8— Coaches

Steve Bischof paused as he pondered the question.  What is it, he was asked, that makes Harry DeFrank, such a good basketball coach?  He hesitated, but only for a moment.    

“He knows the game and he cares about his kids!” he said.  To Steve Bischof, it was just that quick, just that simple.  Harry DeFrank was a good coach…yea, a great coach…because he knew the game of basketball and he cared about the kids who played for him through the years.  It’s an answer …or something close to it…that you would hear each time the question was posed to others.       

But Steve Bischof would know.  Better than most, actually.  He’d been associated with Harry DeFrank for going on 40 years--first as a player on the Good Shepherd CYO team in the early 60’s, and years later, as a valued assistant at both Good Shepherd and Trinity.   

Another truism to consider:  In all endeavors that challenge us, the line between good and great is very fine, indeed.  In Harry DeFrank’s case, there are few who would dispute that he had crossed that threshold in his extended career at Trinity.

…What is it exactly that makes for a good coach? 

There are the tangible measures, of course—the wins and the losses; the state championships (two) and the state championship finals (six); the conference and the district banners hanging on the walls of Trinity High.  They speak for themselves.  Trinity under the reign of Harry DeFrank has plenty of them to display. 

What are not so discernible, however, are the intangibles.  Important intangibles that coaches bring to their craft…intangibles like his or her respect for the game and the opposition; their commitment to the fundamentals of the sport; the hours they devote daily to their personal preparation and their team’s preparation; the discipline they demand of themselves and their players; the example they set for their squads by their conduct, during games and at practice; and, most importantly, the way they interact with their players in their successes and their mistakes….On the intangible meter, Harry DeFrank, by all accounts, registers a TEN…or very close to it. 

There’s only one way, really, to appreciate…to fully understand exactly why that is.  That’s to talk to the people who know him and his sport best.    

Steve Bischof was but a young boy of 12 when he first met Harry DeFrank in the early 1960’s after the Bischof family moved to Central Pennsylvania from Johnstown.  He played CYO ball for “Mr. DeFrank” at Good Shepherd elementary school.

As Bischof recalls it, his father was one of those who talked to DeFrank about coaching the Good Shepherd girls when the program was started in the mid-1970’s.  By that time, Bischof had graduated from Trinity as an All-State linebacker and had completed a college football career at the University of Richmond where he had earned a scholarship as a defensive back. 

When DeFrank agreed to take on coaching the Good Shepherd girls, he called young Steve Bischof…When DeFrank assumed the Trinity helm, he called Bischof again.  “Ipper,” he said once more, “you did a wonderful job at Good Shepherd, let’s try it again.”  And so they did…again.  

“I learned everything about coaching from Mr. DeFrank,” Bischof says with more than a touch of pride in his voice.  “Kids can tell if a coach knows what he’s doing.  Oh yeah, they know.  And they know Mr. DeFrank knows what he’s doing.”

When it came to basketball, Bischof recalled, DeFrank was all business.   “He’s the boss, he’s the boss,” he acknowledged, though to those who followed the program, an acknowledgement wasn’t necessary.  “The kids could get away with a little bit with me (as an assistant),” Bischof said.  “But Mr. DeFrank….they’d see him coming and they’d be straight as an arrow.  A lot of it (being successful) is believing in your coach…going through the scrimmages or whatever, listening to what he says and all of a sudden…boom, it worked.  He’d get on their tails.  I’d try to motivate them, just tell ‘em, ‘Hey, look at him (and what he’s accomplished).  Go out and do your best…just do your best.’  He was tough, yeah.  But the ones who didn’t like him were the ones who didn’t listen.  There were some of those, but not too many, not too many…”

What’s impressed the Carlisle Sentinel’s Jeff Pratt the most through the years was the way DeFrank managed his roster. 

“He puts people in the position to succeed, and that’s what a good coach does,” Pratt observed in a sit-down with this inquisitor.  “He’s really good at finding the right spot for people. He’ll push kids to do what he thinks they’re capable of doing.  That’s what you have to do, especially with high school kids. He’s very good at getting the best out of people and making them successful.  He can realize their potential and makes them get better.”

Joe Bressi is someone from the other end of the court who appreciates better than most what it takes to be a successful athletic coach because he’s been one himself:  238-40 coaching the girls team at Bishop McDevitt from 1976-85, including a four-year run between 1980 and 1984 where the Lady Crusaders went 29-1, 36-0, 32-0 and 29-1 and reached two eastern PIAA finals and two state championships in that span; 175-47 coaching the women’s team at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania between 1986-94; and six years coaching the men’s team at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. 

Bressi and DeFrank, for their extended tenures and all their success in Central Pennsylvania women’s basketball, never coached against each other (though they came close once) because Bressi’s tenure at Bishop McDevitt was winding down as DeFrank’s at Trinity was starting up.  It would have been a contest of almost epic proportions to witness because, in many respects, their approach to coaching was almost identical.  Both are intense; both are competitive; and both are very confident about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.  Bressi put the proposition this way as he spoke from his Central Dauphin High School Athletic Director’s office: 

“You don’t win the amount of games we won, you don’t win the amount of games Harry’s won unless you’re doing something right, something special.  It takes discipline and a no-nonsense approach to the game.  I had a plan. He had a plan.  I had a system. He had a system.  And there’s no straying away from the system.” 

“You have a system and your kids fit in to that system.  You don’t change the system to fit your kids.  Your kids know what to expect and they mold into the system.  Mike Krsyzewski…Bobby Knight…the good ones, they don’t change their systems.  They sell the kids on the system. That’s what I did.  That’s what Harry does.  He gets his kids to play, to believe in what he’s doing, to fit into his system.”

