By ANTHONY BOTTAN
"I was overwhelmed," he said. "What a surprise. I couldn't believe it."
Born and raised in Valley Stream, Wolf played offensive and defensive tackle for Chaminade High School in the early 1940s. He did not continue playing football when he enrolled at Niagara College in 1946 and decided to major in English.
He began coaching Green Hornets football in 1956, and continued until 1999. At that point, he said, he felt stale, and the motivation to coach that drove him for so long had faded. But during his time as a coach, he said, it was the success of his athletes that kept him coming back. "I loved working with the kids," he said. "The relationship I built with them was priceless."
The one thing he tried to teach them, Wolf said, was sportsmanship. He said he always told his players to give it their all, play hard, and be good sports whether they won or lost. Any youngster who played under Wolf, he said, remembers the infamous "Wolf Pack," a group of younger players who usually rode the bench and rarely made it into a game. Wolf molded them into a defensive unit, gave them a nickname and, whenever the Hornets built an insurmountable lead in a game, he sent them in to polish their defensive skills and get some well-deserved playing time. "It was usually the younger kids, but I wanted to get them in, even if it were just for practice," Wolf recalled. "They deserved a chance to play."
Wolf also coached Catholic Youth Organization basketball in Rockville Centre at St. Agnes for 10 years, and coached and refereed basketball in Valley Stream's Mail League for 15 years.
Sharon Daly, president of the Green Hornets Youth Football Organization, said Wolf is revered by so many players for his coaching talent and his dedication to the team for so many years. "Once a Hornet, always a Hornet!" Daly said.
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