By Joseph Staszewski
John Mangieri inherited a baseball program you could picture in one of those feel-good Disney movies. His story seemed to follow a Hollywood script through ups and down before coming to a happy ending at Yankee Stadium June 12.
The Beach Channel baseball team was coming off a five-win season in 2010 that forced the PSAL to drop them to the Class B division when the former Archbishop Molloy star and New York Mets pitching prospect Mangieri took over as coach. He said his kids were wearing jeans to the field and asking for gloves to try out.
“I said, ‘Oh, my God. What did I get myself into?’” Mangieri said.
The task seemed monumental and the effects of Hurricane Sandy last season didn’t make it any easier.
But four years later the Dolphins celebrated a 7-5 victory in nine innings over Bronx Science in the PSAL Class B city championship. The victory put Mangieri in a special class in the high school baseball community.
He also won a CHSAA Intersectional baseball title as a player under legendary Coach Jake Curran at Archbishop Molloy in 1994.
“It’s pretty special,” Mangieri said. “I don’t know how many guys can say they won a city championship as a player on the Catholic side and to win a city championship as a coach on the public school side. It’s pretty rewarding.”
He achieved the feat by trusting his pedigree, embracing his players and asking for the same professionalism from them that he brought daily to the field. It just took all of the kids some time to buy in, but senior captain Kely Aponte understood how Mangieri could transform the program.
“He did a lot,” Aponte said. “From my first year, he’s always been strict. He told the kids what to do. He always had them on point. He’s a great coach.”
This year’s group of just 12 players, made up mostly of freshmen and sophomores, were able to follow their coach’s instructions best of all. The results show that. Beach Channel had its best regular season as well, going 14-2. The limited and young roster was never used as a crutch, but became a badge of honor.
“What we kept hearing all year was, ‘Oh, you only have 12 guys to coach.’” Mangieri said. “You only have 12 guys, but what I kept telling them was you only need nine to play and these kids have been fearless from the beginning.”
Play them all he did. Mangieri went out of his way to get each of his kids into the title game, despite holding just a two-run lead in the sixth inning. He never second-guessed it even after Bronx Science rallied to send the contest to extra innings.
“I did the right thing,” Mangieri said. “I always try to do the right thing for these kids.”
It’s why they have played so hard for him. Real-life Hollywood endings aren’t just written. They are the rewards reaped by those who deserve them.
“When I got there, I don’t think [Beach Channel] was known much for baseball,” Mangieri said. “I think that’s slowly starting to change”
