Kurt Thomas, Hen Hud Softball Coach and Graduate

Title-game appearance

As a coach, taking your  team to the Section 1 Class A championship game is a big accomplishment. What makes it even more special is when you can do that at your alma mater.

Hendrick Hudson softball coach Kurt Thomas is a 2000 HHHS graduate. Last spring, his second year coaching, he brought his alma mater's current softball team to the championship game, where it lost a heartbreaker to Pearl River 4-3.

“A lot of people didn’t think we had the talent to go very far, there were a lot of doubters,” Thomas said. “It was just nice to see us get better as the season went on. We really got hot at the right time in the postseason. Our team hit its stride in the first round of the sectionals. The girls, they just kept winning.”

Thomas was a three-sport standout (soccer, basketball and baseball), during his high school years and is happy to be back at Hen Hud coaching.

“I am thankful to be coaching at Hen Hud, where I played (11 years ago) and to give back to the high school that gave a lot to me," Thomas said.

Coaching influences

Thomas is following in the footsteps of his father, John Thomas, who was the softball coach at Clarkstown South for more than 30 years. Besides his father, big influence in his coaching career has been Dutch Pritts, he said.

“Mr. Pritts and my father, they basically throughout my life coached me until I got to high school,” Kurt Thomas said. “They really taught me how to coach and being the coach I am today. They taught me how to work hard for what you want.”

During his high-school days on the varsity, Thomas was coached by Roger Arnold (soccer), Tommy Baker (basketball) and Paul Natale (baseball).

“Playing three sports it really helped me because I had really different types of coaches,” Kurt Thomas said. “I had strict coaches, coaches that knew a lot about the sports they coached. Playing for different types of coaches, it allowed me to form my own coaching strategy. I want to thank the coaches I had for that.”

No coach meant more to him than his dad, who passed away two years ago from ALS.

John Thomas’ coaching prowess earned him induction into the Clarkstown South Hall of Fame in ‘07. Besides coaching softball, he also coached girls basketball and soccer.

Kurt’s father, who was a business teacher at Clarkstown South, also holds the single-game scoring record for basketball at his alma mater Sleepy Hollow and led the nation in hitting for Division III while playing baseball at Pace College (now University).

“He always took me to his practices,” Kurt Thomas said. “When I was younger, I just wanted to be like my father. I thought there was no way I was going to coach girls but it seems to me girls listen more and play more fundamentally.”

So when the opportunity to coach at Hen Hud arose, he took advantage of it.

“I fell in love with coaching girls softball my first year. Although I like coaching boys (he also coaches boys hoops at Hen Hud), there is something about the girls that they really want to learn. Just being with my father, every day, he was very good with the girls as far as he knew how to stay on top of them and make sure they were working hard in practice and during the game and at the same time he was laid back.”

Thomas said that the girls found his father to be very approachable and easy to talk to.

“He had that ability to be hard on them during the game, but off the field he was there for them whenever they needed something,” Thomas said. “That’s how I try to be with my girls.”

This year’s team

This year’s Sailors' squad, coming off a 16-7 campaign of a year ago, have high hopes. Senior co-captains-clean-up hitter and pitcher Julie Gaspar and No. 3 hitter and center fielder Rachel Buckner-are leading the team.

Also in the starting lineup for the Sailors are lead-off hitter, junior third baseman Katie Ross; No. 2 hitter, sophomore catcher Meghan Jahoda; No. 5 hitter, freshman shortstop Cassidy Boyle; No. 6 hitter, designated player, senior Alyssa Picariello; No. 7 hitter, sophomore left fielder Jesse Pelaccio; No. 8 hitter, junior first baseman Victoria Dolan; No. 9 hitter, junior right fielder Amanda Bell; and flex player, junior second baseman Kristen Velez.

Juniors Vanessa Fazzino, Amanda Gaudinier and Kymberleigh Vigliotti are also important members of this year’s Sailor squad.

“They would do anything to get back this year, back to where we were last year,” Thomas said. “Hopefully, we will see Pearl River again in the finals. That is my goal for this year. They are still upset about the section finals loss. They thought that they deserved to win that game. They worked hard all season last year to win and are doing the same for this year.”

Hen Hud started the season with a 15-3 triumph at Somers on April 6.