Coach Calliari leaves lasting legacy on and off the diamond

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By Chris Wechtenhiser of The Courier Express

DuBOIS, Pa. - "If all I do is teach you how to field a ground ball, I have failed you as a coach."

It's a quote Tom Calliari has become well known for, and one that perfectly sums up who he is both as a person and coach.

It also is the foundation to why his teams - no matter the level - have always enjoyed success, most recently during his nine-year tenure at the helm of the Penn State DuBois baseball program that ended in May when he made the decision to step down as head coach. That "family" approach is what allowed Calliari to build Penn State DuBois into a national power at the USCAA level virtually overnight when the school hired him in 2015 to resurrect the baseball program after a 23-year hiatus. And, he did so largely recruiting high-character kids from North Central Pennsylvania in the area surrounding DuBois - players from schools in Districts 6, 9 and 10. And, the on field success came despite his teams battling much larger schools who often times had more gifted or talented players. However, what Calliari's players may have lacked in terms of talent at times they more than made up for when it came to shear determination and a drive to win for the man who loved each and everyone of them for who they were as a person more so than a baseball player.

"I always remind them to keep things in perspective," said Calliari of his players. "If all I do is teach you how to field a ground ball, I have failed you as a coach. Because if that is the only thing you are worried about, you are worried about the wrong things. The sun is still going to come up tomorrow, and your parents are still going to take a bullet for you if they have to. They love you, you love them. Two weeks from now, no one is ever going to remember if you struck out. Maybe you will, but there are greater things happening in life. I need to teach you how to be a better man first. A better husband, a better father and a better friend. A better employee."

"Guys will come back and tell me everything you taught us about making sure SCT - we call it standard Calliari time, being 10 minutes early - means you are on time. We start 10 minutes early. We start at 10 til 6. So if you are there at five til, you are late. So those kind of things, Thayne and Zane Morgan (former players) have said helped them in their job and made an impression and helped them advance in their jobs. So, again, I use that phrase, 'If all I do is teach you how to field a ground ball, I have failed you as a coach.' I have to teach them more than the game. How to be a better person and give back. There are so many things like being compassionate to your teammates when they fail and showing them support."

Penn State DuBois certainly reaped the rewards of that love and support Calliari and his staff showed the players, as the Nittany Lions amassed an impressive record of 235-101 (.700 winning %) during his tenure with the 2020 campaign wiped out because of COVID-19. Not counting that lost 2020 season, the Nittany Lions made eight USCAA Small College World Series appearances in eight seasons - a remarkable feat in itself considering Calliari built the program from scratch that first year. The team won at least one game in all eight of those appearances and two more games seven times.

Penn State DuBois, which had five 30-win seasons under Calliari, captured four USCAA national titles (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023) and played for a fifth crown this past spring before finishing as the runner-up in Calliari's final game. The Lions also placed fourth at the World Series in 2022. When it came to the PSUAC Tournament, DuBois won titles in all four of its national championship seasons and added a fifth crown this past spring. Calliari was twice named USCAA Coach of the year (2021, 2024) and was named PSUAC Coach of the Year multiple times. However, Calliari is the last to take any credit for all that success, instead pointing to his players and all his assistant coaches over the years for making it possible.

"I knew what my standard was. I knew what it was going to be and I had a vision," he said. "I say this all the time, and nobody believes me. Jeff Gasbarre said to me right after the World Series, I thought it was just coach speech, about you not caring and wanting that stuff (accolades), but you really mean that stuff. It's not about me. This program and my coaching style is only effective when I surround myself with the right people. And, the right people were (assistant coaches) Mike Nesbitt, Jeff Gasbarre, TJ Gornati and Garrett Brown after he played; all the former players; my brother (Chris) who comes around when he can and of course Doc (Aaron) Peters."

"The administration here with Ken Nellis and Dan Smay have been so supportive. The couple of chancellors we went through. Everybody in admissions. It's not about me. I have the ability to bring everybody together and once you establish roles for everybody, it's easy. But you have to have the right people. Starting with zero and letting it manifest to what it is today, there are a lot of people that had a hand in that. When we first started, Paul Hetrick and Christian Muth were assistant coaches, and they were good baseball people. They had to move on to other things, but they are good people and that's the most important thing. I don't hit ground balls. I don't field balls. All I do is prepare a culture and establish that culture. They are the ones performing, not me. That's so vital. I always tell people coaches only lose games. I'll take the blame for that last one. Coaches only lose games, players win games. We are only as good as our players and our coaching staff. I hope I didn't forget anybody, but it's been awesome to be a part of it and create it."

Calliari and Nesbitt in particular have been partners in crime when it comes to baseball for a long time, well before the teamed up help build the Penn State DuBois program.

"Nez and and I started the Keystone Baseball Academy a long time ago, back in 1996, when I stopped coaching at Penn State (University Park) and then I was at Greensboro College in North Carolina," said Calliari. "I came back in the summers, and we coached together. We had 22 or 24 drafted and they were all District 9 and District 6 kids. We met when I was playing against him when he was coaching in high school. He has become one of my closest, dearest friends. We became really, really close. We share a lot together. He is the perfect guy for me. There is always a max for you when you are coaching. Being the head coach and making the tough decisions, I have a culture I want, but Nez is the guy to be able to support it. He can give a different perspective because he is a little older and he has coached everything. He coached boys and girls basketball and has had success in everything he has done. He has always taught me to make sure you are able to develop those things through camaraderie. He's fantastic at that. He is the perfect guy for me. I can be fiery when I need to be, but I can put my hand on his shoulder to tell him to move on, and he can tell me the same thing. I think our perfect marriage in coaching has really helped our programs wherever we have gone together. We have been perfect partners."

