Buried support for Chory released
Longtime Albert Gallatin baseball coach Shawn Chory had his job opened up by the school board a couple months ago, and the move was eventually to replace him.
Before the decision was made, having known Shawn, and his father, the late Rob Chory, also a longtime baseball coach of the Colonials, for decades, I felt I should offer my support for him to keep his position.
At first, I felt my letter of support had little effect on the outcome. Later, I discovered that was the case, not because it wasn’t persuasive enough or contained a lack of substance, but because it simply wasn’t read by anyone on the board.
Apparently, the school board had received numerous letters of support for Chory, but while they were acknowledged, none were actually read.
This disheartened me. I put a lot of heartfelt, sincere work into the letter and was a bit angered that practically no one thought enough of it to give it a glance.
Therefore, I thought, well, why not at least let our readers see what I had to say about Chory.
So, here are some excepts from my letter of support for Shawn …
On Chory’s integrity, and history with AG:
“I have had the utmost respect for [Shawn and Rob] as honest, hard-working, genuinely nice men with good baseball minds.
Shawn has been part of the program for 25 years, 13 years as head coach, 10 years as assistant coach, two years as a player, and I’ve never heard a bad word — no exaggeration, never — about him. That’s saying a lot.
But I am of the understanding that Shawn’s character is not in question. There are those on the school board who rate wins and losses far above that …
… How soon we forget that Shawn is one of only two coaches (Dan Andria is the other), in AG varsity boys sports, since the consolidation in 1987-1988, to win a section championship. That was in 2000, when Shawn was also named Herald-Standard coach of the year.”
On AG’s change in classification:
“Since AG’s move to Quad A, one should look at the section Shawn’s team has played in over the past several years. Section 2-AAAA has routinely produced many Division-I prospects, major league draft picks and a prevalent number of Division-II and Division-III prospects. It should be pointed out that four of the seven teams in their section this year will be at 6-A under the new classification system while AG will be at 5-A, playing with teams closer to their enrollment size.
With this change, with Shawn’s team finally getting out of that very tough section, I don’t understand why the board wouldn’t allow him to coach at least a couple years in this new section to see how he does. It’s really not fair, in my eyes, to run him out now and go with a new coach at this time. … Shawn deserves a chance to compete in this new section.”
On Chory’s 2016 season:
“Shawn’s team did not have the best record last year, admittedly. (5-14 overall and 1-11 in their section). But in a late-season game I covered they competed valiantly in suffering a walk-off loss at Connellsville and they went on to win their last two games. I can’t stress enough how important that is. That shows that Shawn’s team was still giving a strong effort and competing late in the season when I’ve seen most other teams in similar situations completely collapse, fold up their tent and just go through the motions. Shawn’s team, despite its record and despite having what most would say ‘nothing to play for’ still refused to quit, kept playing hard and was rewarded with a couple late-season victories to propel them into the next season.”
On Chory’s class and professionalism:
“As I have covered AG baseball games over the years Shawn has always showed the utmost professionalism. In games his team lost he would always put his players ahead of himself and take responsibility and blame for the loss. … He would never blame or criticize his players. In games when his team won he would deflect any of the credit or accolades. He would always credit his players and his assistant coaches for their preparation and play on the field. In both wins and losses he would also [give] credit [to] the opposing team’s coaching staff and players.”
On Chory helping his players receive scholarships:
“Shawn also has sent several players on to college under baseball scholarships, most recently Caleb Dempsey to LaRoche last year and Nate Torbich to Clarion this year. When I talk to former players of Shawn’s (and his dad’s for that matter) they all have good things to say about their experience of playing baseball for AG.”
So there you go. It’s too late now for Shawn Chory, as I said, he has already been replaced. I just felt such a good man and coach deserved to have this letter made available to read … at least by someone.
Rob Burchianti can be reached rburchianti@heraldstandard.com and on Twitter (@rvburch).