Is Bill Tribou returning to Horace Greeley or did he never leave? You could probably answer either and be right.
With the Quakers set to host their summer camp next week, I caught up with Tribou today to get the story on his return to the sideline. As you probably know, Tribou said he had coached his last game after his team lost to Harrison 6-0 in the Class A championship game in November.
“Right now, I’m no longer the Horace Greeley head coach,” Tribou said at the time.
He had actually arrived at the decision a year before, and said family considerations and a promise to his mother led to that resignation. Indeed, Tribou told me his mother, who is 95, moved from her home in Gloucester, Mass., to live with him and his wife so they could care for her.
“I wasn’t going to allow that to be dumped on my wife because of the amount of time I put in with the Greeley football program,” Tribou said.
The move occurred around Thanksgiving. The Tribou family reconstructed their home to make the ground floor more friendly, but it wasn’t enough. After about four months, Tribou’s mother moved to a nursing home in Massachusetts.
“In the four months that she lived in my home, she fell six times,” Tribou said. “It just became so cumbersome. My wife had just retired and she ended up having to be a 24-hour nurse, and nobody should have to do that.”
With his mom headed to what he felt was a better place, Tribou was lured back into coaching by the team’s senior star, quarterback Justin Ciero. Tribou received a text from Ciero during the holidays that said he wanted to return to the championship. Ciero believed he needed Tribou to accomplish that goal.
“I mulled it over and mulled it over,” Tribou said. “I eventually told Justin I was going to return.”
Tribou, who has two more years until he is eligible to retire, said he sought advice from his mentor, Tony DeMatteo. The Somers coach asked Tribou how long he had until he retired? Two years. So DeMatteo told Tribou he wouldn’t be happy unless he spent that time coaching football.
“That was it,” Tribou said. “Very simple.”
Although Tribou has been busy with the team already, he returns to the field for real as a coach on June 30. That’s when Greeley will host its four-day camp before beginning summer break.
9 Comments
Coach Tribou..the Roger Clemens of Coaching??
Good luck Greeley and congrats to Tribou for sticking it out!
So Greeley never hired a replacement? Seems that if they were this great program that would have been done right away. Unless of course they new he was going to pull this stunt.
In the stands – did you read the article? this “stunt”? how does the truth regarding what was behind his decision still lead you to believe that this was a “stunt”?
Is it true Josh that John Casstellano left Nyack
He’s comming back,,, there’s a surprise… What’s a year without him quiting.. LOL
Stands….so they never hired a new coach? Great publicity…..sounds as though Greeley knew all the time that he would return. just quit /retire and be done with it already.
Josh –
Come on…whats the deal with Castellano? Rumor is he resigned last week and is heading to Don Bosco!! Time to put a call into the Nyack AD and get to the bottom of this. Unless of course this another one of his strategic manuevers to do less and the high school and get more money out of Nyack (ie what he did with Scardsale a few years ago). Whatever it is, it needs to be reported on!!!
MSG Varsity just reported that Castellano resigned yesterday and the job was posted today…
You know he wasn’t going to leave especially after they hadn’t hired a new coach all this while. Not to mention that Ciero didnt make a move to head to a new school. He had to come back, especially with Ciero’s talent. He’s probably done after this season though.