35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the 34th installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Looking back on his illustrious career as head softball coach at Lewis University, George DiMatteo said the best advice that he ever received was to never let the opposing team’s best hitter beat you. He went on to say that advice is likely the reason for Lewis leading the country in intentional walks.
Today, June 30, 2014, DiMatteo is focused on a new kind of intentional walk. Or perhaps more fitting, an intentional walk away.
After a 31-year career, DiMatteo is retiring from the game with a career record of 1,032-539-6 (.658). The longtime Flyer intends to make up for lost time by devoting his retirement to his family, many of whom made sacrifices over the years when he was on the road recruiting or competing in season.
“Athletics has been a major part of my life, but not being able to spend valuable time with our children, parents, and other members of family and friends was clearly evident as coaching responsibilities forced us away from them year in and year out,” said DiMatteo.
He used the word “us” because his wife Deb is a retired head softball coach at College of DuPage and a Lewis graduate. Deb was a four-sport athlete at Lewis (volleyball, basketball, softball and track) and is a member of Lewis' Athletic Hall of Fame, Benedictine University's Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Region 4 Hall of Fame. She led COD to four NJCAA Division III national championships in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2004 and also was named NJCAA Coach of the Year four times.
“We were often seen traveling in opposite directions with our respective teams on long road trips, spending what seemed like endless evening and weekend hours scouting and recruiting prospective athletes, all while trying to keep our family together,” he recalled. “With this in mind, the time is now for me to focus more on our family, good health, and happiness as we head on to the next chapter in our lives.”
So far for DiMatteo, he has scripted a pretty good book.
One of the all-time winningest coaches in Division II history, he ends his career with the 20th-most wins in NCAA history and the sixth most in NCAA Division II. DiMatteo was named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year six times and guided the Flyers to 10 GLVC Championships.
A 1976 graduate of Lewis, who played baseball for coaching great Gordie Gillespie and coached alongside the legendary Irish O'Reilly, DiMatteo helped the Flyers to 13 berths into the NCAA Tournament, including two College World Series appearances (2000, '01) and a national runner-up finish in 2001.
DiMatteo credits his success on the diamond to the success he witnessed others have around him.
“To have played for a Hall of Fame coach, to have coached under a Hall of Fame coach, and to be married to a Hall of Fame coach, one can understand how remarkably easy it has been for me to be a successful college coach,” he quipped. “Gordon Gillespie, one of the all-time winningest college baseball coaches, taught me passion, motivation, and intense desire to win. Irish O'Reilly, who owns the most coaching victories at Lewis, taught me the ins and outs of coaching strategy and how to show compassion for my players. Lastly, my Hall of Fame coach wife helped me convert my thinking from baseball to fastpitch softball strategies and taught me the proper ways to coach women athletes.”
After working six years with college baseball players, DiMatteo noted that he had to learn a “great deal” from his wife on the difference between coaching the two genders.
Heading into what would be his final season with the Flyers, DiMatteo knew the 2014 ballclub was going to be a rebuilding project. It wasn’t until early April when DiMatteo and his staff finally became comfortable with a starting lineup and for the first time since 1984, the Flyers were not in position to qualify for the GLVC Championship Tournament – an event they have won 10 times, twice more than any other league team.
Taking a page out of the 1989 movie
Major League, DiMatteo challenged his team to win 13 of their last 16 conference games. It was their only chance to qualify for the postseason. And… they did it.
“I was very proud of our team to accomplish this feat and qualify for the GLVC Tournament,” said DiMatteo, who actually stunned his fellow colleagues by privately announcing his retirement to them at the coaches meeting on the eve of the event.
Having now had the opportunity to reflect since his announcement, DiMatteo points to the progress the GLVC has made as a league and what it has done specifically to the sport of softball.
“The GLVC has evolved from a modest six-school league to one of the strongest conferences in Division II with its current 16 members,” he said. “In the early stages, one cannot forget the contributions made by great people such as Saint Joseph’s Richard Scharf, who was later appointed GLVC Commissioner. In the past 14 years, everyone associated with the GLVC should appreciate the incredible accomplishments and enormous growth of the conference made possible by current Commissioner Jim Naumovich. It is because of his fine leadership and others on his staff that has transformed the GLVC into the conference it is today.”
In terms of progress made within the sport, DiMatteo looks at the evolution of conference powerhouses. While Lewis has certainly been a league leader in the sport, he is quick to point out the great teams of the 1980s such as Bellarmine, Indianapolis, Kentucky Wesleyan, Northern Kentucky, and Southern Indiana. He then focuses on the expansion in the mid-1990s that added perennial favorites UW-Parkside and SIU Edwardsville, the latter of which won the NCAA Division II Championship in 2007. Today, he highlights the success of Indianapolis, Missouri-St. Louis, and Truman State, which has done nothing but add to the depth of the league.
Parity has never been so prevalent in GLVC softball, and DiMatteo believes conference schools will continue to make their presence felt on the national level each and every year.
As he hangs up the popular Lewis hoodie and turns off the office lights one last time, DiMatteo hopes that his colleagues, players and officials will remember him as one who had an intense desire to compete but did so by displaying passion and respect for the game.
“I will certainly miss battling head to head strategically with the opposing coaches and associating with them and the officials, many of whom I feel are lifelong friends,” DiMatteo said. “I’ll miss the fabulous road trip experiences to the St. Louis Arch, the Louisville Slugger Museum, and all the ‘Man vs. Food’ restaurants we were able to find along the way. And I’ll never forget the incredible feats made by so many players and the unbelievable battles we had fighting for GLVC Championships.”
The universal sign to initiate an intentional walk is for the catcher to stand and extend the hand.
The GLVC and its coaches are doing the same for you, George, but for different reasons.
We stand in salute of an amazing career.
We extend our hand as a sign of thanks.
You may now walk away knowing you were the conference’s greatest ambassador for the sport.
Thank you.