Lyndhurst’s Servideo registers 500th victory
And after his team started 1-2 on the season, he never thought that he would sniff that mark that only a handful of Bergen County coaches have reached.
In addition to the 1-2 mark, Servideo had a large group of new varsity players after a number of seniors graduated from a team that won 21 games in 2012.
“When we got off to that start, I said no way,” said Servideo about reaching the historic win total.
But after a loss to Emerson on April 6, the group of varsity newbie’s for Servideo started to put everything together and won 18 games in a row, including collecting his 500th victory on May 11.
The win had special significance as it was captured on the Mother’s Day eve game that honors the team’s players moms, a 3-0 victory over Bogota on Lyndhurst Rec Field.
But what might have helped Servideo and his team go on an 18-game winning streak were some of the players from the 2012 team that came back to watch the 2013 edition.
“We had a couple players come back from last year’s team and they were saying that they this year’s team stunk,” said Servideo.
“This team (2013) wanted to prove them wrong,” he said. “They started jelling and had a chip on their shoulder after that.”
The likes of Golden Bears players Max Hart, Austin Meeney, Marcus Brandon, Sergio Turelli, Frank DeLeva, Michael Perry and Bobby DeMarco helped to turn the season around.
As fate would have it, the day after capturing his 500th win, Servideo faced another 500-plus win head coach in Emerson‘s Bob Carcich. Unfortunately for Lyndhurst and Servideo, he could not pick up his 501st and, more importantly, the fifth-seeded Golden Bears were knocked out of the Bergen County Tournament, falling 2-0 to the 12th-seeded Cavos.
It was Emerson that had given Lyndhurst its last loss before the streak.. And like Servideo always says, it was a pitcher, Cavos’ Bob Fisco, who did in Lyndhurst in the county game.
For one of Servideo’s coaches, Jeff Radigan, he is an example of the affect Servideo has on players and coaches alike.
Radigan said has learned so much from Servideo..
“I was honored when coach Servideo asked me to coach 13 years ago,” said Radigan. “I have learned so much in the time spent with him. He is someone that truly would give his shirt off his back for you. He is a genuine guy and no one else deserves it more than him.”
Radigan believes that Servideo can reach the 600 victories as it was only four years ago, in 2009, when the Lyndhurst head coach had picked up his 400th win.
For Servideo, the 2013 season is his 28th as the Lyndhurst baseball head coach. He actually started as a head coach for the Lady Golden Bears softball helm where he coached for six seasons, including leading Lyndhurst to its best seasons in the sport at that time.
Looking back on his time with the baseball team, Servideo said that one of his biggest achievement was the 2008 team that won the Group 1 state title. It was the first time that a Lyndhurst team won a state sectional title since 1984.
For the longtime Lyndhurst head coach, it showed just how tough it is to even win a state sectional title.
“All you need to do is face the other team’s number one pitcher,” said Servideo. “A team could have six wins and four came from one pitcher.”
Servideo and Lyndhurst hope that it won’t be 24 years between state sectional titles as the Golden Bears are the top seed in Group 2 North 2 as the state playoffs start this week.
