By:Scott Brinton
His kindly way with students -- and people generally -- has earned the legendary coach the nickname Gentleman Joe at Calhoun, where for 38 years he taught math and for 24 years he served as the school's athletic coordinator. Much to the disappointment of Corea's colleagues and students, he retired from those two positions last June. But Corea will continue to coach his two loves, football and baseball.
The district administration was "kind enough to let me stay on," Corea said humbly as he sat in Calhoun's athletic office last week, a blue Colts baseball cap on his head.
Saul Lerner, the Central High School District athletic director, said of Corea, "We were lucky enough that he would stay on" to coach.
Lerner said that Corea set a tone at Calhoun that sportsmanship came before winning, and that belief spread to coaches and their players. Lerner noted that the Nassau County Coaches Association awarded Calhoun its annual school Sportsmanship Award in 2003, and in each of the two prior years it was a runner-up for the honor.
Corea has also proved that victory on the field can go hand in hand with fair play. Under his leadership, the Calhoun baseball squad won the Long Island and New York state championships in 2002.
Corea, of Massapequa Park, said he'll miss teaching math. "In class, it was great. The kids were great," he said.
June Spruyt, a young but enormously successful coach, replaces Corea as Calhoun's athletic director. Spruyt, a former basketball star at Hofstra, taught phys. ed. at Mepham for five years, and led the girls' cross-country team to county championships in 2002 and 2003. The team comprised primarily freshmen and sophomores, and is now poised to become one of the state's great running powers.
Spruyt, who was named Nassau County girls' cross-country Coach of the Year in 2003, recognizes Corea's status as a Calhoun fixture. "I have huge, huge shoes to fill. Joe is my mentor," said Spruyt, who will teach phys. ed. at Calhoun.
Lerner said that Calhoun's relatively new administration supports sports in a big way. The principal, David Seinfeld, played baseball in high school and is a member of an over-28 baseball league. Mike Harrington, the assistant principal in charge of athletics, played baseball at Providence and in the minor leagues as well.
Seinfeld said that teachers who coach develop strong bonds with students. "When there's leadership on the field," he said, "kids respond to those people during the day."
Calhoun boasts more than 500 athletes among its roughly 1,300 students. Seventy-five percent of them, Seinfeld said, have traditionally made the honor roll. "A successful athletics program creates a tone in the school that is just tremendous," said Harrington.
