Legendary Arlington Heights youth coach hangs up his clipboard
The way Bob Viti remembers it, he was watching a friend's son play youth football and found himself appalled at how one of the assistant coaches handled the players.
"He was pulling them by the face mask and yelling at them, belittling them," Viti says. "He was doing everything wrong when you're coaching 11-year-old kids."
Their humiliation turned out to be the Arlington Cowboys' gain. Viti said he wouldn't come back and watch another game unless they were coached the right way. When the friend suggested he do it himself, Viti took him up on it.
That was 30 years ago. Viti has returned to coach the varsity team for the Arlington Heights Youth Athletic Association - its highest level for 7th and 8th graders - every year, despite not having any children of his own.
He played high school football at St. Mel's High School in Chicago, but Viti, of Arlington Heights, never had coached before. He learned as he went, but right from the start he urged his players to respect everyone on the field, including opponents, referees, coaches and fans.
Another of his familiar refrains, "class and pride," was evident at the end of every game, as his players would line up to thank the other team.
"When we head out to shake hands, he always tells us to go out there with class and pride," says 13-year old Joe Faerber of Arlington Heights. "He's big on that."
Over the years, Viti's players have fed into programs at Buffalo Grove, Hersey, Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Wheeling, Loyola Academy, Notre Dame and St. Viator high schools.
This year, Viti and his team closed out a 9-2 season with a conference championship, defeating the Schaumburg Vikings 20-12 to win the Northwest Youth Football League title.
And now, Viti says it will be his last.
"Age and cold weather have finally gotten to me," says Viti, now retired from a career in sales.
At the team's football banquet last week at Lou Malnatti's in Buffalo Grove, his players presented him with a framed photo montage of former players.
They included some now playing at the college level, including Mark Woodsum at Northwestern, Eric Andino at Michigan State, Eric Hedstrom at Purdue, Emmett Cleary at Boston College and Joe Wright at North Dakota State, to name a few.
Dan Murphy of North Barrington, a former Cowboys president who worked the sidelines with Viti as an assistant coach, watched him motivate his players.
"Bob would make it a point of ending every practice with taking five minutes to talk to the players about this message: 'Be the best you can be,'" Murphy says.
Hal Zabrin of Arlington Heights, another former coach and president of the organization, says former players often come up to him and ask if Viti still coaches.
"These are grown men," Zabrin says. "Some went on to play in high school and college football, and some never played after eighth grade.
"But they all share the same feeling," Zabrin adds, "that Bob was the best coach and mentor they ever had, and that they think about him often even as adults."