"The Players" from Harry's Way! Vince Carocci

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12— The Players

They came in pairs, the Lady Shamrock players did, to talk about their “Coach.”

Harry DeFrank was the subject of these conversations conducted in the tight but quiet Trinity basketball offices. . But it was “Coach” …always “Coach”…when they spoke about him; specifically, how he related to them and, more important, how they reacted to him. And when the discussions were finished, Harry DeFrank’s players had, with their words, painted a portrait of a man who was, to them, at one and the same time, a teacher and a taskmaster; a mentor and a motivator; a critic and a counselor.

The first to come, in the Spring of 2005, were the sisters Murray, Katelyn and Kristen…the former about to graduate and take her academic, leadership and basketball skills to St. Bonaventure University; the latter, a sophomore about to turn junior who, with her deft passing, accurate shot and general court sense, would be a keystone of DeFrank’s Trinity teams in the 2005-06 and 06-07 seasons.

Then, as Fall turned to Winter, came Gina Nazarro and Chrissy Forster, now the senior leaders of the squad, two of the three Lady Shamrock tri-captains for the season ahead…

Next, Allison (Allie) Daly and Mary Kate Holder, both juniors--the former a promising forward and the latter a reserve guard on the 2004-05 PIAA Eastern finalist squad...

Finally, Rachel Holt, who as a freshman point guard triggered the Shamrocks’ offense in their run to the ‘05 Eastern finals, and Jen Hnatuck, a reserve as a sophomore who would find much more playing time in the post as a junior in the ‘05-06 campaign…

The questions posed to each player were as fundamental as they could be: “What about Harry DeFrank? What kind of a coach is he? What kind of a person is he? And what have you learned from being associated with him?”

Their responses were consistent and unequivocal on two points: The first was that as basketball players, they respected DeFrank for what he knew and what he was trying to teach them about the sport. But of even more lasting consequence, as young girls marching toward their early adult years, they understood, instinctively if not intellectually, that there was much they were learning from their association with him about life’s greater lessons.

Katelyn Murray, who would graduate in a matter of weeks (actually finishing 11th in her class of 151), put it best in looking back on her Trinity career. “It’s definitely very intense schedule wise because of the practices and the work load,” she said. “Academics here are so strong. You have to be very organized and plan your time. The thing about basketball, or another sport, or any other school activity, it helps you with time management…”

Time management. If the subject came up once in these separate conversations, it came up time and again. Time management …and discipline… and commitment and doing your best…working hard; better yet, always working hard to make yourself better.

“Hard work...hard work and setting goals for yourself.” That was Chrissy Forster’s instant response when she was asked what she was taking from her basketball experience under Harry DeFrank. “Basketball takes an enormous amount of time and effort,” she said. “In basketball, if you work hard, you’re going to get better. Same thing in studies…you have to deal with the same principles. But if you work hard, you’ll do well. It’s all kind of relative…setting goals on the court, in the classroom.”

It turns out that the Harry DeFrank these young ladies talked about over a period of days and months once again proved in their minds to be really two Harry DeFranks in one. There’s the on-court Harry DeFrank; and there’s the off-court Harry DeFrank. On court, he’s stern, the taskmaster…very demanding, often critical, very blunt, always pressing, always pushing…pushing for that perfect pass (bounce pass, preferably), or that perfect shot, or that perfect defense.

Off-court, he’s the softer Harry DeFrank…approachable, solicitous, helpful…pleasant to talk to, enjoyable to be around. He’d been that way for years. His players, past and present, knew that about him and seemed to take the dual sides of their coach’s personality in stride.

“Sometimes it can get a little stressful,” Rachel Holt admitted. Delicately, to be sure, but still acknowledging the point when asked how she reacted when DeFrank got on her case…which could be regularly when she threw a pass away in that race horse style he had her playing as his point guard. “He’s hard on you sometimes, but it’s all to make you better. He knows that and you know that.”

“…Make you better…” that’s another point each of his players raised when the subject of Harry DeFrank the disciplinarian was broached with them. They knew what he was doing—pushing them to play to their potential, to exceed it if they could. Still, at that young age, they had to wonder. And they did.

