Even in his finest hour as a head baseball coach, Tary Scott didn’t want to be the center of attention.
It was a warm night in June 2016, and Wolcott had just won the first state championship in program history on Ray Bartoli’s two-run, walkoff home run at Palmer Field in Middletown. Scott and then athletic director Lisa Riggi were the last two people in the dugout as the team received its medals and the championship trophy. Scott begged Riggi to go get the trophy.
“You deserve that trophy,” Riggi recalled telling Scott that night. “Now go get it.”
Scott died of a heart attack on Oct. 2 at the age of 57. Fond memories of Scott were said Saturday during a celebration of life. The celebration was held on the baseball field at Wolcott High School that he called home as head coach for nearly a quarter-century.
“I hung around for a little bit and I finally got a moment with Tary,” former assistant coach Fred Muccino said about that 2016 state title game. “He gave me a hug, a smile, and said they did it. I said you did it Tary. You taught them all how to play the game. He said no it wasn’t me, they did it.”
Scott’s voice could be heard throughout any field his team played on, and then again so could his laugh.
“Coach Scott loved to talk baseball, and he made you laugh. He loved to make you laugh,” said Joe Monroe, former principal and athletic director.
Assistant coach Dom Angiolillo, who was called “Captain” by Scott, said his best friend was the heart and soul of Wolcott baseball.
“He was a better man than he was a coach, and we all know what a fantastic coach he was,” Angiolillo said. “He was a dear, loyal friend with a heart as big as his laugh.”
Funny and poignant stories were recalled, and so were the famous catchphrases.
“A lazy man is a fool. Prove me wrong. A walk’s gonna hurt you. Hit the highway, and of course, don’t be lazy,” Angiolillo said.
(Writer’s note: “Don’t be lazy” is my personal favorite, and I have said it many, many times after I first heard it.)
As a coach, the players came first. They were like a family to Scott, and his players felt the same way about him. Scott also loved his big family.
“He loved his large family, especially his mom, who he sent his coaching stipend to every year,” Angiolillo said.
Spencer Kane, who graduated in 2009, talked about the players Scott coached and the ones who were robbed of one final go. Matt Northrop, a player on the 2021 team, was accompanied to the stage by fellow players Kyle Hensel and Tyler Durling, and Northrop read a poem.
“You helped us to learn and to grow, and you played such a special role in our lives. And coach, we just thought you should know,” Northrop said.
Scott loved to razz umpires, and one of them was Ryan Gobstein, who graduated from and coached at Holy Cross. It was something Scott didn’t forget. Scott busted the chops of plenty of umpires.
“You better swing the bat. Gobstein’s got plans tonight,” Gobstein recalled Scott saying during a game.
In a great show of what Scott meant to them, there were a bunch of umpires, in full uniform, at his celebration Saturday.
Jack Drewry, one of the captains of the 2019 team, said Scott made his players better players and better people.
“Coach always had a way to make everybody’s day better,” Drewry said.
Scott, a Tennessee schoolboy baseball legend, earned the nickname “Boomer” because of the majestic home runs that would hit a house in left field at David Crockett High School in his beloved hometown of Jonesborough. His players finally got to see that prodigious power one day at practice.
Gary Fink, Class of 2000, said players were begging him to hit. Scott of course didn’t want to, but finally relented. He asked Fink to throw him one of his famous knuckleballs. Scott blasted the knuckler deep into the trees beyond the left field fence.
“He flipped the bat, he walked off, and he said now that’s the way you hit,” Fink recalled.
Scott’s son Tary “T.C.” Jr. worried his father wouldn’t get a proper sendoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What Scott’s family got was a rousing celebration fit for someone who impacted so many lives, and who was taken away far too early.
Here are my photos from the celebration.
