Field hockey: After 26 seasons and three state titles, a 'loud teddy bear' steps aside
Numbers are telling.
But, by themselves, they rarely tell complete stories.
John Savage, the kid from the Bronx, who grew up sharing a bedroom with three brothers, was told to be "truthful and don't complain," played under tough, demanding coaches and who acknowledges being a "hard-ass" coach himself, won 395 games, lost 70 and tied 40 as head of Mamaroneck's varsity field hockey team.
Of those 395 wins, three were state titles.
Of those 70 losses, four were in the state championship final — all by one goal, with one coming in overtime and another in sudden-victory strokes after double overtime.
Savage's resume boasts 17 Section 1 final appearances and 12 Section 1 titles. There were also 19 straight league titles, with his last league and section titles coming last fall.
Those are the hard numbers Savage, who has announced his retirement, amassed during 26 years at the helm of one of the state's most successful high school field hockey programs.
But there are others — some less defined — that colleagues and former players and Savage himself cite that provide a fuller read of the coach, whose sideline "bark," as Mamaroneck athletic director Bari Suman refers to it, sometimes masked his close relationship with his team.
The numbers include kids who went on to play college field hockey (about 180, according to Savage), his 14 Con Ed (community service and academic) Award winners, and, according to his 23-year assistant coach, Trish Miller, the untold number of graduations, graduation parties and former players' weddings he attended.
Simply, the number of lives touched and changed by a man who never intended to coach field hockey.
"Every year I got to take a journey with new kids. I loved being around practice. I love helping people do what they want to do," Savage said.
With Savage's exit so fresh (and not entirely complete, since, for one final time, he'll oversee the multi-school high school youth summer league held in Mamaroneck), Miller speaks in the present tense about Savage and what he has meant to Mamaroneck's kids.
"We have a championship program but the stats go beyond the consecutive amount of sectionals we've been to," Miller said. "Girls come out to our team who wouldn't make many teams at all. He keeps them on the team because they have heart. For some, it's their first year (in Mamaroneck) and they've moved from another town and he wants them to fit in (socially). ... That's who he is."
Many of those less talented kids never played much but were still very much part of a field hockey family. One, Miller said, was told by her college's admissions officer that what stood out on her college application was her description of being part of Mamaroneck field hockey.
But, of course, Savage also developed stars.
One, goalie Samantha Maresca, was a three-time all-state player in high school and is now a freshman player at Division I Sacred Heart.
Maresca recalls catching Savage's eye probably in fourth grade when she stick-lifted a ball over a fence during a youth clinic Savage and Miller ran.
From then on, Savage would tell Maresca he couldn't wait to have her on his team. She made varsity as a freshman.
"It was intimidating being the only one in my class on the varsity team that young, but Sav helped me through it and I loved every moment of it," she said.
"I give Sav so much credit for helping me become the field hockey player, athlete, and person I am today. Without all of his advice, coaching, and long phone calls, I would not be where I am today in any way. Sav has positively affected my life in so many ways," said Maresca, whose top memory involving her former coach is embracing him in 2020 after Mamaroneck ended Lakeland's remarkable 12-year, 211-game Section 1 winning streak.
Learning the game from the bottom up
A win of that magnitude couldn't have been imagined when Savage, who worked as a teacher in the early '70s and went into insurance and investments before deciding to return to teaching. He taught physical education at Mamaroneck's Central Elementary School from 1994-2018 and was hired as the modified coach in 1996.
Then-athletic director Rick Amundson, a friend from reffing basketball and the man who'd hired Savage as a teacher, told Savage he needed a modified field hockey coach, to which Savage replied, "I don't know anybody."
Admundson responded, "You don't understand. You're it."
And so, Savage, who'd coached boys basketball at Harlem's Rice High School, a Catholic-school power that closed in 2011, set about learning all he could about field hockey.
And, according to Suman, who became Mamaroneck's AD in 2004, the year Savage's field hockey team became the first ever team in school history to win a state championship, to also learn about the "psyche of the adolescent female."
Savage read and spoke to other coaches.
One was now-longtime friend Sue Hughes, who at the time was Pelham's coach and who has since gone on to be Section 1 field hockey's longtime coordinator.
"John's a student of the game," she said flatly.
It's clear some officials will not mourn Savage's retirement after finding themselves in his verbal crosshairs. But Hughes is quick to note, Savage, a stickler for detail, knows field hockey rules better than some officials.
"Officials (sometimes) get mad at his questioning but he's right on the money," she said.
She'll recall his sideline frustration but also his giving nature.
Savage, the first person to call Hughes after her husband died, had a key leadership position in the section, heading the Field Hockey Coaches Association and handling things like the thankless job of overseeing postseason award allotments.
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A gruff style belies the underneath
Rocky Lividini, Mamaroneck's head girls varsity lacrosse coach, has seen Savage both through the eyes of an athlete playing for him and as a coach. Savage served for several years as her lacrosse assistant.
Lividini, who first played modified basketball for Savage at Mamaroneck and then varsity field hockey and varsity lacrosse, describes him as a "mush."
"He cares a lot about his players. That made him such a good coach and role model," Lividini said.
