Salvatore Serpe, who coached the Great Neck South High School football team to its lone undefeated season in 1982, died on Nov. 23 from congestive heart failure complications at the age of 87, according to his family.
Serpe, who coached the Rebels for more than 30 years, would always put his family first, his son Tom said in an interview on Monday.
“My brother put it really well at the eulogy,” Tom said. “During the fall, in our childhood, every Saturday was like Christmas. I said it was like the Super Bowl.”
Salvatore or “Sal” Serpe was born in Brooklyn in 1933, and graduated from Manual Training High School in Park Slope. Football was in Serpe’s blood before his coaching career began. As a freshman, Serpe earned All-City honors as a halfback and helped lead his team to a league title in 1948.
Serpe then went from serving on his school’s football team to serving in the nation’s armed forces, when he declined college scholarships to join the Marine Corps during the Korean War.
“My dad had scholarship offers to play football at UPenn and Adelphi University and chose to serve his country,” Tom said. “He loved football, but his country came first.”
Serpe played one year of football at Adelphi once he returned home and graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1956. Two years later, Sal married a close friend from elementary school, Julia Lombardi.
After moving to Old Bethpage in 1965 with their two sons, Serpe accepted a job teaching at South High, where he stayed for nearly 40 years. In 1966, Serpe was named head football coach, leading to a 32-year tenure and compiling more than 100 wins.
Tom said he and his brother, Richard, would always get excited to hop in the car on the way to the school every Saturday morning and to run on top of the hill near the football field before the games started. The two even stood on the sideline and helped their father throughout the games, Tom said.
“From the time I could pick up a pencil and clipboard, I was helping with stats,” Tom said. “It was like every Saturday was ‘Take Your Kid to Work Day.’ The bigger we got, the more we helped Dad out.”
Tom also touted his father’s loyalty to Julia and his entire family by remaining the coach of South High and not uprooting his family to pursue collegiate-level coaching jobs and other opportunities.
“He was just a real family man,” Tom said. “He made it seem like everything was about us, not about him. Whatever opportunities he had to go into college ranks, he didn’t consider uprooting family to achieve some goal he had.”
Tom said countless former players, students and professional colleagues called to express their condolences and share memories of his father.
“That’s the special stuff,” Tom said. “So many people calling and sharing their experiences of him. He made an impact on the teachers, admin, students, players and the community of Great Neck South High School.”
Serpe is survived by his wife, Julia, his sons Tom and Richard, their wives Linda and Patricia, and his grandchildren, Richard, Robert, Bridget, Daniel and James.
