By Brian Zanzonico
Entering the season, H. Frank Carey's varsity baseball team had 10 seniors filling its 15-man roster. Though the team labored through a 4-12-1 campaign last year, a switch to Conference A-III and the experience of his players told LaMarca, the team's coach, something special could be on the horizon. Before the season, LaMarca decided 2006 would be his last after 6 years as the Seahawks' leader.
"That was my plan coming in," he said. "With so many seniors, I knew the team was going to be the best it's been in years. They're going out this year, so I figured it was time for me to go out with them."
His players gave him a nice going away present. Carey finished the regular season with a 14-7 mark, good enough for the No. 8 seed in the Nassau Class AA playoffs. Behind junior shortstop T.J. Humrich (3-for-4, three RBI) and the brothers Intagliata, senior Frank (3-for-4 with two doubles) and sophomore Sal (3-for-3), the Seahawks beat No. 9 Plainview, 11-7, on May 22. It was the first home playoff win for Carey's varsity baseball team since 1988.
"You've got to look at our three captains - Frank [Intagliata], [senior] John Chilelli, and Humrich," LaMarca said. "And Brian Gottlieb was one of our bright spots."
Gottlieb, a senior right-hander, rebounded from a physically and emotionally tough junior year to lead all Carey hurlers with a 7-0 mark. LaMarca said Gottlieb missed most of the 2005 season after suffering a broken knee while working as a rink guard at Iceland in New Hyde Park during the preseason. Months earlier, his father was murdered by a man posing as police officer.
Frank Intagliata also registered an impressive senior campaign, falling one home run short of tying the school's single season home run record, held by his father, Frank Sr. He was first on the team in hits (37) and broke the school's single season records for runs scored (41) and stolen bases (22).
Despite some big years from its top players, Carey's season ended with a 9-3 loss to No. 1 seed Massapequa on May 23. Though LaMarca is setting aside his baseball coaching career to spend more time with his family, he will return to the sidelines next fall and resume his role as the varsity football team's offensive coordinator. Last year, Carey rode one of Nassau County's most complex and feared offenses to the Conference II final - the school's first appearance in a championship game in 27 years.
"I have a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old in Little League and I told them this year I can't put time in to help now, but next year I'll work with them on playing baseball," LaMarca said. "I want to watch them grow and play baseball."
LaMarca, a special education teacher, started teaching at a Catholic school in Bayside in 1991. The school had no sports, so he coached junior high baseball and later junior varsity baseball at Elmont Memorial High School. He's also coached baseball at the junior high and junior varsity levels at Locust Valley and at his alma mater, New Hyde Park. He was junior varsity baseball coach at Carey before taking over for the legendary Bob Walpole in 2001. In his first year, LaMarca led the team to the Independent League championship with a 19-2 record. After switching to a conference in 2002, LaMarca guided Carey to the playoffs for the first time since 1988.
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