Coach Tony Naclerio: The Impact of Great Teachers

When I think back to my early development as a thrower, Coach Naclerio is the first to come to mind. I got in touch with Coach originally from the referral of a teammate’s father, who had worked with him decades before—a lucky yet amazing coincidence.

I had just finished my junior year of high school with 61-8.5’ and 167’ PBs and wanted to get to the next level. What struck me about Coach was his attention to detail, positivity, and simplicity in not only breaking down the technique but also the reasons why. He had already been involved with track and field for over sixty years when I met him. He told fantastic stories of being the Olympic Throws Coach in Atlanta in ’96; watching Romas Ubartas throw near 300’ with the women’s discus; coaching Mark Murro to 252-8 feet in the javelin for the high school record (and Terry Bradshaw calling him up to congratulate him for breaking his record!); and others, just to name a few.

As a young athlete, this was like gold. Whether you were throwing 60 feet or 6 feet, he pushed you to dream harder and question what needed to be done. We watched VHS tapes of technique on his TV and broke down our own sessions in slow motion. I still replay his voice in my head with the corrections he gave: “Look at the ball,” “stiffen the left leg,” “push left to 2.”

My senior year, Coach linked back up with his former high school NJ state record holder (75-10.25), Nick Vena. Coach invited me to train with him during the cold months of November, December, and then the spring. Nick’s father characterized Coach’s greatness by saying, “There are many coaches, but few teachers. Coach Naclerio is a teacher of the throws.”

With creative drills, endless positivity, and encouragement that the next throw could be your best throw, Coach’s essence trickled down to me and my brother. My brother, Joe, was in 8th grade at the time when I was a senior. In the early fall, Coach would drive to my house and we would both throw together. We would start with looking at large posters of Al Feuerbach, Brian Oldfield, Wolfgang Schmidt, and others to visualize the technique. The next step involved using his wagon in his trunk to haul over too many shots and discs to count. His license plate was THROW.

My high school sessions would usually involve stands with the 20 lb. shot, then a pyramid down of 8–10 fulls each with the 17 lb., 16 lb., 15 lb., 12 lb., 4 kg, and then to the discus, working the 2 kg all the way down to the 1 kg. I always felt I should have thrown farther my senior year. However, I was very raw after my junior year with many bad habits, and Coach helped to properly teach me how to throw far in the long term. When I started at Princeton, I felt I had already made so many mistakes and learned from them that the 16 lb. adjustment was pretty smooth.

I sat down with Coach and his wife Louise during Thanksgiving week of 2024. I wanted to create a unique article that would be a bit different from a typical interview. Coach has been interviewed many times, and all are worth reading. I thought it would be interesting to tell a timeline of Coach’s career, his own thoughts, and my own relationship with him. We hope you enjoy it!

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Coach got his start in throwing back at Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx, New York City. He played football and baseball, where he also went out for all the throwing events. At meets, he would meet up with other competitors and form friendships with many of them. One of those competitors was Al Oerter, who would become a lifelong friend. Oerter went to Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, where he would go on to win four Olympic gold medals in the discus throw and record a PB of 69.46m. Coach graduated from Cardinal Hayes in 1955.

Coach attended Iona College and joined the religious order, the Christian Brothers, which had their training there. He graduated from Iona in 1959 and started his teaching career. His first year was at All Hallows High School in The Bronx, NY. The following year, he started teaching and coaching track and field at Essex Catholic High School. He taught as a Brother at Essex for thirteen years, until 1973.

Essex Catholic saw unprecedented success. Coach would use lots of film to teach the throw and had the unique ability “to see things broken down in every movement that was made.” He “could watch someone in real time and give them the correction, which would follow through with improvement.” The description of a baseball player seeing the speed of the ball coming at him was similar to Coach’s eye coordination in seeing the throw—something almost in slow motion. He was very good at implementing strength training in the weight room while also ingraining technique with lots of drills. Coach’s excitement and enthusiasm for the throws were contagious for young athletes.

