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DECISION: After 23 years and with his 400th win in sight, Newark varsity basketball coach Ron Ceravolo says it's time to go.
By JOHN ADDYMAN NEWARK - Sitting in his den filled with images of team triumphs, awards and a throw from his 2004 sectional championship carefully draped on the couch, Ron Ceravolo said: A coach knows when its time. After three decades of courtside views and approaching his 400th win as the Newark boys varsity basketball head coach, Ceravolo said this season will be his last. 'There isn't any one reason,' said Ceravolo. A minor health problem surfaced last year, caused, he said, by the pressure I put on myself. That was the first domino. It was his love of coaching, love of family and the need to find life beyond basketball that all collided in the last year. Ceravolo, 59, and his wife, Helen, discussed it in the fall, and by December he was sure it was time. He told his team after a recent holiday tournament. 'After making that decision, a ton of weight has been off my shoulders,' he said. In 23 years as varsity coach, Ceravolo has accumulated 14 Finger Lakes East titles, four sectional titles, two trips to the state tournament, one state championship-game appearance, and eight straight 16-win seasons. He has 398 wins (and counting) against 109 losses. Born and raised in Newark, he tried one semester of college before ending up in the construction business. Then one day, the Rev. Joe McDonald asked him to coach the eighth-grade boys team at the St. Michael School. A coach was born, then he found Helen. 'I met her through her son, Frank, who I was coaching in a recreational baseball league and Vince Lombardi football,' said Ceravolo. Helen and Ron married in 1973 and he gained an instant family; Tammy, now a technical recruiter in Massachusetts; Frank, a salesman for G.W. Lisk in Clifton Springs; and Tim, a masonry estimator in Phoenix. 'It was Helen,' he said, 'who helped me form a new life.' Ceravolo went back to college, first to Finger Lakes Community College then Community College of the Finger Lakes and then to SUNY-Brockport. He earned his bachelors degree and later a masters from Brockport, and in 1982 took a job teaching in Newark. Along the way he was an assistant basketball coach to Putt More at FLCC and spent a year as the junior varsity coach in Newark. The years went by. The teams came up through the ranks, played their best and players moved on, but Ceravolo was a constant on the Newark athletic scene. Even with his move from basketball, he'll still be seen coaching modified soccer and baseball. 'I don't have the energy I believe the kids need,' relating more to the off-season commitment basketball requires, he explained. 'In July, I spend 20 to 24 days on basketball in summer leagues, team camps and open gyms. Running the basketball program is a year-round job. I just don't have the energy to fulfill that commitment the way it should be.' Ceravolo, known for his intense coaching style, said he considers himself a dinosaur in coaching. 'I believe in working hard every day, being on time, with team coming before any individual success,' he said. 'That approach in today's society is very difficult for young people to accept. I think I've adapted to the way the game has changed, but I find it difficult to adapt to the work ethic of todays youth; they have too many more interests, so many more things they want to do.' 'The success of Newark's program,' he said, 'comes from many things the outstanding players who have committed to a team-first approach; outstanding coaches, starting with Gary Miller and Gary Seager, who built the foundation of the program in Newark; the continuity of the coaching staff; and a great coaching staff at Newark, including Tim Tanea who has been the eighth-grade coach for 20 years and Bob Havrilla, his assistant coach for 18 years.' 'I've been truly blessed to teach and coach in my hometown,' he said. 'The greatest pleasure I have is in seeing former players be successful in their lives. I love coaching former players sons and teaching them in school.' A former player came up to Ceravolo before a recent game and asked if he remembered him. He admitted he didn't. The player was from one of the teams he'd coached at St. Michael School.
'He said to me, You gave me a chance, when no one else would. You made me the man I am today,' Ceravolo said, shaking his head. That's what its all about! Copyright
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