Spring Valley High School Class of 1957
Coach, North Rockland/RCC

Bob Nadal is a rarity is Rockland County sports: he not only excelled as a Rockland high school athlete and was an outstanding high school coach in the county, but also stepped up to the next level and became an outstanding college coach right here in Rockland County.

Bob attended Spring Valley High School. While playing football and baseball for the Tigers, Bob was named All-County in both sports. The 1955 Spring Valley football team won the Rockland County championship with Bob being selected as an All- County guard. The 1956 and 1957 Tiger baseball teams were also Rockland County champions; Bob was the All-County catcher on those teams.
After graduating from Spring Valley High in 1957, Bob entered military service and proudly served his country for six years in the U.S. Navy. Bob was a Fire Control Technician on the U.S.S. Lloyd Thomas, a destroyer escort ship. When he was discharged from the Navy, Bob was awarded a football schol- arship from Hofstra University, where he started on the foot- ball team as a guard alongside future Jet John Schmidt. Bob graduated in 1965.

He was immediately hired to teach history at North Rockland High School. Along with his teaching duties, Bob coached freshmen football, wrestling and baseball. In 1970 Bob was named the varsity football offensive coordinator. Led by Head Coach Ralph Cordisco, Bob ran the offense while Joe Casarella handled the defensive side of the ball. In 1971, the North Rock- land Team was ranked 3rd in New York State and knocked off the perennial football power Newburgh Free Academy, which was ranked 2nd the previous season.

In 1970 Bob became the varsity head baseball coach at North Rockland, a position he held until 1979. In that first year, 1970, the Red Raiders played in the RCPSAL championship game. Bob won his first Sectional championship in 1972 and went on to win four more Section 9 titles before moving on to Rockland Community College. During his 11 years as the head baseball coach at RCC, Bob won 8 Mid-Hudson Conference Champion- ships. His 1983 team won the Junior College Region XV Championship. One of Bob’s greatest assets was his ability to recognize, develop and place outstanding athletes in his program. He had 78 former RCC baseball players move on to play at four-year colleges. Thirteen of his former players went on to play professionally. Among the most notable were Jim Rooney, from North Rockland, who attended Morris Community College and was drafted as the No. 1 pick in the winter draft, and Bob Schepis, who played at RCC and then Seton Hall.

Bob retired as the head baseball coach at RCC in 1990 but still stayed involved with baseball. He signed on as an assistant baseball coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for a while, and then served as Dan Keeley’s assistant coach at RCC.
Sadly, we lost Bob in 2012. He leaves behind his wife, Maureen, a Realtor; daughter Nicole, a CPA married to Trevor Lynch; and son Justin, who followed in his father’s footsteps and is a teacher in New Jersey. Justin and his wife, Keri, have four children: Jacob, Jocelyn, Jace Robert and Corina.