Published: September 21, 2007 04:33 pm            

THE ISLE FILE: Classy Tassy headed to Carolinas

Some years ago a young mainland woman had a frightful emotional brawl on her scholastic basketball team. It wasn’t about her, but it was all around her, and she was devastated. At work, her mom vented to Doug.

Doug remembered that she’d once played soccer for Islander Jean-A. Tassy, so he walked down and tapped on his door. Although years had passed since she’d played for him, he absorbed the story as if it were his own daughter. Two days later Doug’s colleague told him, “Coach Tassy talked to her. She feels a lot better now.”

This is the kind of man we cherish as a neighbor, a friend, a leader, a role model. Soon we won’t have Coach Tassy to kick around any more. The University of Buffalo has announced that he will step aside as its women’s soccer coach after this season “to spend more time with family.” He and wife Kathy are moving to the Carolinas, near sons Chris and Jake.

Tassy has coached UB women’s soccer for 13 years. “Tassy’s Lassies” were the first UB team to win a Mid-America Conference title, best remembered for their response after a Bowling Green player died — natural causes — during a tournament game. The next day Tassy, out of respect for her memory, declined to have his team practice on that field, instead transporting the squad to another far away.

He’s the only coach we’ve ever heard say “please” from the sidelines (“Please, step up to the ball!”). OK, it’s loud, but it’s still “please.” A world-class player on his native Haiti, he had coached men’s soccer at many levels. Now, “Who knew that it would be with women that the opportunity would arise, and that it would last 13 years?”

One January night Chris and Jake, separately, rang our doorbell, each bearing a Polaroid. They needed to be photographed in a Volkswagen for a church scavenger hunt. Ours was in winter storage but we had a scale model on the mantel and the rules didn’t specify “seated.” Each put a thumb in it and we flashed away. It passed.

“We always had people we knew we could depend on,” Coach Tassy said last week. That played on both sides of the ball. Godspeed, good people.

“FIDDLER, ACT TWO” – Maggie Rustowicz, just turned 10, will celebrate her double digits in the role of Bielke, Tevye’s youngest daughter, in “Fiddler on the Roof” for Niagara Regional Theater Guild at Tonawanda’s O’Hara High School through Oct. 6. Last week’s Isle File didn’t make this clear. Mazel tov, Maggie...

Also cast: Mary Elizabeth Lacki as Mrs. Webb and Emili Pici as Mrs. Soames in Niagara University’s “Our Town,” at NU’s Leary Theater Oct. 4-14…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — Clark Jaquith, soccer star, age 5. Aside to Coach Tassy: You can’t take him with you. We saw him first.

Isle File idea? Write Box 1186, Grand Island, NY 14072 or e-mail pollyndoug@hotmail.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.