The results were extraordinary. Mark Murro threw 252-8 with the old javelin and broke Terry Bradshaw’s high school record. He became the first man to throw over 300’ while in college, which earned him a 1968 Olympic bid. He was just one of Coach’s disciples at Essex Catholic. Rudy Guevara, who at 5’10 threw 66-4 with the 12 lb. shot, was another. Essex Catholic held the four-man national shot put relay record of 231’8.5!

Coach subsequently left high school coaching and teaching for the collegiate level, returning to his alma mater, Iona College. It was a two-hour round trip that he and his wife, Louise, would do 3x a week. She would often video the sessions as he coached—a true dynamic duo. He would still volunteer his time to coach at Morris Hills, as NCAA rules prohibited Coach from doing both at paid positions. He was the head coach at Iona and continued his success there. Athletes like John Tullo, who threw 246’ and 236’ with the old and new javelin, respectively; Bill Parisi (who would go on to start Parisi Speed School); Roger Austin, a multiple-time javelin All-American; and Brian Donahue (19.01m shot put) were just a few of many highlights.

Ralph Tamm came from the New York Jets during the spring offseason to compete because he still had eligibility. He competed for one semester and got 2nd at the IC4A meet. Naclerio coached at Iona from 1974 until 1988. His next and final stop would be Rutgers University.

Mick Byrne, the distance coach at Iona, was good friends with Rutgers head coach Mike Mulqueen. Mulqueen needed a throws coach at Rutgers, and the rest is history! This transition worked well as it reduced the travel to New York City each week. Paul Applegate (16.70m), Sam Segond (18.81m shot put / 60.87m discus), Chris Sagnella (244’ / 74m javelin), and James Plummer were just a few of many athletes to note.

Coach was at Rutgers for 25 years. He retired in 2011 but still volunteered to train Plummer until he graduated. In high school, Plummer only threw 160’, but by the time he finished at Rutgers, he had thrown 62.76m (205’). A three-time Penn Relays Champion, All-American, and 3rd-place finisher at the 2013 USA National Championships, where he set his personal best. What a way to cap off a collegiate coaching career!

Rutgers Coaching Staff Pictured: Lou Tomlinson, Kevin Kelly, Mike Mulqueen, and Tony Naclerio

Coach’s influence extended past the high school and collegiate scene. He has been inducted into eight halls of fame! He has coached on the world and Olympic levels. He was put in charge of the United States Development Program for throwing athletes from 1975 to 1996. He was selected by the USA Federation to go to Ethiopia to teach a three-week course on the throws. He also coached multiple World University Games teams.

A notable highlight was when he led the USA team into the stadium at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. How would Coach describe his experience as the throws coach for the Olympic Games? “Marvelous.” His impact cannot be measured. His book The Teaching Progressions of the Shot Put, Discus, and Javelin is fantastic. It not only made the complex nature of throwing simpler for the masses but was also ahead of its time. In an era without phones or YouTube, a book of that stature was like gold.

Coach told me a great story that I know many will enjoy. Henry Steinbrenner was a national champion runner, whose son, George, would go on to be a hurdler at Williams College. Eventually, this George Steinbrenner, the track athlete, would become George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees. He would serve on the United States Olympic Committee.

Well, Steinbrenner was looking to help out a talented girl from Hawaii and called Coach Naclerio to see if he’d come down to their Tampa facility to coach her for a week. Steinbrenner would drive out on a golf cart at the baseball facility and watch them. Her name was Seilala Sua, and she would go on to throw 65.90m, make two Olympic teams, and be inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame. Connections!

When I asked Coach why he decided to dedicate his life to coaching, he responded by saying he was always a teacher, and coaching the throws was just an extension of that. It was something he loved doing.

He impacted a lot of people throughout his journey… and he was clearly very good at it. I will finish the article with a quote that sums up Coach and who he is:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

—Maya Angelou

Coach made you feel ready to take on the world. Thank you, Coach.