“Sometimes you think…’Ah, he’s just bustin on me just to bust on me,’” Allison Daly confessed. And, she said, she always knew when it’s coming. “If you miss a lay-up, you just stand there. You’re going, ‘I’m waiting for it.’ You know he’s just going to do it.” She was quick to add, however: “But, you know, he’s right.”

Mary Kate Holder laughed as she heard that. “He knows what you’re capable of, and if you’re not showing him that, he’ll yell,” she interjected. “But it’s all encouraging and it makes you think twice about what you’re going to do the next time.”

What also became apparent very quickly was that the more these girls played for Harry DeFrank, the more they seemed to adjust to how he is, what he’s about and what he’s trying to accomplish. For the team and for them.

“Boy, when we were younger…in our sophomore year…the first time you got yelled at, it was like, ‘Oh, gosh!’” That’s the way Chrissy Forster remembered it. But, she was quick to continue, “As you get older, you kinda like take it because you know what he’s getting at. You know what he’s yelling about…and there’s no reason to take it personally.”

Agreed, nodded Gina Nazarro. “Usually, you know,” she said. “OK, I deserve to get yelled at for that. I should’ve known not to do this, or do this better. If I was coach, I’d yell at us, too. We do some stupid things on the court. He keeps us in line.”

The off-court, Harry DeFrank…well that’s a different story and, apparently, a different guy. He’s been called a “grandfather” more than once…a “hug-able grandfather” by one of his former players; “a grandfather who wants to offer advice whenever he can,” by another. He’s been called unique and special…a jokester, a prankster…and, again and again, “a friend.”

Point guard Kristi Dunleavy told the Harrisburg Patriot-News 16 years earlier: “He’s just as much a friend as a coach,” she said. “He cares about all of us.” Ten years later, the year 2000, on the occasion of DeFrank’s 400th victory, Ellen Holijes told the Carlisle Sentinel essentially the same thing. “He’s just an all-around great guy,” she said. “He’s very encouraging and you want to do well for him.” That’s a point that registered with Patriot-News sportswriter Andrew Shay through the years, as well. “I’m forever amazed at how his players seem to want to win for him almost as much as they want to win for themselves,” he said. Like many things about Harry DeFrank, not much has changed through the years.

Ask Chrissy Forster what he’s like and she will tell you: “When you’re playing and you’re on the court, he’s hard…very strict. But off the court, he’s great. He jokes around with us, he’s funny. He teaches us to be intense about the game, but to leave the game on the court and, if we have to, come back and talk about it later.”

Rachel Holt sees him in a slightly different context. “He has a sense of humor that you can’t quite figure out,” she says. “Sometimes, he doesn’t even try to be funny, but he is.” And she laughs at that.

So, his players were asked: What will they take from their association with their “Coach” when their basketball careers at Trinity were over? The words they chose were different. But their responses were strikingly similar in their theme.

“The biggest thing is a sense of perfection and just overcoming obstacles,” Chrissy Forster responds. “…Striving for perfection, to be the best you can be…and just overcoming obstacles in life. It’s not going to be easy to do everything, there’s going to be things that go wrong, but you just have to kind of continue, keep going.”

For Gina Nazarro, it was about “desire and heart.” She says: “He’s preparing us for the next level. It’s not just about basketball with Coach. He’s preparing us for the next step in life.”

Jen Hnatuck adds: “He helps you develop stronger character, to learn what it takes to be part of a team, how to get along with people better, listening to their advice and applying that to my life. If you can handle coach, you can handle pretty much anything.”

But the Murray girls summarized the sentiment best.

“There’s so many things about Coach DeFrank that makes him such an amazing person,” said Katelyn Murray, who, incidentally, would earn a 4.0 average in biology in her first college semester at St. Bonny’s. “He’s a great person to be with. He’s that strict coach on the floor when he’s harping on the different things he wants you to do. And off the court, he’s just more of a friend toward you…someone you can talk to about what you did in a more comfortable setting…”

Chimed in younger sister, Kristen: “He’s Coach DeFrank…that whole personality. A lot of people don’t get a chance to play for him, and it’s an honor.”

Concluded Katelyn: “It really is. You don’t think about it while you’re playing, but after, when you’re in college…It’s going to be different, like coming in and talking to coach for about 10 minutes before practice. It’s just going to be very different. And I’m going to miss it.”