By Brian Zanzonico
Fourteen girls, 14 individuals goals. Some players were asked to be more aggressive rebounders. Others needed to tighten up on defense. The motivational messages worked, as Elmont cruised to a 51-27 win over Herricks to earn a trip to the semifinal against Hicksville.
A year later, with tears in their eyes and hearts as heavy as basketballs left out in the rain, the Lady Spartans jogged onto the Garden City High School court March 2 to resume a Nassau County Class AA semifinal game against that same Hicksville team, wearing T-shirts bearing an image of Petrocelli's smiling face and a message of their own for the man they called simply "Petro": "Everything you touched, you changed."
Petrocelli, 38, the coach of the Lady Spartans for the last nine years and a guidance counselor at Elmont Memorial High School for more than a decade, collapsed and died during the first half of that semifinal game, which had begun three nights earlier, on Feb. 27, at Bellmore-JFK High School. With under two minutes to go in the first half and Elmont up 24-21, witnesses said that Petrocelli was sitting on the bench when he slumped onto assistant coach Tom Magno, who gently laid him on the floor. Principal John Capozzi, who attended the game, said that two women rushed from the stands and administered CPR until paramedics arrived, and Petrocelli was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in nearby East Meadow. Play was suspended.
According to the Nassau County Medical Examiner's office, Petrocelli's death was caused by a rupture of the splenic artery, which supplies blood to the spleen. A married father of two young daughters, Petrocelli had battled adrenal cancer when he was younger, and the radiation treatment he received may have attributed to the burst artery, said Dr. Devendra Brahmbhatt of the Franklin Hospital Medical Center. Brahmbhatt said that adrenal cancer is "extremely rare," and that pregnant women are four times more likely to suffer a ruptured splenic artery than men.
Petrocelli is survived by his wife, Denise; his daughters, Amy Rose, 7, and Nicole Grace, 4; his father, Ernest; and two brothers, Chris and Ray.
Petrocelli's death stunned the community, and working late into the night that he died, Capozzi and school administrators cobbled together a plan to help students cope. Counselors from each Sewanhaka Central High School District school made themselves available all week, starting before the school day's first bell. The gym served as a makeshift memorial, and hundreds of scrawled messages to Petrocelli and bottles of Gatorade - his favorite drink - dotted the room.
Students also channeled their grief into assembling a memorial around the green "Elmont Memorial High School" sign on the front lawn. Around school in the days after Petrocelli's death, students and teachers who didn't have tears welling in their eyes or streaming down their cheeks walked around in a haze, unable to believe that a man so fit and young was suddenly no longer there.
"We draw on each other's strengths," said Capozzi, a longtime friend who came to the high school 12 years ago, as did Petrocelli. "The faculty, the students. That's how I get through."
Less than 24 hours after his death, Petrocelli's players faced a momentous decision: whether to pick up where the semifinal game left off or not play again this season. Convinced that finishing the game was what Petro would have wanted, the girls opted to play, and suited up for the game against Hicksville last Friday at Garden City High School. With more than 1,000 people in the stands, players from both sides met at midcourt and joined hands for a moment of silence before the game resumed.
In the end, a missed three-pointer by Elmont gave Hicksville a 60-57 win. Once the buzzer sounded, several Elmont players crumbled to the floor, sobbing. Hicksville's players, many crying as hard as their opponents, embraced them and helped some to their feet. Afterward, Petrocelli's star player, Kirsten Jeter, was one of the only players to emerge from the locker room to speak to the media. "I know that's what he would have wanted," Jeter said about the decision to play. "And I tried to give him what he wanted."
Student Ian Furtado agreed with the girls' decision to play. "They played because Petro is in our hearts," Furtado said, "and they just wanted to fulfill what he wanted."
Loss extends beyond Elmont
Petrocelli's death was felt across Nassau County. Maurice Grant, the assistant principal at Freeport High School, said Petrocelli's loss was far-reaching, as girls who played against Elmont were upset by the news. A longtime boys' soccer coach at the school before giving up those duties this year, Petrocelli coached Grant's son, Maurice, who is now a member of the U.S. Air Force, as well as his daughter, Kaitlin.
Grant said that Petrocelli played a vital role in his daughter's earning a scholarship to Loyola College in Maryland. When Kaitlin was a junior, Petrocelli recommended that the Grants call Kevin White, who coaches a team in Queens. Kaitlin joined the team, and while she was competing in a tournament in Chicago, scouts from Loyola saw her play and expressed interest in her.
"It's a really big loss," Grant said. "You can get another coach. You can get another guidance counselor. But you won't get another guy like him. He's irreplaceable."
Petrocelli watched Grant compete in a playoff game in Westchester County just days before he died. "His relationship with the kids was that of a father-daughter," he said. "Girls would go off to college and he still played a huge role in their lives."
Larry Bryant, chairman of Hicksville's phys. ed. department, offered counseling to his players. On Senior Night in Elmont, in addition to presenting each graduating player with a bouquet of flowers and saying a few words about each one before the game, Petrocelli had presented flowers to a Hicksville player who was hurt and couldn't dress for the playoffs. "It was quite a gesture," Bryant said. "It was not out of the ordinary, it was his style, his manner of doing things."
By all accounts, Petrocelli always devised new ways to motivate his players. There were team bowling outings, trips to the movies, dinners at his home with his wife and children, anything to build camaraderie and a family atmosphere off the court, in the hope that it translated into an I-know-what-you're-thinking mentality among the girls on the court. The success of the program under his leadership proved that his approach worked. In nine years as Elmont coach, Petrocelli amassed a 139-22 record and led the Lady Spartans to county championships in 2000-01 and 2003-04.
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