WESTFIELD – Earlier last season, Westfield High School baseball coach Rich Discenza recorded his 200th victory in front of a packed crowd at Bullens Field. Former players, alumni, and notable local coaching legends like Tom Sgroi descended upon the baseball diamond after the Bombers upended preseason favorite Central, the defending Western Massachusetts Division 1 champs, 10-3.
Westfield coach Rich Discenza, rear right, meets with the team during a timeout during a 2014 regular season game. (Staff photo)
There was a brief ceremony following the game, Westfield High School director Eileen Flaherty and that season’s current crop of Bombers’ baseball players presented Discenza with a game ball.
It was a touching moment and symbolic in many ways – Discenza was having a ball in more ways than one.
“I told the kids (recently) that the moments I enjoyed the most were when we practiced at the high school, and we were the only team there,” Discenza said. “We had outlasted everyone else. All the other (sports) teams had hung their jerseys up, handed their equipment in, and we’re still going.”
While the team is expected to outlast the rest of the field again next spring – Westfield is likely to be the preseason favorite to capture the D1 title with a strong crop of returning ball players – it won’t be quite the same.
Discenza will absent from the city’s field of dreams as he is stepping down as head coach of the Westfield Bombers, citing plans to move down south to St. Petersburg, Florida.
Westfield High School baseball coach Rich Discenza, left, poses with former legendary head coach Tom Sgroi following Discenza’s 200th career victory. (Photo by Chris Putz)
“It’s just time,” Discenza said in a recent interview with The Westfield News. “I’ve been doing this since 1974.”
Discenza, a football player and fledgling baseball player at Cathedral High, graduated the school in 1967. A short time after graduation, he followed his father’s advice to give back to the school and community by becoming an assistant coach at the school.
“I kept trying to make the varsity baseball team, but I kept getting cut,” Discenza said.
Despite not getting his chance to shine on the diamond, he truly made the grade as a coach.
In 1975, Discenza became the varsity baseball coach at Cathedral. Twenty years later, Discenza took over as freshman coach at Westfield High where he said he “had some of the best times of his life” helping develop young talent at the school. In 2009, he became the varsity head coach.
In just eight seasons as head coach of the Westfield Bombers, Discenza captured three Western Massachusetts Division 1 baseball championships. He contributed to a rich tradition forged by previous local coaching legends Sgroi and Jim Jachym.
Discenza says don’t thank them though for creating a winning atmosphere at the school, but rather look elsewhere when you’re looking to praise them for their efforts.
Westfield athletic director Eileen Flaherty presents Westfield High School boys’ varsity baseball head coach Rich Discenza with a game ball after collecting his 200th career victory. (Photo by Chris Putz)
“We’re only as strong as the kids we get,” Discenza said. “They’re the secret to the whole deal. The (city’s) Little League and Babe Ruth program – they’ve made our program successful … It’s the kids and the parents.”
Discenza said one of his most memorable players was All-Western Massachusetts outfielder Jeff Crawford, who volunteered to catch his senior year (2009) for the good of his team.
“He gave us some strength behind the plate, allowed us to move some people around and give us some success,” the longtime coach explained.
That unselfish play is what helped elevate Westfield to a championship in 2009.
“I went (to WMass) twice with Cathedral and succeeded,” Discenza said, “but it was nice to get that first one under my belt in my first year (with Westfield).”
Westfield would go on to win consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013.
In recent seasons, Discenza fought off health issues like one of his batters’s fouling off consecutive pitches to extend an at-bat. Assistant coach Mike Kennedy, who was recently named the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association’s “Assistant Coach of the Year,” stepped up to fill the void as interim head coach. Kennedy is a likely candidate to replace Discenza in 2017.
Kennedy said Discenza’s attention to detail and preparation for the next game is what set him apart from his peers.
“He would have stats, and he would go over those statistics in practices, prepare for situations,” Kennedy explained.
WHS baseball coach Rich Discenza exits. (Photo by Chris Putz)
Although Westfield figures to put a championship-caliber squad out on the field in the coming year, the Bombers are slated to play one of their most challenging schedules.
“This is certainly a mature group of motivated kids,” Discenza said. “They need to be led, but they don’t have to be driven.”
One of those players sitting in the driver’s seat is senior first baseman Sean Moorhouse.
“The emotion that coach ‘D’ had – we felt that,” Moorhouse said. “He loves the game. He knows how to motivate through his humor, but being serious at the same time. He made his presence felt.”
Discenza not only coached Sean and his older brother, Evan, but also was their father’s gym teacher as well in school several years ago.
“It’s so very cool to be a part of his story,” said Sean Moorhouse. “Now it’s time for others who are willing to step up. Guys will be ready for the challenge.”
It is time to turn the page on the next chapter.
