Sankovich had way of getting most out of his players
CONNELLSVILLE – Some coaches run intense practices and some run fun practices. Rarely do those two adjectives go hand in hand.
In Thomas E. Sankovich’s case, however, they do.
Sank was – still is if you watch him during any Fayette County Baseball League games – an intense competitor who demanded the most out of his players, and more often than not found a way to get just that.
His passion for, and dedication to, seeing baseball played the right way resulted in a 424-107 record during a 20-year run as coach of the Connellsville Area High School baseball team.
All his accomplishments were honored on Friday when the Falcons’ baseball field was officially renamed “Thomas E. Sankovich Field” and a plaque commemorating his career will be place inside the high school.
It’s hard to imagine the word “fun” coming up when referring to Sank. Certainly opposing coaches and many umpires didn’t see a game involving the Falcons as “fun,” for different reasons.
The coaches knew they were in for a tough battle. The umpires knew Sankovich was going to let them know very loudly if he didn’t agree with a call.
But those who played for him and worked with him used the work “fun” often.
“Tom was probably the hardest working coach I was ever around,” said Bob Renzi, Sr., “but I had a lot of fun coaching with Sank.”
Renzi was a long-time assistant under Sankovich who took over as head coach after Sankovich retired in 1990 and had a long run of playoff teams himself.
“Tom always had enough respect for his coaches to let them coach,” Renzi said. “If you suggested something to him and he would do it, and maybe it didn’t work, Sank would take responsibility for it.
“When it came to practice, one of the major reasons for our success is we had fun practicing. I’m not saying the kids weren’t serious, not at all. They knew there was a time for fun and a time for work. I felt we had fun getting the work done.”
Many of Sank’s players agreed with Renzi’s assessment.
“We practiced hard and played the same way. He demanded a lot, but we had fun,” said Barry Harvey, who played under Sankovich during the 1971 inaugural season of the Connellsville baseball program.
“He had a way of getting everything he could out his players, but he always respected his players. He just brought the best out of you.”
Harvey was a senior third baseman that season and started in the Falcons’ first game against Mount Pleasant. The program took off from there.
Sankovich’s years were consistently outstanding. His teams never finished lower than third. The Falcons won one state championship, four WPIAL titles and 10 section crowns under Sank.
“Some of the best teams I had finished second,” said Sankovich, now 66. “We finished second seven times and a lot of those teams didn’t even make the playoffs because they only took the section winner up until 1984.”
Sankovich ran strict practices, but that didn’t scare anyone away. He had to regularly cut many players because so many tried out for the team.
“We normally had 60 or so tryout for the team, but I remember we had over 100 in 1973,” Sankovich recalled. “Cutting players was the hardest thing I had to do as a coach. There were some very tough decisions when you got down to the last 10.”
Sankovich never did the deed in writing or through another coach.
“I always did it face to face when I had to cut a player,” he said. “I encouraged them to go out for track. Some of them transferred to other schools and played there.”
Two players Sankovich cut went on to get drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he still felt he made the right decision at that time on both of them.
While many coaches today try to coax a kid into sticking with one sport, Sankovich was the exact opposite.
“I encouraged our players to go out for other sports,” said Sankovich, and that went full circle. “All the best athletes at the school played baseball, too, and that helped out our program a lot.”
The battle to make the squad helped make Connellsville that much better.
“There was a lot of competition,” Sankovich said.
His sons, Brian and Tom, both played for him and were cut no slack whatsoever.
“It was tough on them being the coach’s son, not easy on them at all,” Sank admitted. “I never showed them any favoritism. But the fact was they were both very good ballplayers.”
“He was actually tougher on us than anyone else,” Brian Sankovich said.
“He was hard on us, and it was tough,” young Tom Sankovich said. “But I played baseball a long time, in college too, and he was the best coach I ever had.”
There was no doubt who was in charge with Sank.
“I did things my way and that was it,” Sankovich said.
His inflexible style would seem to be a recipe for disaster when it came to players and parents, but that was hardly the case.
“I had zero problems with parents while I was here,” Sank said. “I never got a phone call or had any interference.”
Sank stuck to his beliefs no matter what, and one of those was you never deviate from your starting rotation.
“I always throw our pitchers in order,” Sankovich said. “Some coaches will save a pitcher for a certain game or alter their rotation so certain pitchers face certain teams. I never did that. If it was your turn to pitch, then you pitched. I never deviated from that.”
Sankovich proved that when the 1989 PIAA championship game against Williamsport came up.
“Jason Tyska was 10-0 for us, but it was Jimmy Leichliter’s turn to pitch,” Sank said. “We had two weeks of rain so the game got put back, but I still pitched Jimmy. Jason barely got off the bench as a DH for us that game. But that’s the way we did it, and we won 6-1.”
While that game sticks out more than others for obvious reasons, another that Sank will never forget came against Central Catholic.
“We were losing by eight runs with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh and then we scored nine runs to win,” Sankovich said.
That game was typical of the Falcons under Sank. His teams never gave up, they always had the never-say-die attitude, especially at home.
“I always felt when the other team got off that bus they were already a couple runs down,” Brian Sankovich said. “They knew they were in for a real tough game when they came here and I think that gave us a mental edge before the game even started.”
Sank’s coaching style was discovered years before the Falcons ever played a baseball game.
“He was my first assistant coach,” said long-time Connellsville boys basketball head coach Hal Weightman. “That was 1966 when we had James Braxton. Sank was the same way back then, very intense.
“He always had a way of getting kids to reach inside themselves for a little extra.”
That was the real key to Sankovich’s success.
Great coaches may not be loved all over – certainly Sank rubbed plenty of people the wrong way – but they get every last ounce of effort, ability and determination from their teams.
Sank always did that.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rvburchianti@hotmail.com