By Brian Zanzonico
Nicol and Petrocelli also had similar coaching styles, as well as a fervent love of the game. They both served on the Nassau County Girls' Basketball Coaches Association's board, Nicol as president and Petrocelli as treasurer.
Nicol was in the stands at Bellmore-JFK High School on Feb. 27, when Petrocelli collapsed and died suddenly on the bench during the first half of a Nassau County Class AA semifinal game, when the artery that supplied blood to his spleen ruptured. Six weeks later, Nicol is lending support to Petrocelli's widow, Denise, and daughters Amy Rose, 7, and Nicole Grace, 4.
Donations to the Friends of Petro Fund have poured in from local families, and points east of the Nassau/Suffolk border, since Petrocelli died. A survivor of adrenal cancer as a teen, he was never able to qualify for life insurance because of the past illness. The Friends of Petro Fund has collected tens of thousands of dollars, and Nicol hopes that on April 18, even more money will be raised to help Denise and the girls, who live in Suffolk County.
A Night for Petro, the organization's latest fund-raiser, will be held next Wednesday at Dave & Buster's in the Source Mall on Old Country Road in Westbury. Tickets are $25 and come with a $10 game card for use in Dave & Buster's huge arcade, a buffet and a DJ.
"There are 100 tickets sold, and at least another 100 people have told me they're going to buy them at the door," Nicol said. "He was always so giving, he always made you feel so important. Whether you knew him forever or just met him, talking to him made you feel like he was the only person you needed to talk to at that moment."
After the Elmont girls, coached by assistant Tom Magno, lost to Hicksville in the resumed semifinal game three days after Petrocelli's death, Nicol and other members of the coaches association's board met to discuss a fund-raiser. Nicol's husband, Scott, a manager at Dave & Buster's, said the establishment would cater the affair and give them the room. The fund-raiser will feature an auction, a raffle, billiards and bowling - which was often one of Petrocelli's team's bonding outings.
"Gregg wouldn't want people sitting around and crying about him," Nicol said. "This is right up his alley."
Many of Petrocelli's former players and students - he was a guidance counselor at Elmont High for 12 years - are expected to attend. And his impact on young people is so far-reaching, Nicol said, that complete strangers are expected at the fund-raiser as well. Coaches across the county have been approached by people who never met Petrocelli but wanted to donate money to the cause just the same. Children have offered balled-up dollar bills and whatever small change they have, and three local musicians, Deviouz, Apophenia and Danny Carmelo, played a concert benefit last month.
"I've had kids knocking on my door to give me $5," said Pete Gilbert, who coaches the Long Island Lightning, an AAU team, and St. Anthony's CYO basketball in Oceanside.
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