North Rockland coach Ralph Cordisco dies at 97

• Cordisco compiled a 123-50-8 varsity football record during his stint as head coach from 1956-79.
• When he was the school's athletic director, Cordisco hired Joe Casarella, who currently holds the post.
• Cordisco will be buried in Rhode Island on Saturday. North Rockland will hold a memorial service at a later date.

THIELLS – Football always made up a piece of who Ralph Cordisco was. Through stints as a quarterback for Haverstraw High School and Syracuse University, and a 23-year run as a varsity head coach, the game played an integral role for the better part of Cordisco’s long life.

Cordisco, the head coach at Haverstraw High School and North Rockland High School from 1956 through 1979, and a world War II veteran of the Coast Guard, died Sunday morning in Wakefield, R.I. He was 97.

Appreciation: Ralph Cordisco, a North Rockland legend

Long before Michael Matone spent three years as a nose guard under Cordisco, he was enamored of the legendary coach at the tender age of 4 while he worked the sidelines.

“As a young kid, I developed a tremendous admiration for him with his intensity,” said Matone, 63, from his Rhode Island home. “He had all the characteristics of a great coach and a great person.”

Matone, who played on varsity from 1967-69, recalled watching Cordisco at practice as the offense called out its play. Just as the quarterback would lick his fingers prior to taking the snap, Matone would see Cordisco — who would always stand behind the offense — display his love of the game firsthand.

“He would lick his fingers,” Matone said. “He was always doing that.”

The North Rockland High School football stadium is named after Cordisco, who compiled a 123-50-8 record during his time as head coach, and the field is named after his successor and current Red Raiders athletic director, Joe Casarella.

Cordisco hired Casarella out of Ithaca College during his time as the school’s athletic director to be the junior varsity and varsity assistant coach — posts Casarella held from 1967-80 before taking over the head coaching gig and winning a county-record 255 games.

Casarella had other offers, but ultimately chose North Rockland because of its size and Cordisco, himself.

“He had a presence about him, even back then,” Casarella said at his desk. “His interview process wasn’t structured, but he knew how to read people.

“It’s a sad day. A tremendous portion of North Rockland, (the community) lost.”

Casarella praised his predecessor for his humanity, specifically “The ability as a coach to treat people all the same.”

Cordisco would “make a point of talking to the kid someway or somehow,” if he ever “reamed” a player out during practice, Casarella said, adding that it was a trait he took with him when coaching the team.

“Sometimes you overreact as a coach and you go berserk — and me, I’m volatile as hell — and maybe that night, you call them up or stopped by the house,” he said. “I’ve done that a hundred times.

“Instead of a kid quitting, or a kid getting down, it’s totally different.”

“It’s almost a turning of the tide”

Kevin Hastings, a social studies teacher at North Rockland who spent more than a decade coaching the Red Raiders’ varsity golf team with Cordisco, said he received about 20 text messages when news of Cordisco’s passing broke.

“It’s almost a turning of the tide up here,” Hastings said.

Hastings remembered Cordisco as an “encyclopedia” of Syracuse and North Rockland statistics, and someone with a fiery, competitive drive.

“He was a genuine guy,” Hastings said. “Just a straight shooter, old school. A lot of what communities lack today is what coach Cordisco had.”

Hastings said his fondest memory of Cordisco was also the oldest — the first day of golf tryouts, circa 1996.

“We’re on the first tee, the wind was howling — it was probably 45 degrees in April — and a kid missed a shot, and (Cordisco) was not happy that he missed the first tee shot, and he got everybody’s attention,” Hastings said, garnishing the anecdote with a mix of chuckles. “Everybody was always sharp and wanted to be on their game because of him.”

“He touched a lot of lives in a very positive way for many years,” Matone said.

A memorial service will be held for Cordisco at 11 a.m. Saturday in Rhode Island, according to his son, Ralph Jr., who is better known as “Kip” in the community. The plan is to have Cordisco buried at Swan Point Cemetery, where his wife, Rosie, was laid to rest in 2007.

Casarella said the North Rockland community plans to hold a memorial service at St. Peter’s Church in Haverstraw next week. Details were pending.

Twitter: @Zacchio_LoHud