He was able to effectively manage spectacular talents who emerged. I’ve heard the stories of now grey-haired men, still fueled by the influence of his inspiration. I’ve observed the bright lights of his teams’ accomplishments. Nonetheless, I have followed Coach Fitz’s career with admiration from afar. Even under his peerless tutelage, any no-hitters I might have rang up would have been far more likely from the batter’s box than the pitcher’s mound. My high school athletic attainments were, to put it charitably, undistinguished. You might be wondering at this point: Is the writer about to descend into humble-brag? Will he replay his high school athletic triumphs as part of his tribute to Coach Fitz?
Then I grew up.”Īs Lewis at once recounts and exemplifies, Coach Fitz taught science, and he coached sports-but his real subject was creating character in young people embarking on the high seas of life from the berth of a cosseted community. When I came home one day during my senior year and found the letter saying that, somewhat improbably, I had been admitted to Princeton University, I ran right back to school to tell Coach Fitz. I never could have explained at the time what he had done for me, but I felt it in my bones all the same. To make the lesson stick, he made sure we encountered enough of both. He was teaching us something far more important: how to cope with the two greatest enemies of a well-lived life, fear and failure. Not how to win, though winning was wonderful. Not how to play baseball, though he did that better than anyone. ”We listened to the man because he had something to tell us, and us alone. He was always the first to arrive and always the last to leave, and if any kid wanted to stay late for extra work, Fitz stayed with him.” ”The breaking of things was a symptom the disease was the sheer effort the man put into the job of making us better. He’s taught him that if he works at it, anything he wants, it’s there for him.” ”Fitz has made my kid a better person, not just a better athlete. In the New York Times, Lewis provided a larger context, “Coach Fitz’s Management Theory.” Lewis elaborated in an interview on National Public Radio. Lewis, a Newman graduate, was transformed by his experience as a baseball player under Coach Fitz. Through serendipity, it came to my attention early.Ĭoach Fitz led the athletic program at the small, independent school from which I graduated, Isidore Newman.Ĭoach Fitz was immortalized in the bestseller, Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life, by Michael Lewis. I would have followed his work with great interest no matter how it initially came to my attention. He is known, far and wide, simply as “Coach Fitz.” His forty-year career as coach and teacher has left an extraordinary mark. The acclaimed Coach Billy Fitzgerald has retired.
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