Master of X’s and Osinski

 

 

 

The “400-win club” is an exclusive one.  Membership takes years to attain and, even then, most never gain entrance.  There is much to say about longevity in a profession where you’re only employed as long as you win, but to join that elusive “400 club”, a certain level of success has to be not only achieved, but also sustained, along with that longevity.  Some very successful coaches don’t stick around long enough and some coaches who have been around a long, long time never quite get to that level.  Early in December 2011, that club welcomed one more member; Section II’s own Ron Osinski, the boys varsity head coach at Guilderland High School.

Basketball wasn’t coach Osinski’s first love.  In fact, growing up in Rotterdam, he didn’t play many organized sports at all.  “I somehow knew a lot about professional basketball, baseball, and football. I knew who the good players were and because I never stayed indoors, I simulated games with me [playing] against the other teams. During baseball season, I would throw the ball off my house. During hoop season, we had a basket on the garage,  and I created games against other pros. And football season, I set up an obstacle course to simulate tacklers and made a game of it. I started to play with some older neighborhood kids and we started to play real games.

“We played seasonally and I really didn’t have a favorite sport.  I was pretty athletic and played every sport well. I played Little League baseball for two years and Babe Ruth for one. Baseball was the only organized sport I played until 7th grade.   My dad helped coach. Draper was a small school and we played only a few sports back then.  When I got into 7th and 8th grades, my parents didn’t want me to play football, so I focused more on baseball and basketball, but I always played sandlot tackle football in the fall. I wanted to play football. I wanted to be quarterback, but the only modified sport Draper had was basketball, so I played that.”

Heading into his sophomore year, a family member about to deploy for Vietnam convinced Osinski to tryout for the JV team.  Dave Guest, the JV coach, gave Osinski a shot at a starting job and there began his love for the game of basketball.

Coach Osinski was, by his own admission, an average basketball player in high school.  He knew the only way he would be able to stay involved with the game was to get involved in coaching.  Back in a time when the only way you could coach at the high school level was to teach, Osinski decided to study to become a P.E. teacher, partly because he admired his own JV and varsity coaches in high school who were P.E. teachers.  In 1980, Osinski was given the keys to the program at his alma mater when Guest went over to coach at Schalmont, paving the way for him to become the next varsity coach.

“We had some rough going at Draper, but kept working at winning a sectional title. See, I knew what it felt like as a player having won one and being in the finals twice. I tried to convey that feeling to my players.”  In 1986, Osinski and his team captured the Section II Class C crown.   Just months after accomplishing this, Draper closed its doors and was annexed into Mohonasen High School.

“I was offered the freshmen job at Mohonasen. It was awesome for Draper to close its doors with a sectional championship, but usually you try to build off this excitement, and I didn’t know if I would get the chance again.”  He did not accept that offer and instead accepted one to become the JV coach once again under Dave Guest, this time at Schalmont.

“I was hired as a part time P.E. teacher at Schalmont and late in October, the JV coach resigned and I was reunited with my former coach Dave Guest. He had taken over a 0-44 program two years prior to me coming there. The program was on the upswing, and I took over the varsity team two years later after Dave stepped down for the final time.”

After winning the NYS Section II Class B title in 1989, his second sectional title in four years, Osinski was lucky enough to have the chance to coach his two sons, Corey (a 1,000-point scorer at Siena) and Kevin (who played DI basketball at Binghamton).  Corey graduated from Schalmont in 1996, and Kevin in 1997.  Behind them, the Sabres captured the 1996 Section II Class B crown once again, advancing all the way to the NYS Semifinals.

Coaching your sons can be tough experience, but Osinski has fond memories.  “As I look back, it was the most gratifying experience. To have a chance to coach your own kids for four years, and two years on the same team, is something most fathers do not have that chance to do. To avoid the scrutiny of me showing favoritism to play them, or even be on the team, as sophomores, they had to work hard to earn it. I was tough on them. I tried not to be their coach at home and tried not to be their father during basketball practices and games. It was tough for them, as I probably said things to them in front of the team that I wouldn’t say to another one of my players. We did have some family arguments over a variety of things, but I think it made them tougher and helped to make them better people today. Many college coaches told me that they loved coaching other coaches’ sons. Corey and Kevin earned every minute that they played and probably deserved more during their sophomore years. It was great to spend everyday of the season, two to three hours, in a setting where I could witness them being themselves. It was kind of a ‘double whammy’, where I wanted to win because I was the coach, but I also wanted my sons to play well and the team to win for their sake, just as a parent, sitting in the stands, would.  I have no regrets. I think they may say the same things. Now sometimes we hash over old stories, which are always fun memories. It was a great time in my life.”

