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Dan Gillespie never even played soccer before he started working at Maple Hill High School in Castleton-on-Hudson.

Now, 35 years later, he is one of only three coaches in the Capital District ever inducted into the New York State Soccer Hall of Fame.

"It's nothing that I ever expected," said Mr. Gillespie, a member of Sacred Heart parish in Castleton. "All of a sudden you look back and you go, 'Wow, how many years have I been doing this?'"

When Maple Hill offered him a job as a business teacher, the catch was being mandated to coach soccer, as well. He agreed to coach the junior varsity team; they gave him the varsity Wildcats.

"When you're young, you'll agree to do just about anything extra to get that job," he explained.

As a result, the coach, who ran and played basketball in high school and college, had a lot of learning to do. He was simultaneously teaching several classes and also coaching track and basketball. Sometimes he misspoke and told his soccer players to run down a court.

Can-do
The team lost its first game by 10 points. Mr. Gillespie im-proved by learning from the students and by taking up soccer himself. He also relied on principles he had mastered by playing other sports.

"I still joke with him about the fact that back then we did more running than playing soccer," said Keith "Tee" Palmer, a Sacred Heart parishioner who played on Mr. Gillespie's team in the late 1970s. "If we can't be the best technically, we're just going to out-hustle everybody."

The team lost every game when Mr. Palmer was a junior. At the end of the season, Mr. Gillespie brought the players into a classroom, sat them down and told them there was still hope. Get into the gym, he told them, and keep running.

Every athlete showed up at summer recreational soccer practice two times a week that summer.

"We could have just rolled over and died, but we didn't," Mr. Palmer said. They won the first game the following fall 8-4 and went on to compete in sectionals.

Today, Mr. Gillespie's record boasts 519 wins, 30 winning seasons and three state championships. He also coaches for the Empire State Games.

High hopes
It's his hardworking spirit and tough expectations for each athlete that make Mr. Gillespie special, players say. This season, Mr. Gillespie asked sophomore Willie Monty to play defense, a leader's position.

"He had faith in me," Willie told The Evangelist.

Michael Sgroi, a 2001 graduate and team co-captain, remembers practicing for five or six hours a day every summer. Mr. Gillespie did a good job of keeping the seniors focused, leading them to a state championship and an undefeated season. The coach also didn't take the game too seriously.

"He made sure that we also knew it wasn't the end-all, be-all," said Mr. Sgroi, a financial planner who still plays indoor recreational soccer as well as summer pickup games.

Mr. Gillespie's success can also be credited to his "Wildcat pride," an expression with which he's been known to end pep talks.

"It's not just an expression for him," Mr. Palmer said. "It's something that goes straight to his heart. He lives and dies with the kids. He lives the victories, and it kills him when they lose."

Mr. Palmer blew out his knee years ago, so he doesn't play soccer anymore, but he coaches recreational teams. His son is on Mr. Gillespie's team.

Here for them
Whether it's instilling a sense of tradition in the athletes or dying his gray hair blond as a sign of team unity, the coach has always been on his team's side.

Off the field, Mr. Gillespie also inspired. He made sure his athletes didn't find themselves in detention. His door was always open if they had a problem. When a teacher's husband died young, he rallied the students to rake leaves for her.

Mr. Gillespie continues to coach soccer, but he's now retired from teaching and coaching basketball. In his spare time, he designs and builds furniture, spends time with his grandchildren and wife, hunts and fishes.

He doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon. "I still have a lot of fire in me yet," he said, "and I still think I have something to offer the kids."

(02/18/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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