Coaches Week

This week I am doing a tribute to coaches all week long, maybe two weeks, in honor of my father who, last Friday, coached his final game in Meriden on the basketball court at Maloney High School. I am going to make up posts as I go, whether it is my favorite coaches of all time, the best coaches, worst coaches, etc. Today, I want to get into coaches that I never got a chance to play for during my playing days. Enjoy!

Rich Katz - The former head baseball coach at Platt High School was a huge influence on my achievements on the baseball diamond. Technically Coach Katz was coaching me up until I started playing for his neighboring school over at Wilcox Tech. If I had it my way, I would have ended up attending Platt just so that I could play baseball for him. I had been apart of the Platt program since the age of 12, and as a youth he would take his time, even during his teams practices to show me the way the game is to be played. He was an ultimate genius on the field and knew more about hitting the baseball than any man I ever knew. He won a State Championship back in 1986 with all state player and my former coach, Pete Daniels. With my father going up into the Platt Baseball program I got a chance to see many great players come through the program up close. And they will probably all tell you that as freshman growing as a baseball player to their senior season, their is nobody that they could credit more than the teaching and coaching of Coach Katz.

Rob Symaszek - My brother The Toe, could probably talk all day about the influence Coach Symaszek had on him after only one year as coach. Though i never did play football in my life, which is one of the biggest regrets I have, I heard enough to go back in time and get a chance to play for this late legendary coach. He never one the elusive State Title but had some very talented teams to win one. Many of his players went on to great things and continued their playing careers because of his ultimate regard for his players, current or past. I remember Coach Symaszek coming to my school as an eighth grader to the recruiting bid for Maloney. He saw my name and pulled me aside and asked, "Redican...aren't you an athlete, why are you going to Wilcox?" That has always stuck with me. Also, when he sat down with my family during The Toe's playing days at Sacred Heart University. He was a great man and definitely in the mix as one of the coaches I would have wanted to play for.

Edward Zajac - For my freshman and sophomore season on the baseball diamond there was nobody more legendary around Meriden than Coach Zajac. So much so that the Maloney High School baseball field is named after him. Coach Zaj, known by his players, was a hard nosed, old school baseball guy that never wanted to hear excuses nor did he care about why you made a mistake on the field. In 1992, he was voted by the CIAC as Baseball Coach of the Year. On a personal note, I got a chance to know Coach Zajac more after baseball was over, but after a game my sophomore season in which we were defeated by about 3 touchdowns, my coach at the time Coach Daniels was having a talk with Coach Zajac while the team we exchanging the "good game" ritual. I went 1-3 that day, and Coach Zajac stopped his conversation with my coach and grabbed me while I was walking to the bench to tell me that I had a great game. I was the only one he did that to on our team that day, and it really felt good to here that from a man of his stature. Today he is not at all the same man, as many can attest to, but I think that I could have handled playing for him growing up and would have enjoyed it.


Also, my father had an article in todays paper. If you are interested here is the link:

Coach Redican