Welcome back to the sports desk around the Alleghenies Referee Rich talking this week with Mount Union baseball coach Nick Imperioli. And Nick, we we touched on your first year or so as the head coach of Mt. Union, which turned into a lot of years of being the head coach of my union.
That’s where Nick and I became friends. I was a paid baseball umpire for many years and had many of Nick’s games, not by choice, but it was just when I was scheduled to go. And if they showed up, well, that’s where I was.
And we became friends through many of those games. But Nick, as the years went by. Did you see and again, with your discipline in the fiery way that you coach, did you see the program really come together as far as and you said you never had a losing season, so obviously things weren’t right.
But did you see it coming together as becoming a power school? You know, Rich, I, I never thought of it that way. We were trying to win games. I wanted to have a winning season. But in nineteen seventy six, the district tournament was held on a far different from what it is today.
And they seeded teams and the higher seed got to play the district final in their field. And we were the higher say between us and Phillipsburg. And we won that district championship at Mt. Union that day.