Andrew Scerbo, longtime Oceanside baseball coach, dies at 86

For over 30 years, Andrew Scerbo was synonymous with Oceanside baseball. 

His credentials spoke for themselves, and players trusted he knew the game better than anyone. 
Scerbo, the longtime Oceanside High School baseball coach, was a former St. Louis Cardinals minor-league prospect, so when athletes signed up for the team every spring, they weren't just playing for anyone.

“He had the respect of everybody,” said Richie Woods, 65, of Baldwin, who played for and later coached with Scerbo. "The kids revered him. He was a presence in that building. He was really great with his players and his students, had great relationships with them, and was an excellent teacher of the game of baseball.”

Scerbo, who was a physical education teacher in the Oceanside school district for over 35 years and had been living in Florida for three years, died March 6 in hospice care in Delray Beach, Florida, after suffering complications from heart surgery, his family said. He was 86.

“He loved coaching,” said Regina Scerbo, his wife of 40 years. “He loved to mold the minds of the kids. If he had a particular player on any of his teams, and they were troubled, or their home life wasn’t great, he would take them under his wing and father them.”

Scerbo won 454 games from the mid-1960s to the mid-'90s. His teams won 12 league titles and, in 1988, were ranked in the country’s top 10 by USA Today, according to Woods.

“He knew the game very well. He was always incredibly prepared for practice and any game,” said his longtime assistant, Andy Morris, 64, of North Bellmore.  “The kids loved playing for him. They respected him. They respected his decisions and everything he brought to every practice and every game.”

Scerbo was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 19, 1936, and his family later moved to Merrick. He played football, basketball and baseball at Mepham High School. Scerbo then attended Ithaca College on a baseball scholarship.

Scerbo’s college baseball exploits caught the eye of the Cardinals, who  signed him and sent him to the minor leagues, where his chief competition at shortstop was future gold glover Dal Maxvill.

“They were both very good fielders, but neither could hit very well,” Woods said. “But, Dal Maxvill was a little bit better.”

Scerbo’s brush with the majors didn’t end with Maxvill and the Cardinals. While at Oceanside, he coached three future major league pitchers in Dennis Leonard, John Costello and John Frascatore. 

“He said a lot with just one look,” said Costello, 62, of St. Louis, who pitched for the Cardinals from 1988-90. “He knew the game and he knew how to teach the game. ... He did a lot of hit-and-run. He taught us how to bunt. I learned a lot of good, strong fundamentals from him as a young ballplayer.”

Scerbo, who also taught at Copiague High School at the beginning of his career and was the Oceanside athletic director toward the end of it, was beloved by colleagues. His humor was infectious, his knowledge was contagious, and his company was always in demand.

“I always made sure that I had the same lunch period as he did,” said Morris, who also coached freshman football with Scerbo. “We would spend 45 minutes to an hour before we went out for practice or a game in the coach’s office. Everyone wanted to be in that coach’s office because you wanted to be around him, and that whole group.”

When Morris took over as head of the varsity program upon Scerbo’s retirement, he kept mostly everything that his predecessor had built.

“You just didn’t question Andy Scerbo,” Morris said. “He knew what he was doing. He was good at what he did and it always ended up making sense.”

Scerbo liked to travel, too. He and his wife took trips to Africa, Egypt, Belize, Europe and the Canadian Rockies.

“He was up for any type of adventure,” his wife said.

In addition to his wife and daughter-in-law, Scerbo is survived by three grandsons and one great-granddaughter. He is pre-deceased by a son, Dan Scerbo, and a brother, Anthony Scerbo. Andrew Scerbo was cremated.