, but Pat is the only coach. Bill Jr. is a financial planner in Roseland, N.J., and Brad has an architectural degree from Columbia University and is a freelance artist in Mexico City.
"He lives across from a pyramid," Pat said. Narduzzi said his father instilled a work ethic in his six children in many ways, including waking them early on Sunday mornings. There always was work to do. "Whether it was chopping trees or cutting wood," he said. "Delivering newspapers. We did that, too."
Not everyone was eager to leave a warm bed. "There was always somebody who wouldn't get out of bed. 'My tummy doesn't feel good,' " he said, mimicking an unnamed sibling. "I was the guy who was up and in his back pocket all day." Narduzzi learned football and - of all things - construction and home maintenance from his father.
"Every house we moved into, I redid the basement," he said. "Building things. That's what we are going to do with this program. You're building it. Going to put it together."
Narduzzi, who opens Pitt's spring drills Sunday, is aware of the growing pains involved when a new coach arrives with his staff. Yet it's nothing compared to what his father endured for eight years after he was diagnosed with the Hodgkin disease that took his life in 1988 at age 51. For the first three years of Bill Narduzzi's battle, no one in the family, other than Angie, knew. "He couldn't tell us," Pat said.
But the children couldn't help but ask questions when Bill came home after chemotherapy with a Band-Aid on his neck. He explained he merely cut himself shaving. "He had a couple of big lymph nodes removed from his neck," Pat said. "He didn't say a word."
Former Youngstown State trainer Dan Wathen said Bill Narduzzi never missed a day of work. "He'd be running a meeting," Wathen said, "and he'd be writing on the chalkboard and say, 'Excuse me,' grab a trash can, throw up and continue on with the meeting like nothing happened."
Pat saw it, too."We'd be driving down Fifth Avenue, and he'd pull over to the side and throw up and keep going. He was a tough son of a gun." From all accounts by those in Youngstown who knew both men, Pitt's coach acquired similar toughness and a love of football from his father. "(Bill) was very tenacious," said Jeff Bayuk, who has known the Narduzzi men since he was Pat's seventh-grade basketball coach at St. Edwards. "He was very, very passionate. Pat got that passion from his father.
"He was born to coach. He was born to compete." Bayuk said he knew immediately Pat was an athlete. "His motor is going all the time and still is. He was always very competitive in the classroom, very competitive on the basketball court," Bayuk said. "He was definitely a football player playing basketball. When we needed to get a rebound, when we needed a force inside, he was the guy."
Bayuk also was an assistant at Youngstown Ursuline High, where Pat starred as a defensive end. "Whether it was Monday night (at practice) or Friday night (at games), he had that same look in his eye," Bayuk said. Bayuk remembers grading film after a game when an opponent ran a sweep away from Narduzzi's side.
The coaches believed there was no way he could have made the tackle, so they kept rewinding the film. "We couldn't figure out who to give credit for the tackle," he said. "Finally, we said, 'That's Narduzzi.' We couldn't believe it. He was playing the other side. Every down was like that." Off the field, Narduzzi set an example.
"Teachers would come up to you and say, 'He really represents your football team well.' In the classroom, in social situations, he was a guy who always could be counted on to do the right thing." Bayuk said. Bayuk, now the head coach at Warren (Ohio) JFK High, last coached Narduzzi in 1984, but time hasn't dulled their relationship.
"To this day, he stops in my classroom whether I have any (prospects) that he is interested in talking to or not," Bayuk said. "He brags to the secretaries and teachers that I was his coach. "He has a real gift for how he treats people." Narduzzi said he acquired the trait from his father. "He treated his players like you'd treat a family, maybe even better," Narduzzi said of his dad. "I don't know if it was that Italian heritage or what.
"I get calls from his former players all the time." One player who suffered from the same affliction as Narduzzi's father wrote Pat a letter, which he keeps in a drawer in his desk. "Kids looked at his dad as their dad," Wathen said. "I think that's a lot of what this business is about," Narduzzi said. "If you treat them well, they are going to treat you well."
Narduzzi admits, however, that his father played no favorites with his son when he played linebacker for him as a freshman at Youngstown State. Talk about pressure: Bill was his son's position coach, defensive coordinator and head coach. "He didn't want to play me (as a freshman)," Pat said. "The rest of the coaches had to talk him into it." But he started, along with classmate Jerry Pacifico, and set a YSU freshman record for tackles (159) that stands to this day.
"(Pacifico) would screw up, and nothing would happen in the Sunday night meeting," Pat said. "I'd screw up, and I got just ripped. "That's the way it was, coach's kid. Usually, he's going to be a little harder on you. It made me better. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Jerry DiPaola is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at @JDiPaola_Trib.
Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/college/pitt/7892717-74/narduzzi-pat-coach#ixzz3UUIvIqpd
This post was edited on 3/15 4:32 PM by CaptainSidneyReilly
