BY ANGELO VELOTTA
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA – Ashtabula High School graduate class of 1981, and long-time Geneva schools coach and teacher, Scott Torok is set to retire at the end of March.
“The memories are the overall success, (and) the lives of people who cross through-the friendships, the camaraderie,” Torok said of his near three decades coaching.
Torok played basketball under Bob Walters, who coached basketball, as well as tennis, for five-plus decades, and after graduation Torok attended Mount Union College before graduating with a degree in health and physical education from Kent State University. He began teaching at Geneva in 1995, and coached basketball for 25 years, starting with leading the seventh-grade team, before running the junior varsity team for many years under head coach Brad Ellis, and eventually was at the helm of Eagles basketball.
“I also helped Nancy Barbo,” Torok said of joining the Lady Eagles coaching staff for three seasons.
But despite being a basketball and baseball guy, Torok said it was tennis courts where he really aced.
“Ironically, most success I had was coaching tennis,” he said.
“I was coaching basketball under Alex Stuetzer, and he said he needed a JV coach for tennis. He asked me, ‘Do you have a valid driver’s license?’,” Torok recalled.
22 league titles, 504 wins, and a better than 75-percent winning percentage later, the answer to that question was that yes, Torok had a valid driver’s license.
Torok would coach Eagles tennis for a total of 28 years, serving as the head coach of the girls’ tennis team for 20 seasons, and head of the boys’ tennis team for five seasons, and his teams won NEC, PAC, and CVC league titles-19 in total.
“I learned so much from Arnie Bradshaw, who started the boy’s program in 66’; from Stuetzer, Bob Kader, and Phil Dubsky, who started the girls’ program in 86’,” Torok said.
“Family, legacy, and tradition,” Torok said is what Geneva tennis has embodied, and is respected for greatly by other schools.
“Arnie told me, ‘When you leave, leave it in good hands,’,” Torok said.
So, with Torok retiring from both teaching and coaching on March 31st, that’s exactly what Torok plans to do.
“I’m passing it off this spring to Mike Rose, who was my assistant the last couple of years, and his son Isaiah is a senior,” he said.
Jeff Griffiths will run the junior varsity team, and Cynthia Seames will oversee the middle school squad.
“That makes it comforting,” Torok said.
“We’ve been blessed with some great talent; that’s a tribute to the tradition in the area. Amy Varckette played at Slippery Rock University, and was a state qualifier; Leslie Doyles, who is now teaching at Perry; Alyx Lindholm, was Amy’s doubles player; Courtney Thompson played at Mercyhurst, and a couple (players) right now-Ashlyn Thompson and Hannah Dunn,” he said.
“I wasn’t a tennis guy, but it’s a lifetime sport, I can still play,” Torok said of planning to continue playing on the courts.
In addition to Torok’s long tenure coaching basketball and tennis, he also coached the softball team for ten years.
93 seasons is the amount of seasons he’s put into Geneva athletics. He plans on still coming around to the Geneva grounds, but is looking ahead as well.
“The coaching thing I’m going to miss, but it’s time for a new chapter,” Torok said.
Congratulations to Scott Torok on a wonderful career in both education and coaching.
