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A legend leaves town

• This morning, Tom Rosati, longtime Albany High School baseball coach, will leave the city he has called "home" for the past 21 years to embark on a new chapter in his life as an assistant coach for New Mexico State University.

Danny Aller

ALBANY — He swears he won’t be remembered as a legend ... but only a legend would say something like that.

It's been 21 years since an ambitious young man from a small town in Arizona named Tom Rosati slipped quietly into town to take over the Albany High School baseball program — doing so unnoticed, unknown and unheralded.

But after more than two decades at the helm for the Indians, there are few who will argue that throughout Dougherty County his name will never be forgotten.

This morning, with a packed car and wife Donna in tow, Rosati slipped back out of Albany just as quietly as he slipped in, heading west — back home — where the 50-year-old coach will begin to write the next chapter in his life as a newly hired assistant coach for the New Mexico State University baseball team.

“I’m doing it, man. Just like the Nike commercial: I’m doing it,” said the
always animated, oft-excited Rosati late Thursday afternoon from his home as he and Donna made final arrangements for their trip today, stopping in
Shreveport, La., then Dallas, Texas, before ending in Las Cruses, New Mexico. “It’s been 21 beautiful, wonderful years in Albany. I’ve made some fantastic friends and it’s more than I ever could’ve hoped for. But I feel like this phase of my life is complete, and I’m ready to move on.”

Earlier this year, rumors began circulating that Rosati would retire, and the longtime Indians coach confirmed that midseason when he announced that this, in fact, would be his last season in the orange and green. And while a decision on who would replace Rosati lingered until last week, Albany High School principal Shelia Marshall confirmed to The Herald on Thursday that Rosati’s successor would be Indians assistant coach, Charles Chatmon.

“Everyone knew I was leaving, but even I didn’t quite know where I was going,” said Rosati, who originally interviewed for two high school coaching jobs in Arizona, though, those plans changed when Rosati got what he calls a “diamond dropped in his lap by the good Lord straight outta the sky.”

After narrowing his choices down to two schools following a series of interviews over spring break, Rosati decided on a program in Casa Grande, Ariz.

And when the school year ended, the Rosatis were full speed ahead to leave Albany after 21 years. But all that changed with one phone call.

“It was really late Tuesday night last week, sometime around 11 p.m., when my phone rang, and on the other end was coaching legend Gary Ward,” said Rosati, who played for Ward 30 years ago in 1977 when Ward led his team to a Junior College World Series championship with Yavapai College. “As soon as he called, everything else was put on ice.”

Ward, whose son Rocky Ward is the head coach at New Mexico St., was in the process of helping Rocky re-tool the Aggies program after a dismal 22-34 season and had just left an eight-hour meeting with the staff when he made the call to Rosati.
It was a call Rosati called “fate.”

“It turned out, that meeting wasn’t set to take place until a month or two later, but because the Wards are so intent on getting (the Aggies) back to the College World Series, it came sooner than later. And if Gary hadn’t called when me he had, I’d of already been living in Arizona, a month into coaching a new high school team,” Rosati said. “It was fate, and when it comes to baseball, there must be a few gods there somewhere, because they’ve been good to me, starting in Albany.”

Not to mention, Rosati’s been good for Albany.

“(No matter what he says,) it’s true he’ll be remembered as a legend,” Marshall said of Rosati’s departure. “Coach Rosati is a loving and caring  person, and certainly a phenomenal coach. It’s in his blood, and I think he was so successful here in Albany because of that passion he has both for the kids and for the sport.

“He’s always had that winning combination.”

And those wins started shortly after Rosati first discovered the diamond.

After a stellar playing career at Sierra Buena Vista High School in Arizona (Rosati was 26-1 as a starting pitcher, losing his only game in the state semis his senior year), he played under Ward at Yavapai College, then finished at Grand Canyon University, earning his bachelors degree in heath education and physical fitness. He earned his masters at Baylor University a year later in the same subject, moonlighting as a graduate assistant on the Baylor University baseball team for one season. In 1981, he took the job as an assistant baseball coach at La-Marque High School in Texas, then left after two seasons to return to Arizona for what Rosati calls “a chance of a lifetime,” coaching at Apache Junction High School, where he led the team toa state title in his first season at the helm, and a runner-up at state a year later.

Two seasons after that, Rosati got the call to coach at the college level as he took over the JUCO program at Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, Iowa, leading his new team — yet again — to a state title in his first season there.

But after that, Rosati says, his career took a left turn, landing him in Albany and far from where he saw his coaching days taking him.

“Some might’ve seen it as a step down at the time. I just saw it as the next chapter,” said Rosati, who actually interviewed for the assistant’s position at Valdosta State, but was passed over when longtime Blazers coach Tommy Thomas decided to give the job to a graduate assistant. “Luckily, Tommy didn’t forget about me, and a week after that job was taken, he called and said, ‘Tom, now I know you want to stay at the college level, but this high school job just opened up in Albany, and I think it’s worth your time.’

“One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I’d gone from living on the West Coast to Southwest Georgia.”

Once in Dougherty County, the coach began building a program, along with assistant Pete Whitfield, that would finish 306-227 after 21 years under Rosati, including a perfect 24-0 season in 1996 that ended with a loss in the state semis to Hardaway High School — a team Albany already had beaten twice during the regular season.

“Unfortunately, when I look back on everything we accomplished, that was as close as we ever came,” Rosati said. “I know when I got here, there was all this talk about the last state champion from Albany High was the 1959 football team, and trust me, I badly wanted the next one to be us. And that, I regret — we could never get it done.”

And while Rosati fears that he might only be remembered as just a “good coach” who couldn’t win the big one, one of Rosati’s counterparts believes that will be the last thought that comes to mind when people mention the former Indians coach for years to come.

“I can remember that anytime anyone said the name Tom Rosati and Albany High School baseball, you knew you were always in for a good fight,” said longtime Lee County baseball coach Rob Williams, who took over the Trojans’ program right around the same time Rosati got the job in Albany. “I can remember nights at Paul Eames (Stadium) when the (Albany) Polecats were on one field trying to give tickets away because here (Albany and Lee County) were playing one another, packing the stands with 1,600 people.

“That was great baseball, those days coaching against Tom Rosati and Albany, and his leaving sure is a huge loss for high school baseball in Southwest Georgia.”

After 1996, things began to go downhill for the Indians, and the program which Rosati had once brought to prominence began a sharp decline.

Last season, Albany High was 5-20 — the worst record in 21 seasons under Rosati.

“The long and short of it is this: After 21 years, the talent has gotten thin in Tribe Land,” said Rosati, pointing fingers at enrollment numbers that have dipped in recent years at the high school. “But I know everyone remembers that once upon a time, we were a pretty representable ball club.” As for his new ball club, Rosati says it has been a hope of his to one day return the college level, but until recently, he couldn’t bring himself to leave Albany.

“The Western Athletic Conference, major Division I collegiate baseball, this is a dream come true, and this is what’s next for me,” Rosati said. “It was hard to decide to leave, but I think my mother put it best when she said, ‘Tom, as much as you love Georgia, and baseball and all those kids, it’s time to go and get yourself a piece of the pie.’

“And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

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