Published: June 03, 2006 09:53 pm            

Poletti’s dedication remembered

BLUEFIELD — Seven months ago, people from the Big Creek district of McDowell County turned out for the last football game at Mario Poletti Field, and honored the teacher and coach for whom the field was named.

On Friday, Poletti passed away at his home in War.

People will gather again on Monday evening at Fanning Funeral Home and on Tuesday morning at his funeral service, again to remember a man still very much alive in the memories of those who once played for and coached with him at Big Creek High School.

Poletti, in a 33-year career on the sidelines, became the only coach in the school’s history to win more than 100 football games. He was known as a “defensive genius,” backed up by statistics such as allowing an average of 3.2 points per game in the 1974 season.

“He influenced many a young man and made them better people,” his son Michael said Saturday. “He never had a bad word to say about anybody.” Michael played football for his father in the 1978-80 seasons.

Michael remembered that when the high school field was named for his father in 1996, the coach had said, “I did it honest. We taught them the right way.”

Michael also recalled the demolition of the field last November. “I felt bad because the field they named after him, they plowed under to build the new school.”

Michael said his father’s death so soon afterward was ironic. “That’s where he gave his life — to that, to his family, to his church. ... He’s just been a giver, his whole life. He’d give the shirt off his back for anyone.”

The coach’s son Christopher, who played for his father also from 1979-81, said, “It was like tough love. It was very strict and regimented, but it was for our own good. We were always in better shape than the other team in the third and fourth quarters.”

He said, “You could say he was a defensive genius. We played that 4-4. ... He showed us how to be aggressive and how to blitz.”

The Poletti sons remembered highs and lows of playing football at the highest prep level. The Big Creek Owls rose to the top of the state ranks in 1980 until, Christopher said, “we went down to Man and got cheated (with) over 200 penalty yards.”

Mario Poletti and Christopher shared a milestone in the son’s senior year. “He had more wins than any (other) Big Creek coach,” Christopher said. “We gathered around, hugging, and everyone took pictures.”

Michael remembered going with his father to scout a Richlands team in a year that the Owls were a young, inexperienced squad. “Richlands killed Tazewell. I remember telling him, ‘There’s no way we can beat Richlands.’ He told me, ‘I don’t think we can either, but don’t tell the boys.’ ” Michael recalled Big Creek winning the Richlands game 16-0.

Michael now teaches marketing at the University of North Carolina–Pembroke and Christopher is coordinator of special education at St. Paul Middle School near Hillsville, Va.

Drexel Adkins, now living in Kanawha City, played for the elder Poletti from 1969-72, served as an assistant coach for his mentor from 1977-84, and then brought Poletti in as an assistant coach during Adkins’ tenure as head coach from 1990-97.

“He was like a second dad to me,” Adkins said. “He was a very hard-working, dedicated man. He was a very, very, very strong disciplinarian, but he also had a side of caring. He loved his players. He loved his sport.

“He was a firm believer in kids being strong. (He) wanted them in shape, and he wanted them disciplined. ... You developed a love for him. You saw how dedicated he was. ... I gave him everything I had, and most of his players would tell you that. He was an idol to me.”

Adkins said that when he joined the coaching ranks, he learned more about how Poletti led by example. “He said, ‘We’ll work. We’ll scout. We’ll do everything we have to do to give our boys’ — and that’s how he’d always refer to them — ‘the opportunity to win.’ ”

Josh King, who graduated from Big Creek in 1995, said, “I remember him as a great motivator. ... They always told us, ‘If you could play for Coach Poletti, if you could withstand those hot August practices, then something like boot camp in the Army would be like a piece of cake.’

“It’s true. ... I’m a coal miner now, and that’s tough. But if you can handle Coach Poletti’s practices, you can handle anything.”

Adkins said, “He was a super fine man in the classroom and out of the classroom and in the community.

“He brought out the best in you, and he’s still doing it,” Adkins said.

Poletti graduated from War High School in 1951 and was a 1959 graduate of Concord College (now University), after serving in Korea. A Mass of Christian Burial will be conducted Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Christ The King Catholic Church in War.

Burial will be at Roselawn Memorial Gardens in Princeton.

— Contact Tom Bone at

tbone@bdtonline.com

        

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