Stepping down after the 1997-98 season in order to have time to watch Corey and Kevin during their college careers, Osinski returned to coaching prior to the 2000-’01 season, this time leading the Guilderland High School program.  Taking over a team with a combined 12 wins in the two previous seasons combined, Osinski guided the Dutchman to a 13-9 record in his first season, and an 18-5 record in his second, including a Suburban Council championship. Asked about if it was difficult taking over a program that had been fairly unsuccessful the past couple of years and turning them into Suburban Council champions in two years, Osinski had this to say: “No I don’t think it was. First of all, when I came in I felt that I had the support of everyone.  Also the players and parents were supportive of the change, so I did not have to battle that element. They seemed to all want to have success. I was brought up to date by Kenny Dagostino and Joe Torre who were the coaches in the program and would continue as assistants with me. The next best thing was I was able to bring Mike Parks with me. He had played for me at Draper and was our freshmen and JV coach at Schalmont. We all were on the same page.”

Building upon a 16-5, 2002-03 campaign, Guilderland experienced a season unlike one they had had in a number of years.  Behind eventual NCAA DII All-American and professional basketball player Steve Dagostino, the Dutchman went 21-3, upsetting a heavily-favored Schenectady High team in the Section II Class AA semi-finals and going toe-to-toe with CBA in the finals before faltering in the final minutes.  “I don’t think that our success that year was a surprise for anyone in our program. We came in motivated after a first round loss the previous year. This group could score.  We had great shooting and we had a little size. They played together very well and they knew their roles. They played great team defense and they had great basketball IQ. It didn’t matter who scored.  It was a very unselfish team. We also had depth that year and our practices were great. Then you add Stephen Dagostino to the equation- he was up against it all his life. He was a coach on the floor. He made everyone around him better. Sometimes he would come down and just pass the ball and get everyone else involved and then, all of a sudden, take it to the hoop or hit a three from deep. Stephen worked so hard at his game and that was contagious to the rest. We had great camaraderie during the off-season as well, which started in the weight room the previous March. Stephen started to work on his senior seasonas soon as we left the locker room after our sectional loss his junior year. We expected to win and were very disappointed when we lost to CBA in the finals. Despite a huge size disadvantage and the number of future college players on the opposingteam, we felt we could win.”

Asked to elaborate a little more about what it was like to coach Dagostino, Osinski added, “The first time we saw Stephen was during the summer after I was hired at Guilderland. As he walked across the court, he was half the size of everyone else. We thought then that he would have a tough time playing JV that year until we watched him play and we knew we had something special. Because of his size, he had to be tough. Stephen, like my son Corey, had to endure all the naysayers, always having to prove that he belonged. His basketball IQ was second to none. The physical part came from his tremendous hard work. To watch Stephen play one game, you could see what a special player he was and you wanted him on your team. I was fortunate to have him play for me for three years.”

After three Section II championships, a 1996 Sectional Co-Coach of the Year award, a handful of Suburban Council titles, and membership in that elusive “400-win club”, coach Osinski is quick to credit his successes to the players and coaches he’s had to work with over the years.  “First of all, it’s an honor to be mentioned on the same page with the many great coaches that have accomplished 300 and 400 wins.  I have been blessed with some very great players over the past 28 years and I thank all of my former players, as this accomplishment is really a testament to them, as well. I also have had some great assistants over the years that contributed in developing players and helped on the bench, including Mike Parks, who has been with me for 25 or 26 of those years.  As far as considering myself a great coach, I think that is left to others to decide. I do feel that I have a competitive team every year and that I have had success in taking good talent and using them where they help the team to succeed. The last thing is that I think players play hard for me and I thank them for that, as well.  Bottom line is that I’m proud of the accomplishment to be able to have the longevity to coach so many great players.”

Despite contemplating retirement in recent years, coach Osinski still has the drive and desire to coach.  Now living in Saratoga, Osinski remains a teacher at Schalmont in addition to his duties as boys varsity coach at Guilderland.  “The off-season rejuvenates me and I’m ready for another year. I am contemplating retiring from teaching in the next year or two and I’m intrigued to coach without teaching. Some who have done that have said how much more time and energy they have. As of now, I still have the passion to continue.”

We would like to thank coach Ron Osinski for taking the time to allow us to interview him.  He is a Section II basketball icon, and his prior successes certainly affirm that notion.  We wish coach Osinski and his Dutchmen the best of success in 2012-13. When asked how long he plans to remain in the game, Coach Osinski responded with a quote from his own interview for the Guilderland job thirteen years ago.  They asked him how long he planned to remain at Guilderland.  He responded, quite simply, “’Til the passion is gone.”

Mike Long Jr.-Staff writer