As this conversation was concluding, Bressi had a telling point to make, one that put a more precise perspective on the success he and DeFrank had in their coaching tenures.  “You also have to be a little bit lucky,” he acknowledged.  “You have to be in the right place at the right time.  You have to be surrounded by good people, people who are loyal to you and your program.  I was fortunate in that regard.  So was Harry.” 

Some things never change, and for Phil Gillis, like Steve Bischof before him, there’s a lot about Harry DeFrank that’s never changed.  “He was all business,” he said reflecting on his days years ago playing for DeFrank.   “There’s no screwing around.  You got in and did what you were supposed to do.  He knew what he wanted to accomplish in practice and in game situations and that was it.  He’s not much different now than he was then.  He doesn’t stray; he stays right to the course…set plays on offense, tough man-to-man defense, very little zone…”

And when it comes to the game, Gillis said, “he’s still smart as a whip.  He knows kids, he knows talent.  He can look at another team that we’re playing and within four or five minutes of the first quarter, he’ll know exactly who we need to shut off, look at their strength and weaknesses, things of that nature.  He’s very smart and basketball savvy.”

A case in point:  The 2001 championship game against Vincentian Academy and the Lady Shamrocks’ preparation for it.  Freshman Coach Mike Paduano remembers it well. 

“We sat and watched films from that team from Western Pennsylvania.  We’re sitting there watching the film and he says, ‘Look at that!  Did you see that pass? It’s the same pass every time they get a rebound.  Boom, it’s right out to half court, every single time.  What we’ve got to do, if we lose a rebound, we’ve got to get our hands up and try to stop that pass and we’ve got to cover the outside.

“We did that,” Paduano continued.  “And we won a state championship.  He picked that up right out of the tape.  He says, ‘Just watch it.  Every time…outlet that way.’  Normally, you miss a rebound, you take off down the court.  He tells the girls, ‘Don’t take off down court.  The girl in front of you gets the rebound, you put both hands up on her to prevent that pass!’  That’s what we did and that’s a big reason we won.  He can pick out the offenses and defenses, the strengths and weaknesses of the other team with the best of  ‘em…That’s one reason why he’s so good at what he does.”

Another constant with DeFrank is that Lady Shamrock basketball is a team game.  They win as a team, they lose as a team and DeFrank is averse to praising either himself or any one player over the course of a season.  “’We’ll be alright, or we did okay,’ that’s what he says,” Gillis observes.  “He doesn’t toot his own horn and he doesn’t bestow a lot of accolades on his players, individually.  Katelyn (Murray) was one of the finest kids ever to come through this program,” Gillis lauds.  “Just a terrific kid.  But I never saw an article touting her (over her teammates).”

To (Mike) Paduano, there are a number of reasons why DeFrank is so good at what he does beyond his obvious knowledge and passion for the game.  

Prime among them is DeFrank’s understated public persona.  “Harry’s got charisma,” Paduano says.  Charisma is something more innate than inherited.  DeFrank, for whatever reason and in whatever way, has it. “Even if it’s an opposing coach…they usually like Harry,” Paduano observed.  “They learn from him.  Sports writers love to sit with Harry and hear him talk about basketball.  He always gives ‘em time.”

Another factor is respect…the respect DeFrank earns by who he is and how he conducts himself.  “People respect Harry, you know, because he’s honest and truthful,” Paduano continues.  He’s a straight shooter.  He never, never demeans another team.  He doesn’t make fools of people.”

Take blow-outs, for example.  DeFrank doesn’t like them, even when they’re going his way.  “There’s really not anything good about these games,” he told the Carlisle Sentinel after one such contest.  “We make a lot of substitutions early and we tell the kids to pass the ball more.  You can’t tell a substitute not to put the ball in the basket.  But you can tell ‘em to pass more.  It’s just a shame some teams are down.  Those situations aren’t good for your team or their team.”

If there’s anyone in the Trinity family who should know coaching…what distinguishes a good coach from a mediocre coach, a great coach from a good coach…that person, once again, would be Frank Cackovic.  Frank Cackovic knows.  He certainly knows. 

“What made for a good coach in your playing days?” he was asked.     

“Good coaches were just so dedicated,” he replied almost instantly.  “In our times, the good coaches just didn’t care about the clock,” he continued.  “There were some who obviously went for the clock, but most good ones didn’t.”

If anything, in Cackovic’s view, the time demands on dedicated coaches at the high school level have gotten even more compelling today than they were in his era.  “We were on our own in the summer,” he remembered somewhat wistfully.  “Today, they’re playing 12 months a year.  If you don’t go 12 months with a summer program and everything else, you can get lost very quickly.  The time demands on the coaches, the ones that are out there now…they’re finding that if you go by the clock, it gets tough…”

So, the next logical question was how this applied to Coach DeFrank?     “Harry’s still at it because he was and is totally with the program,” Cackovic answered.  “Even now, in his retirement, he’s still working eight hours a day on his program.  The letters, the paperwork he does…he’s still full speed ahead with little things, getting kids to college.  I mean, he’s just done an amazing job, an amazing job!  I don’t know how much more you can ask of him….”

Ask Frank Cackovic what makes Harry DeFrank so committed to his program and his players and the reply comes instantly.  “It’s his love of the game,” he responds.  “I don’t think there’s a coach who loves the game of basketball more than he does.  And that goes back to Steelton and his roots.  Steelton basketball player, pro basketball player…it just stayed with him through the years.  Harry DeFrank just loves the contest so much.  And because he does, his kids love the game so much.  The good coaches, the guys like Harry, are going to survive because they love the contest so much…”

Could more be said on the subject?  Probably.  Need there be?  Probably not. 

Copyright (c) 2008 VPC, L.L.C.