Commack dedicates high school baseball field to late coach 

The Commack School District has named its newly rebuilt baseball field in honor of Coach Bryan Bonin, whose death from cancer this year rocked the district’s student-athletes and his colleagues. 

Bonin, who died at 33, was one of Long Island’s youngest head coaches when he took over Commack’s baseball program, and in four seasons — a fifth was lost to COVID — he helped build a powerhouse that won the district’s first two Suffolk County titles since 1997 and its first Long Island championship. More than 30 of Bonin’s players have gone on to play college baseball and six from this year’s team have committed to NCAA Division I teams next year.   

But at the Wednesday dedication attended by Bonin’s family, district administrators and hundreds of community members, Patrick Friel, the district’s athletic director, did not dwell on the titles. Bonin’s legacy, he said, was “building young men and women and making a difference each and every day…Every single child he coached is a better person.” Bonin also coached girls' basketball and taught phys-ed. 

On a turf infield so new it glinted in the sun, Bonin’s children Ashlynn McHugh, 17, Ella Bonin, 5, and Luke, 3, threw out the first pitches. Lauren, his widow, told Newsday her husband — 27 when he left a business career to become a teacher and coach — had never looked back. “He was confident and driven and excited. He was never nervous.”

Bonin’s parents, Joe and Lorraine, also attended.

As a boy, Bonin watched his brother, Joe, 11 years older, play varsity ball for Commack. He grew into a standout shortstop for the Cougars, playing under Friel, then at C.W. Post. When he returned to the district, said Joe Bonin and Matt Salmon, Bonin’s assistant and now the head coach, he brought a distinctively mellow style. 

“He wasn’t a yeller, he wasn’t a screamer,” Joe Bonin said. “He had a good rapport with most kids.” 

Many high school coaches focus on mechanics, Salmon said. Bonin did not. “He was unique in the sense of his focus on relationships, the importance of being a good person off the field, trusting your teammates and buying into what coaches wanted. He was building a positive environment.”

Bonin’s death, in January, was the first some of his players had experienced. 

“One Wednesday in May, I’ll never forget it, he brought us over into the dugout. He was crying,” said Anthony Chiappetta, 17, the team’s senior catcher. “He said he had to get some treatments done. He wanted to make sure we were in good hands with Coach Salmon.” Chiapetta realized, at the wake and funeral mass: “He’s not just leaving Commack baseball, he’s leaving his wife, he’s leaving his kids.” 

Matt McGrurk, 17, the senior centerfielder, said he’d watched Bonin since he was a freshman, far from making varsity. “I really liked the way he treated people and the way he treated his players.” Four years of observation taught him one crucial lesson: “Be kind to everybody. There’s not much more than that.”