Steady rise of the Don
Jeff Letofsky Interim Sports Editor @JTosk12
From his days as the youngest son of a well-known Pueblo athletic family to landing a spot as an assistant coach with USA Baseball, Nino Giarratano's career has come full circle.
As the current head baseball coach at the University of San Francisco, Giarratano's story is one of hard work, traditional family values and survival. He's proven that a youngster with a dream can achieve. And at 45 years old, he's far from finished.
A coaching career beckons
Playing baseball at Pueblo South High School, Trinidad State Junior College, William Jewell (Mo.) College and a two-year stint in the New York Yankees' organization prepared Giarratano for the career he was made for - coaching.
He started his coaching career at La Veta and Mullen high schools, graduated to the junior college ranks at Trinidad State, continued to move up to Yavapai (Ariz.) Junior College and reached the NCAA Division I level as an assistant at Arizona State.
As a coach, Giarratano won from the get-go. He was named Collegiate Baseball's National Junior College Coach of the Year three times while at Trinidad State where he led the Trojans to three College World Series appearances in six seasons (233-86). In two seasons at Yavapai, his teams posted a 77-36 record and sent 25 players into the professional ranks.
As the hitting instructor, offensive coordinator and third-base coach at ASU, Giarratano helped the Sun Devils reach the 1998 College World Series championship game. That team hit an impressive .318 with 557 RBIs, 723 hits, 57 home runs and 120 stolen bases.
Rise of the Dons
After serving as an assistant coach at Arizona State University for two years, Giarratano left the program following a national championship run to take the head job at San Francisco. Building the program from the ground up was a major challenge.
"It was such a challenge to go into San Francisco leaving ASU after playing for a national championship in 1998," Giarratano said.
"The biggest challenge was that USF had no history of winning, a lack of a good facility, budgets that were way below average, the need to raise scholarships and the need to get a coaching staff we could pay and keep and recruit with.
"I thought it would go quicker, as everyone does. I learned so much. I was humbled so much by losing and doors slamming and not having the success that I wanted to have. Coming from a national championship game to USF was a totally different experience."
Finding the right kids to build and sustain a program was another challenge.
"It took a while to figure that part of it," Giarratano said. "As I was figuring it out, the school was giving us more scholarships and the coaching staff was getting into place. I give a lot of credit to the players. They were the ones that made the difference.
"Then, three or four years ago we had a group of players who were remarkable in the classroom and on the field. They took the program and completely switched what we were doing. We went from a team hoping we could do it to a program believing we could do it. Little by little, the facility changed and the budget changed. But the players made the biggest leap.
"Now, we have a history of winning. We now can go into homes and recruit with Stanford and Cal."
Wins change everything
Ironically, the turning point of the Dons' program came with a loss to Pepperdine in the 2005 season. San Francisco dropped its final conference game to the Waves, a loss that prevented the Dons from gaining an NCAA at-large regional berth.
"We were so disappointed," Giarratano said. "We felt we were good enough but didn't get in. It really stung everybody in the program.
"It was kind of a good thing for us. As soon as we didn't get in, we went back to work. We were able to win the conference the next season (2006) and take that next step."
That 2006 season was ground-breaking.
The Dons won six games in a row to win the West Coast Conference championship and hosted the WCC tournament. They qualified for the NCAA regionals in Lincoln, Neb.
San Francisco lost to Miami in its first regional game before stunning Nebraska on its home field.
"It was a sea of red in front of 14,000 people," Giarratano recalled. "It was probably the breakout moment of our program. Beating the No. 6 seed in the country gave us the national attention we needed."
USF went on to drop a 6-4 decision to Manhattan and was eliminated from the regionals. But Giarratano had landed the Dons on the collegiate baseball map.
San Francisco finished with a 39-23 record, a watershed year. The Dons won their first WCC championship, made their first regional appearance and achieved the most wins in program history.
"I never knew how big it would be for the university to win the conference and get to the regional," Giarratano said. "When I first got there, people just wanted us to get to the .500 mark."
"We're at the point now where we can compete at the Division I level. I'm really happy about the progress, but it was a lot of work. It was the biggest challenge of my life. It's taught me the most about recruiting, raising money. It's something you couldn't attain by just winning. You have to be kicked around a little."
Steel City roots
Growing up in Pueblo provided the backbone, the values Giarratano lives by today.
"The competitiveness of this community, the richness of this community," Giarratano said of his hometown. "I look at Pueblo and how it can shape you, your character and values, and keep you moving, pushing and fighting for everything you can get. The things I learned growing up in Pueblo. My parents helped shape me. It's a humbling feeling every time something goes good when what I do now goes in the newspaper and everybody reads it, e-mails me and calls me. Everyone is so happy.
"It's that feeling that keeps you pushing. You kind of like want to carry everyone (in Pueblo) with you."
Giarratano often times reflects on his roots when situations get difficult.
"Living in California, you get used to the weather being always nice," he said. "Whenever I get into those tough situations, I look back at Pueblo. We had just as competitive games in my front yard of 2-on-2 football or 4-on-4 basketball that you could have in front of 20,000 people. Pueblo was a place that could make you whatever the outside part of it gives you."
Giarratano knows he's found his niche.
"I never knew where the end was (in coaching). I just wanted to coach," he said. "When I went to San Francisco, I thought it would be another stepping stone for two or three years and I'd move on to another program. I don't know if I ever envisioned it like this. I just knew I wanted to coach and keep coaching.
"It's rewarded me back and it keeps rewarding me. That's the gift I want to give back. To mentor players and people and make a difference. The baseball part is great. But the academic part and the people. That came from the home."
Steroid Era
Living in the city where stories about Barry Bonds and the steroid issue run rampant has given Giarratano plenty of perspective.
"I'm really trying to protect the game because it's a game I love and a game I've watched. I'm frustrated how the whole game has taken the brunt of the punishment of the steroid issue," Giarratano said. "Enhancements have been around a long time. I'm not condoning it. I'm definitely against it.
"The question is posed to me all the time. I have a 13-year-old son on the cusp of playing. Hopefully, his character and background will tell him it's not that important to use that edge to play at the major-league level. Hopefully, he'll make the right choices if he ever gets to that cornerstone."
Giarratano admits that steroids and enhancements have worked their way into the college game.
"There's such an intense pressure to get bigger and stronger and faster," he said. "Hopefully, we can keep it out of college baseball. I would never want my players or players down the road to give into that. We see it at times and question it. It needs to be cleaned up."
Earlier this month, Giarratano was named to the national staff of USA Baseball. The USF coach will serve as an assistant and coach third base.
"It's just exciting to represent the United States and have an opportunity to coach some of America's best players," Giarratano was quoted as saying on the USF Web site. "It's a tremendous honor and I share it with the coaching staff and players here at the University of San Francisco. I would not be here without their efforts. Hopefully, I can do my part to help the team be successful and accomplish our goals."
Giarratano will be joined on the staff by Rob Walton, head coach at Oral Roberts University, and Jerry Meyers, Old Dominion University head coach.
The 2008 USA Baseball National Team will begin a pre-trials training camp in conjunction with the New England Collegiate Baseball League beginning June 10, 2008. The team will be named June 24 and will begin a seven-game series vs. the Chinese Taipei National Team from June 25-July 1. The national team will head to Europe July 2 and compete in the 2008 Dutch Honkbal Tournament and a two-game series vs. the Czech Republic National Team. On July 18, the U.S. squad will begin the IV FISU World Collegiate Championship in Brno, Czech Republic.
BASEBALL LOG
UNDER GIARRATANO