Cheers & Chuckles
Vico Confino - Lafayette H. S. - 1950 - An
excerpt from his book written in 1985
I entered high school at 15, a
gangly 135-pound freshman among upperclassmen who tipped the scales at 200
pounds up. At my former schools, I jumped in without hesitation to help even the
odds if two guys were picking on one. Now, it was apparent that such a decision
could get me killed.
Here was one of those junctures in my life that was blessed with a "sign" from a
still unseen guiding light. An invitation to try out for the school football team
was posted on the gym bulletin board.
Here I would learn to tangle with a bigger and tougher
element under strict supervision. There would be training, protective pads, and
rules hopefully to make up for my lack of size.
What I found was an ex-army paratrooper whose demand for a
strong mind and body paralleled mine. As coach of these ragtag aspiring
athletes, he set a rigid pace that allowed only the most dedicated to survive.
The training and mental stamina that was developed under his
tutelage formed a foundation of solid granite. To this day his shouts of "A MAN
THAT WON'T BE BEAT CAN'T BE BEAT" still echo in my ears.
His desire to instill a winning psyche in his players knew
no bounds. I can still envision the sign Coach Ostro put on the locker room
wall; "Fight on my men" Coach Ostro said, "though little I'm hurt but not yet
slain I'll sit and bleed a while, then rise to fight again."
The bumps in the road of life that I was yet to encounter
were easily smoothed over as I recalled his statement that "a winner never
quits, a quitter never wins."
And if I should despair for a moment, my impetus is restored
with "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." And I do.
It never was my intent to emulate any group or individual, buy only to take the
best of what they offered. I saw my mind as a gigantic filing system capable of
storing these gems for future use.
Academically, my grades were just passable, but what I
learned on the football field could not be measured. Coach Ostro taught me that
life is a game and that to succeed you must have a plan If you can't get a
touchdown by running up the middle, then scoring with an end run still puts six
points on the board.
Art Metrano - Lafayette H.S. - 1952 - All
City/State 1954 - From his book "Metrano's Accidental Comedy"
He taught a lot by example and
sometimes his way of making an impression could last a lifetime. One day, when I
was working out in the football gym, the coach walked in and yelled,
"Harpo! Get over here!"
Harpo was my nickname in high school. I had blond curly hair as a child and
someone thought I looked like Harpo Marx. The name stuck.
Intimidated and eager to please my coach, I stepped forward.
Coach Ostro got down on all fours and said,
"Harpo, get on my back!"
I weighed about 215 pounds at the time. Incredulously, I replied,
"Get on your back?"
"Yeah," he said. "Get on my back!"
All the guys in the gym made a circle around us. Then
Coach Ostro proceeded to do TWENTY perfect push-ups with me on top of him!
Completing his task, he stood up with biceps bulging and said,
"Now that's how you do push-ups, you phonies!" then he walked
out of the room.
What a piece of work! He challenged our bodies and stimulated
our minds. He always made me feel like I could be whatever I wanted to be. He
would drill into our heads the necessity of mental and physical discipline. If
you played for Coach Ostro, you not only had to be good at the sport, you had to
be a good citizen, too.
He was the ideal high school football coach, as interested in
a winning season as he was in building character in his players. He made sure
before every game that each of us went to our respective church or synagogue to
pray for victory. He instilled in all of us the power of God. I wrote a note to
God and placed it inside my helmet. It said, "Please God, help me play the game
to the best of my ability, and let us come out winners." I left it there for the
entire season.
He wanted us to win the game, but he also wanted us to win at
life, to get good grades, go to college and have the careers we wanted. He'd
reminded us constantly of how we should test our limits and he was always quoting
some famous epigram, like:
"Winners are workers and workers are winners", "It's not the
size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
With Coach Ostro, these slogans were a way of life. He knew
how to get inside you and teach you that. He was the Vince Lombardi of high
school football. He made us feel special by giving us a sense of self-esteem, by
teaching us to become achievers without losing ourselves in victory. He had a
poem taped on the wall that he wanted us to live our lives by. It's call "The
Man In The Glass."
"When you get what you want in your
struggle through life,
And the world makes you King for a day.
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
It's not your father, your mother, your husband
or wife, whose judgment on you must pass
The fellow whose verdict that counts the most
Is the one staring back from the glass.
You may fool all the world, all down through
the years, And get pats on the back as you
pass.
But your final reward will be heartaches and
tears, If you've cheated the Man in the Glass
I have always tried to life my life by that poem.
Click here to see what Art has been doing for the past 50 years