Remembering South Side's Bob Bigelow

Former South Side High School coach Robert Leo Bigelow, 71, died on June 25 at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J.

Born on Sept. 27, 1939, the son of George E. and Patricia Sokolowski, Bigelow was a 1957 graduate of Adams High School, in Adams, Mass. where he was an outstanding athlete. He earned an athletic scholarship to New York University where he was a member of the 1960 basketball team that reached the Final Four. After graduation, Bigelow taught at two New Jersey schools and in the Valley Stream school district before he landed a position in the Rockville Centre Union Free School District, where he taught physical education for 32 years. Bigelow coached boys' basketball from 1968 to 1982, producing a 202-60 win/loss record and took the South Side Cyclones to four state basketball titles.

In 1980, he began a 21-year tenure as the first head girls' soccer coach at South Side, coaching the Lady Cyclones to 21 consecutive winning seasons which included 3 undefeated seasons, 10 New York State championships, 13 Eastern New York State championships and 16 Nassau County championships.

In 2000, the girls' soccer team, under Bigelow, was ranked #2 nationally, and in 2001 the team was ranked #1 nationally. Bigelow was named National Coach of the Year in 1994 and again in 2001. Bigelow was also named Eastern United States Coach of the Year three times, New York State Coach of the Year twice, as well as Nassau County Coach of the Year. His soccer teams produced nine All-Americans and a remarkable career 330-45-17 win/loss record.

Bigelow always refused to take credit for his teams' successes, instead crediting the local feeder programs and the players themselves. His coaching philosophy was simple: "You don't coach sports: you coach people." Bigelow's ability to inspire team unity, a tenacious defense and a winning attitude was also responsible for the South Side boys' basketball and girls' soccer dynasty.

“I have the utmost respect for him as a coach,” said Mike Heller, former director of athletics for the district for 24 years, who was Bigelow’s colleague and friend. “I met Bob back in 1985 when I started in the Rockville Centre schools. At that time he was coaching girls varsity soccer (he was the head coach), he was a varsity assistant on the boys’ track team and he also coached middle school girls and boys basketball. But it was as the girls’ soccer coach that he really made his mark.

“He was a terrific tactician, nobody prepared his players better than he did, nobody could institute a game plan better than him and nobody could break down the strengths and weaknesses of opponents better than he could,” Heller added. “He started the women’s varsity soccer program at South Side in 1981 and won the first of many New York State championships just six years later, in 1987.”

“I’m so sorry for his family, he was too young, it feels like yesterday that he was here,” said schools Superintendent Dr. William Johnson. “He made an indelible mark on a number of different programs here. He probably will be remembered most for the development of the girls soccer program at South Side.”

After retiring from teaching in 1995, Bigelow continued with the girls' soccer position until the 2000/2001 season, and then began to pursue his other passions — travel and golf. He and his partner, Sue Wallace, spent six months of the year on Oahu, Hawaii and one month each year in different locations such as Thailand, China, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Alaska and Vietnam.

Bigelow leaves behind his beloved Sue, of Queens; two daughters, Kimberly Organ and her husband Tommy, of Port St. Lucie, Fla. and Kathleen Fink and her husband William, of Baldwin; two brothers, George and his wife Marie, of Windsor, Mass., and James and his wife Sally, of Adams, Mass.; one sister, Dorothy Russett and her husband Donald, of North Adams, Mass.; eight grandchildren: Mike, Erica, Sean, Willie, Shannon, Jesse, Joey and Krystal and eight nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Bigelow's memory to the Robert L. Bigelow Scholarship Fund c/o Macken Mortuary, 52 Clinton Ave., Rockville Centre, N.Y. 11570. Memorial services were set for this Wednesday, June 29, at 3 p.m. at Macken Mortuary.