The success the two orchestrated at Penn State DuBois may have been a surprise to some - at least how quickly it came at the start - but it wasn't to Calliari himself.

"When we first started, everyone asked me if we just wanted to have a winning season or be .500, because that was the standard here," said Calliari. "A small college in DuBois, they kind of expect that and don't understand it. But they just don't understand my personality. I am different. I have a standard. And if you aren't willing to rise your standards to mine, then you won't be around. And, everybody that I have mentioned … the coaches, the administration, people like Amanda Rosman … I chose everyone for a reason. I knew would raise their standards to mine. And, the people I didn't choose or pick wouldn't have done that. I told people we are going to win the World Series right out of the gate. That was my expectation. Why else play? Why else put a program together. That has to be the standard. People kind of laughed at me. They scoffed at me. It came to fruition because everyone, not just me, believed it. When you are playing Cincinnati Clermont with their history, they have only won two (national titles). The Apprentice School, they've only won two. We won four in six years. It should have been five. That will haunt me forever."

"The 128-20 conference record is impressive to me. That is pure dominance from pitch one. Not everybody can say that. Then you have the 26-11 (World Series record) against some of the best competition. You saw some of the competition with the kids from Selma pitching 90. People don't have any clue. We consistently beat Division II teams when we go down south. And with the portal now, these are some of the best kids in the country playing at small school until they get picked up by the Clemsons and the Floridas. And, we are beating those teams, because we are a team. Not because of the individuals. We are playing against the game, not the uniform. Nobody hits a ground ball any differently. It's just a ground ball. And we use those things effectively to hang around and we end up winning because we play together."

After building all those relationships and enjoying so much success, Calliari said he felt the time was right for him to step away from the program.

"When you have been this busy for so long, doing two full-time jobs and being responsible for close to 40 adults along with your own family and all of the students I teach, it's quite exhausting," said Calliari. "It's been special. But, I am missing it. I am missing the players. They are probably annoyed because I have been texting them - probably too many times. They probably thought, 'Oh I got him out of my hair,' but now I am texting them about what they are doing this summer. They will send me pictures of them catching fish. I've been talking to the coaches almost every day and I always tell them, 'I miss you guys.' That's been hard, but it's been rewarding as well."

Some of his time off early in the summer was spent fishing and also helping his daughter Peyton work on her own softball game.

"She (Peyton) was more upset about me not coaching than myself," said Calliari. "She was crying and she wanted me to continue to do it. But, my family has sacrificed a bunch, and I need to spend some time with them. As I tell my wife though, 'I will never coach my daughter. Ever.' It will not happen. And, this is recorded, so it's not going to happen. But, I will do everything I can to help her succeed."

As for coaching baseball again in the future, Calliari didn't rule it out.

"I do want to continue to coach, maybe an another opportunity somewhere else," he said. "I've been contacted by some other universities, but it has to be the right fit. A couple of them were not the right fit, but looking for the right fit would be awesome. If that opportunity comes, I would definitely do it again, but not here. I think it's time for the younger guys to move on. I think we built something special and I hate to walk away from it. But spending time with my family is my priority and the second priority is to give other guys an opportunity. That's what we are supposed to do, give other people opportunities. I'm not selfish. I've never been a selfish person in my life. I think I have done everything that I can. I think these young guys will be great and they will sustain it."

Calliari had had a host of former players stick around and help coach the program at different times - guys like Brown, the Morgan twins (Thayne and Zane), Brandon Orsich and Dan Stauffer. Others like Dan Bowman, Dom Kriner, Blaise Roush and Luke Salvo were coaches at DuBois Area High School in recent years.

One of those younger guys will get the opportunity to not only continue but build on the traditions Calliari built at Penn State DuBois, though, as the school recently made official the hiring of Brown as its new head baseball coach.

Brown and Calliari have a long history together as well. Brown played travel ball for Calliari when he was younger, then was one of the first players Calliari recruited when he was hired to revive the PSU DuBois program in 2015. Brown played for the Lions from 2016-2019 and was part of two PSUAC and USCAA national championship squads before becoming an assistant coach for Calliari and the Lions.

"It's been special to see Garrett's maturation," said Calliari. "From not knowing if he would go to school to getting his master's degree. He was going to school and scraping by with money. We had to find him a job with all the time and dedication he puts into these guys just like I do. Watching him mature and make mistakes and learning from them. Getting to where he is now is really special to me. He is a really special kid who wants to help people. He is motivated by making a difference. He wants to help people. You could see that in him as a little kid."

Time will tell where the program goes from here, but Calliari knows it is left in very capable hands with someone who understands all the little things needed for a program to succeed.

Editor's note: This story is by Chris Wechtenhiser of The Courier Express and originally appeared in the August 17th edition of the Tri-County Weekend.

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