"He has some place in everyone's heart," Lividini added.
Miller describes Savage as a "loud teddy bear."
"Yelling comes from his heart, not a mean place," said Miller, who noted she and Savage have purchased sticks and more for kids who'd otherwise would not be able to play. Help has also been extended to players from other districts who have wanted to play in the summer league.
Miller bristles a little at Savage mentioning trying to change his approach to coaching a bit the last couple of years, saying, "Being himself is being successful."
And she laughed while noting while she is quiet by comparison on the sideline, he's the one who'd sometimes tear up talking to his team and she'd sometimes tell him not to give so many compliments.
Savage has always had an eye for young talent and recruited a reluctant Lividini to play field hockey after learning she was a goalie on an outside ice hockey team, playing primarily with and against boys.
She recalls with a laugh being in seventh grade and being in pads and Savage setting up a softball pitching machine and firing balls at her to mimic what she'd face as a field hockey goalie.
The bait worked.
"I have the best memories. He made the program memorable," she said. "All my field hockey memories are great."
"His tone was sometimes tough but the girls adored him. There was some underneath understanding. You've never see a girl come off the sidelines crying," Hughes said.
White Plains coach Amanda Granit was a key player on Savage's first state championship team.
"He yelled even more when we were there. I think we calmed him down a little bit," said Grant, who noted the flip side was readily apparent with Savage frequently taking the team out to Applebee's. "We all kind of grew up with coaches like that. It was the way it was back then."
Grant, who coached the Tigers' modified team for six years, helping Savage and his varsity during playoffs, said Savage expected players to play in the summer league and do winter training.
"I've tried to emulate making players accountable and being specific about what they've needed to work on," Grant said.
"John taught kids to be responsible. He taught them integrity. He also taught them commitment – learning to be committed and what commitment means. You can't do 500 things and do it well. Kids who played for him committed to him," said Hughes, who coached for 35 years.
Savage was all about commitment. As a junior in high school, his varsity basketball team went 0-18 and he vowed, "I'll never be 0-and-anything" again, he said.
Driven to succeed, he emphasized the things needed to get there, although sometimes in peaking decibels.
Savage laughed when recalling Jeannie Puglise, a senior in 1996, telling him, "Your tone is too loud," and developing the code word "good vibes" to quiet his sideline criticism.
"(My players) knew I loved them and they had to deal with my crazy style," Savage said.
"I could have had a better style but if style was my only problem, I'm okay with that," he said.
Suman attributes his success to Savage being a teacher at heart.
"John was always a huge advocate for his kids. And that's what he calls them, 'his kids,'" she said, noting he'd thank parents after the season for allowing him to be with their children.
Savage, who was Cardinal Hayes' starting point guard and a 1969 graduate, turned down a full ride to play basketball at a couple of places.
He played a year of freshman ball at Iona College before wrecking his knee.
But, with two loans and a midnight-to-6 a.m. job, he made his way through college with the same determination he'd later show on the sidelines.
"The biggest hole (created with him leaving) is the dedication. ... He just gave it all," Grant said.
Suman, who noted Savage put team improvement over records, always wanting to play the best teams, said she'll miss his attention to detail and organization.
She noted Savage always worked backward from the end goal.
"All the check points during the season had to be met," she said. "He had a way to pull out the greatest successes from a kid and they grew together. No one else could have that level of experience with them. It was an experience being on the team. It was not one person's accolades, successes."
Savage, who moved several years ago from Mahopac to Newtown, Connecticut, with his wife, Barbara, largely to be closer to their two daughters, Amanda Schlitten and Allison Lambo, and their-now five grandchildren (ages three months to eight years), had planned to put in one more year coaching.
But last week, he decided his 2021 team, which went all the way to the state semifinals before falling 1-0, would be his last Mamaroneck team.
He praised that team, saying his athletes followed his directive to show leadership, hold each other accountable and help each other, and, in turn, had helped him become the "kind of coach I felt I should have been years ago."
With that and his wife's constant concern about him driving two-and-a-half hours each day (75 minutes each way) to coach less time than that, and the increasing pull of family with all those grandkids, Savage decided to exit earlier.
Savage, who's embracing the idea, "Every moment matters," has changed from once asking his daughters after their games, "How come you didn't do that?" to asking his grandchildren postgame, "Did you have fun?"
He has already placed field hockey sticks in some of his grandkids' hands but laughs when noting his eldest grandchild, Harper, is clearly on the fence about field hockey, telling him after she played, "I really like it but you've got to bend a lot."
In his high school coaching, he may have bent or tweaked things a little the last couple of years, but he remained true to his insistence on commitment and continued to get very positive results.
"I've had a good run with good people around me," he said, pointing in part to Miller, Hughes and parents who supported the program, including those who quietly provided financial support so kids without money could participate in things like team training and trips.
Of leaving just shy of 400 wins, he explained, "I'd rather take fond memories with me than five more wins. The numbers that matter are how many kids have married, how many became productive citizens of the world and the number who went on to college.
"I don't care how much money you have, the car you drive. 'Did you make a difference in the life of a child?' is something I live by."
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Field hockey: NY state champion John Savages retires from Mamaroneck
