Lorain County loses a legendary sports figure: Larry Shaw was all-around athlete, coach and good guy

LAGRANGE — Give Larry Shaw a sport and he'd coach it. And succeed. Shaw died Monday at age 82 but he left quite an impression on thousands of students, athletes and fellow coaches in the area. Shaw coached 51 years in various sports. He coached at Keystone, Brooklyn, Amherst, Elyria and Midview. He coached from sandlots to Cuyahoga Community College. A throwback to another era when a teacher/coach took on the responsibility of every sport the school sponsored. He coached football, basketball, softball, baseball, golf, cross country and track at various times and places. He was an athletic director and he taught at several schools in the area but his legend was built at Keystone High School. "Maybe not tennis, but other than that, he coached everything," said Chuck Sturgill, a lifelong family friend. "When I played golf in high school, he was the golf coach at Brooklyn." "He was just so competitive," said Shaw's oldest son, Rick. "We were little but he would say 'whoever gets the newspaper first gets a nickel.' You had two, three kids sprinting out to get the newspaper. "You fast forward to the golf course where he got to be pretty competitive. When you're around that competitiveness, it sort of gets ingrained in you and becomes part of your personality. To this day, most of us Shaws are pretty competitive. That's flowed down through dad." His coaching resume is almost unbelievable. His girls Hot Stove softball team won three straight state championships in the early 1980s. They were 56-3 over that span. He was head basketball coach at Keystone for four years, assistant for one, assistant track coach for five years and assistant football coach for five. He was Brooklyn's head basketball coach for six years, head football coach for one, assistant for five more and assistant golf coach for 12 years. Keith "Butch" Sooy was one of his players during Shaw's early stint at Keystone. Sooy then followed Shaw's lead by going to Findlay and later becoming a successful coach at Firelands, Elyria and Medina. "He was my high school coach for three years and he's probably the major reason I wanted to go into coaching," Sooy said. "He also was the reason I probably got the scholarship to Findlay College (now the University of Findlay). "When I was in high school, one of the most important things he taught me was how to compete. After all these years, I had so much respect for him I still called him Coach." When Sooy left Firelands for Elyria, Shaw became his assistant. Shaw then was head football coach at Amherst for five years and an assistant for four. He also assisted with the basketball team for nine years. He returned to Keystone to take over the softball team from Sue Scarbrough, who left after one year following Dave Leffew's successful run. Shaw kept the program on solid ground before turning it over to his assistant and now longtime head coach Jim Piazza. When Shaw first took the job, Piazza was slated to be the head softball coach at Brookside but Shaw convinced him to stay on at Keystone. "How do you say no to that guy?" Piazza said. "I owe him the world. I wouldn't be where I'm at if it wasn't for him. He showed me the ropes as far as what you needed to do as a head coach. He took me to coaching clinics and showed me the paperwork you needed to have done and put me in charge of a lot of things. One day, he sat me down and told me I was ready to take over. Anytime you needed him, he was one phone call away." Shaw got Keystone to the state finals in 2001 and the next season was involved in a controversy that is still talked about today. "That pitching rubber thing happened," Piazza said. "We would have went to state two years in a row." The regional was scheduled at Walsh College but the pitching rubber was set at the college distance of 43 feet instead of the high school distance of 40 to start the game. Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas scored a run off Keystone ace Brittany Robinson in the first inning and held on to win. The distance was changed after the first inning but the damage was done and the umpires ruled the game would continue from there. "That was such b.s.," Sturgill said. "I was there. We played the whole first inning and we gave up a run on a passed ball. (Robinson) kept complaining that her pitch wasn't getting there. It was 3 feet off. When they moved it back, she shut them out. We had all kinds of baserunners but couldn't score. We expected them to start the game from the beginning but they wouldn't do it." At Amherst in 1988, Shaw led the Comets to their best football season in some 40 years and to their first playoff appearance in 1992. He was district coach of the year. "I started as a team manager in 1990 or 1991 when I was 5 or 6 years old," said D.J. Shaw, Shaw's grandson and former Midview football coach. "That was my first experience of being in a locker room with the guys and being a part of a team like that. As a little kid, that was what I wanted to do. First, I wanted to play but then seeing him as a coach and how he interacted with the team, his competitiveness was always something that stuck out for me. Even back then I was thinking this is something maybe I want to be someday." Shaw worked side by side with Dave Zvara in football and basketball at Amherst. "No matter what sport he would coach, he would be successful," Zvara said. "Larry was always a very competitive guy but when he coached football, he let all his assistants do their thing. He wanted you to take care of your responsibility but by the same token, if you weren't doing your job, he'd wonder 'What the heck is going on here? You ain't getting it done. You better get it in gear.' He was such a great guy, down to earth." Shaw played three sports at Findlay, practically unheard of today. He played football, basketball and baseball for the Oilers, earning 10 letters. He graduated from Findlay in 1961 and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1996. He also was inducted into the Keystone Hall of Fame in 2006. "You go back to his days at Waynesfield (High School), where he was a three-sport athlete" Rick said. "At Findlay, he was the last three-sport letterman. Think about it. You're in college and not only do you letter in three sports, but you also have two children and you're working full time. How do you find enough time to do that? "Quite frankly, I think mom may have helped him with his homework. Her name probably should be included on the diploma." Shaw and his wife, Carol, raised six children — Rick, Cindy, Ronald, Cathy, Randy and Connie. They also have 13 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Shaw was born in Harrod, Ohio, and was the youngest of eight children. He played football, basketball and baseball in high school. "Miss him like crazy," D.J. said. "He was kind of a sports legend around the area." Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.