The head coach of Team Long Island in the 2023 Leiderman Cup will be Tom Abruscato of Clarke HS! pic.twitter.com/jUF2HpKWYU
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 24, 2023
It’s not supposed to be that easy, but Clarke baseball has certainly made winning look routine over the past 25 years since Tom Abruscato took over as the varsity head coach in 1999.
This past weekend, Tom Abruscato won his 500th career game in a 7-0 victory over Cold Spring Harbor. They have averaged 20 wins per season for more than 2 decades – despite only 19 regular season games and have won at an .801 clip.
If it sounds insane, that’s because it is. It is an unprecedented amount of winning. They have captured New York State Championships in 2002 and 2005 as well as Long Island Championships in 2002, 2005 and 2009. They have won six Nassau County championships; 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2019. Additionally, they have reached 13 Nassau County Finals.
Most importantly, he has sent 130 players to college with 4 more college commitments in the 2024 class.
Abruscato is a 1988 graduate of Sewanhaka High School where he was an All-State selection. To this day, it remains their last Conference Championship in program history,. They ultimately lost to MacArthur in three games in the County Finals, which was played at NYIT.
FINAL: Clarke 5 MacArthur 0
Clarke is headed to the Class A County Championship! pic.twitter.com/ae4kiA8fDu
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 27, 2019
Upon graduation, Abruscato attended LIU Post on full scholarship where he started at 2nd base and LF. They captured the Diamond Conference and were one win away from the NCAA tournament before losing to Maine, 3-2, in extra innings.
After the season, Abruscato transferred to Nassau CC, which he recalls was $500 for the semester. He wound up batting .407 and being an All-Regional selection. His next stop was at Adelphi University, where he had the fortune of reaching the Division-II College World Series along with another future high school coach, Dom Gatti, who was a three-time All-American at Adelphi.
After his playing days were over, he got a job teaching and became the 8th grade coach in the Clarke district. The team went 11-0, and he described it as, “such a positive experience.”
One of his players, Mike Meittinis, has been on his coaching staff since he took over as the head varsity coach in 1999 and has been along for the entire ride.
Coach Abruscato noted that while he doesn’t necessarily care about the wins, “It represents all the kids that have played for me, the kids win the games.”
What he is most proud of is the fact that Clarke routinely has one of the lowest enrollments in Class A and were usually about 20 students from dropping to Class B.
“We were playing teams with close to double the enrollment. I’m very proud of our work ethic.”
And they weren’t playing many pushovers. Nassau County Class A has long been considered the toughest playoff in the state, as 32 schools were competing for a County Title with many perennial powerhouses playing in a single-elimination playoff format.
That toughness comes from Abruscato, who demands a lot from his players but come playoff time, they are often the last ones standing.
The Abruscato’s are not just a baseball family.
In fact, both of his daughters are playing at the Division-I level. His older daughter, Giuliana, is a senior at UCONN after transferring from Binghamton University. She has played 121 career games without committing an error in the outfield.
He will be heading to her final series this weekend in Washington D.C against Georgetown.
His younger daughter, Stefania, is a phenomenal player who was named the Gatorade New York State Player of the Year in 2023 and is a freshman at Missouri. She was a six-year varsity starter at Hauppauge HS, and was ranked as the No. 13 overall player in the country, according to Extra Inning Softball. She’s already started several games as a freshman in the SEC.
Abruscato is proud of his daughters, just as he is of his baseball program. He finds a way to get to many of their games, even during the chaos of the high school baseball season.
How many more wins does he plan to stick around for? There’s no telling but as long as he’s in charge, Clarke is a dangerous team – just as they are in 2024 as they have a 10-1 record in Conference A-II.
