Paul Guerriero, Coach of the Year... Monroe, LA -- There’s plenty of coaches who pay lip service to the idea of “building a family atmosphere” in their program with varying degrees of commitment. That isn’t a cliché for Neville baseball coach Paul Guerriero. In fact, it’s far from it. The Guerrieros live Neville baseball. Paul’s brother, Warren Guerriero, is a fixture at Embanato Field, along with Paul’s wife, Carolyn. Cullen Guerriero, Paul’s son, just completed his freshman season in the Neville program. It actually took Cullen entering high school for Paul to decide to give being a head baseball coach another try — he was the skipper at St. Frederick for 12 years before moving on to Neville as a varsity football and freshman baseball assistant. Paul wanted the chance to coach Cullen in high school, but didn’t want to miss any of his son’s travel ball games on the weekends. Paul got his second shot when he took the Neville baseball job in May of 2013, leading the Tigers to a Class 4A runner-up finish in his inaugural season. Guerriero was named the 2014 All-NELA Big School Coach of the Year. Guerriero said that family atmosphere was the catalyst of Neville’s success. “That’s something we talked about early on as a team. I asked them to think about their families and the one thing that stood out to them was trust,” Guerriero said. “There was a lot of stuff this year they hadn’t heard before. They easily could have said, ‘this guy is a freak and we don’t want to listen to this crap,’ but they trusted me and bought in.” One of the highlights of the season for Neville was knocking off district rival West Ouachita with a seventh-inning rally to advance to the 4A state championship game. Warren was the first to great Paul on the field after the game with a big bear hug. Carolyn wasn’t at the game, but she was there in spirit supporting her husband. “She was sending me pictures my in-laws took of her standing on top of the furniture listening to the game,” Guerriero said. “She loves to be right in the thick of it.” The only negative from Neville’s season was the timing of the semifinal matchup with West Ouachita, which forced Paul to miss his daughter Chandler’s graduation from West Monroe High School. But Neville principal Whitney Martin and the program’s seniors had a surprise for the Guerrieros. Also in a bind with the semifinal game, Neville hosted a special graduation for its baseball seniors. And one West Monroe Rebel. Chandler surprised her dad by meeting him on the stage of the Neville auditorium in her cap and gown, giving the two the graduation moment they thought they’d miss. “That was the one thing that my wife was afraid of,” Guerriero said. “She was on me, ‘have you talked to Chandler, have you told her’ and we really hadn’t talked about it, so that was a huge surprise and very special for Ms. Martin and the Neville seniors to line that up for us.” Guerriero is grateful for all the support from his family and said they played a big part in him being named coach of the year. “It’s a high honor for us. Carolyn is probably more excited about it than I am,” Guerriero said. “It’s great to get this kind of recognition and we appreciate it as a family.” CONGRATULATIONS COACH! WE ARE TIGER PROUD OF YOU!
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 23:54:26 +0000
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