When Hofstra basketball coach Tom Pecora was in a C-130
plane early this month, flying from Kuwait to Baghdad, he was not thinking so much about the 100-something degree heat or intense silence on board. Nor was he focused on the body armor he was wearing. Nor was he particularly musing about the fact that it was not the safest place in the world.
What kept crossing his mind was that some people do this kind of thing every day.
That kind of thought stayed with him throughout the week that he and seven other current or former college coaches spent among service people during a tour called Operation Hardwood.
"I was blown away," Pecora said, back in the United States.
Ostensibly, Pecora, Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen, former St. John's coach Fran Fraschilla and others were there to do some coaching and give some clinics for the armed forces' version of intramurals. But really, as Pecora said, "We were there to thank them."
More than that, he added, the coaches got coached.
All the things that they talk about on a daily basis - commitment, sacrifice, teamwork, hard work - hit home to the coaches, half a world from their gyms. The members of the military whom they visited have to live all that stuff every day. They have no choice.
"They would come into the gym, put their guns on the rifle rack, and go right on the layup line," Pecora said. "You realize they're working 14 hours a day, seven days a week."
The whole trip will stay with the coach for the rest of his life. What really amazed him was that not once did he hear anybody griping.
"I'm as unpolitical as a person can be," Pecora said, but he had to add that he was moved. He sure did not regret signing up for the tour conducted by the USO, even though he had been on a fairly exhaustive recruiting journey just before it and had been able to spend only two days at home.
Operation Hardwood began five years ago as a morale booster. The trip was designed to coincide with a basketball tournament at various military bases. The coaches bring some equipment and some expertise. The roster of visitors included - along with Pecora, Rohrssen and Fraschilla - Jerry Wainwright of DePaul, Jeff Jones of American University, Brian Gregory of Dayton, Tom Schuberth of Texas-Pan American and Reggie Minton, former coach at Air Force.
The group gathered in Washington, and visited patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which was inspiring in itself, Pecora said.
After their flight overseas, when they were at a staging area in Kuwait, he was surprised to hear someone shout, "Hey, coach Pecora!" It was a Marine, John Parry, who played at Lindenhurst and attended Hofstra's summer basketball camp. Small world.
But once the coaches shared meals with the military people in the massive cafeterias, once they watched them on the court, all of them felt as if they were from each other's hometown.
These were not all-star teams. The squads were coed. One of the players Pecora coached was 42. Yet on the floor, they treated every possession as if it were the final seconds of the Final Four.
The coaches slept in an old fishing lodge at what Saddam Hussein used as his retreat. Including tour officials, there were 10 grown men in bunk beds. "I've never heard snoring like that in my life," Pecora said. Seriously, he added, "To a man, every one of us felt a special bond."
After all, they were far away, in dangerous territory. They came away with a strong taste of how much more the soldiers, as different as their backgrounds might be, come to depend on each other.
"I've already started sharing these stories with my own children," Pecora said.
There is not even the slightest suggestion that the trip will make Pecora or any of his fellow travelers a better coach. It doesn't matter. It did make all of them wiser and more appreciative. And it won't hurt the Pride's starters and reserves that their coach has lined up combat veterans to come in and give them a pep talk this season.
Pecora was encouraged by what he saw: people doing their best, under pressure, without a lot of praise or comfort. That might seep into the huddle once or twice this season.
"God forbid," the coach said, "one of my players complains about something this year."
