JOHN PANARO
NANUET HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1978
A freeze frame from the John Panaro highlight baseball reel: A hot smash deep into the shortstop hole. John races to his right, gloves the ball backhanded on the edge of the outfield grass, whirls in midair and fires a perfect throw to second base to get the forceout.
That’s just one snapshot in a collector’s album of gems in John’s athletic career at Nanuet. A three-year starter, he was a two-time, first-team All-County shortstop, made second team All-County as a sophomore, and culminated his career by earning a unanimous selection from the Rockland County coaches as Rockland Player of the Year in 1978.
That year, John batted .526 with 30 hits in 57 at bats; committed only two errors; and anchored the Nanuet infield with 39 putouts and 43 assists. He was a New York Daily News first-team All-Star and led Nanuet to a share of the first Rockland County championship in program history. The Golden Knights, Clarkstown South and Ramapo each had 15-5 records.
In 1977, his junior year, John batted .361, drove in 21 runs and made only one error all season for an uncanny fielding percentage of .991. Journal-News sports writer Steve Drummond called that feat “great for a major-league shortstop, unheard of for a high school shortstop,” and said of the lone miscue. John also reached base at least 50 percent of the time in each of his three years on varsity. He helped lead the Golden Knights to the Section 9 Class B crown in both 1976 and 1977—the school’s first two sectional baseball championships.
Upon graduation John held an amazing 15 school records, including season and career marks in batting average, RBI, runs scored, doubles, extra base hits and total bases, season on-base average and career walks. All but the walks record have been broken, some of them by John’s nephew, David Fazulak, whose marks in turn were erased by latter-day stars Stephen Prosapio and Jon Winston.
Rave Reviews
Teammates, coaches and opponents all held John in the highest esteem:
- Several of his teammates asked Nanuet coach Rich Loughlin to retire his uniform No. 15.
- One coach marveled, “He’s a hell of a prospect. He’s a real blue-chipper. He can hit, he’s got speed, great hands and he makes the double play.”
- Loughlin, Nanuet’s head coach from 1969 to 1981, offered this glowing testimonial after John’s milestone 1978
season: “We have some fine prospects coming up, but let’s be honest – there will never be another John Panaro at Nanuet High School.”
Loughlin is no less laudatory today about his star player, who was inducted into the Nanuet High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. “In my opinion John was among the best high school baseball players to ever play in Rockland County. He was a natural, a great talent. His hitting was fantastic and on defense he would make unreal plays.”
Phil Carbone agrees with Loughlin’s assessment of John’s stature as Nanuet’s pre-eminent player. Carbone, a 1983 Nanuet graduate, played with John in a couple of leagues for college-level players and saw firsthand the all-around excellence of the Panaro brand. “Everybody who wore a Nanuet baseball uniform wanted to emulate John Panaro,” says Phil, who coached the Nanuet baseball team for 30 years [he’s the second-winningest coach ever in Rockland] and is now the school’s athletic director.
Baseball was not John’s only sport. He excelled in football, too. He was the starting quarterback in 1976 and ’77 and also started at cornerback in 1976 and safety in ’77. John led the ’77 team to a record of 6 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie, the best mark in the program’s history to that point. His athletic exploits earned him a Jerry Leo Scholarship in 1978.
John paid tribute not only to Coach Loughlin, a tough but fair-minded mentor, but also to his coaching “ABCs” – Mike Achille, Jerry Bonomolo and Rich Conklin. Conklin coached the baseball team for one year after Loughlin stepped down. Chuck Adrian succeeded him prior to Carbone’s appointment in 1990. Carbone had the privilege of coaching Fazulak, a class of 1995 graduate and like his uncle a Nanuet Sports Hall of Fame inductee. He also coached John’s son, Luke, in baseball and football. Luke had a big game at Boulder Stadium to help Coach Carbone notch his 300th baseball victory and also quarterbacked the Golden Knights to a Little Brown Jug win over Pearl River his senior year.
Playing NCAA Div. II in Florida
John went on to play at Eckerd College, an NCAA Division II school in St. Petersburg, FL, whose schedule included
Div. I heavyweights such as Miami, Florida and Florida State. A right-handed thrower and left-handed batter, he
severely injured his throwing shoulder during freshman year but persevered and became a utility first baseman his sophomore year. He became the starting shortstop midway through his junior season, remained a starter through his senior year and batted better than .300 both years. The team was ranked No. 1 in the nation in NCAA Division II his junior year. “I’m proud I was able to play at a high level” despite the damaged shoulder, John says.
Coach Loughlin says John first injured his shoulder during a high school football game his senior year. When coaches Loughlin and Bonomolo drove John down to Shea Stadium for a tryout with the Mets – arranged through Pete Smith, a Nanuet schools assistant principal and longtime Mets scout – John impressed Tommy Holmes, the Mets’ director of amateur baseball relations and a former star for the Boston Braves. “John was hitting balls off the wall in right and left field,” Loughlin remembers. “Holmes said John’s bat was clearly major league material,” but his arm strength, weakened by the shoulder injury, cost him a chance at the big leagues, the coach explained.
A Taste of Professional Ball in Italy
After his collegiate career, John fulfilled an ambition by playing professional baseball in Italy, the native country of his late father, Donato. Those two years were chock full of memories and achievements, including a bid that fell just shy of making the Italian Olympic team.
“It was a great way to see my family heritage,” John said of his ball-playing odyssey in Italy. “It was amazing visiting my father’s hometown [Bella] and seeing the house where he was born. As it turns out, my father and I returned to his hometown a few years after I was done playing ball in Italy and it was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.
Parlaying Passion for Music Into Globe-Trotting Career
After completing his two-year playing stint in Italy, John launched his own tour-merchandising company, which
enabled him to travel on world tours with the Irish rock band U2 and with Amnesty International. Among the historical sites that John’s tours afforded him a bird’s-eye view of were Robben Island, the isolated outpost in South Africa where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years for his political beliefs; and Sarajevo, the former capital of Yugoslavia, which was still beset by ethnic strife several years after war in the Bosnian region.
“Seeing places like [these] makes me so grateful and fortunate for the family and friends I have here and I’m proud to consider the Nanuet area my home,” says John, who moved to Nanuet from Washington Heights in New York City when he was an 8-year-old entering third grade at George W. Miller Elementary School.
Lasting Friendships, Close-Knit Family
John also cherishes his continuing friendships from Nanuet and Rockland: “best friend” relationships with John Tarasco, Gary Bonomolo and Dan Mirro, neighborhood buddies and classmates since grade school; his beloved teammates on the Nanuet baseball diamond, including Billy and Tommy Rodish, Kurt Lundgren (“the most dominant pitcher I ever played behind”), JP Bonomolo, Vin Quiros, Alan Sproul and Jim Rodish, whose untimely death from heart disease proved supremely ironic because “he had the biggest heart”. Lastly, John treasures his friendship with Rudi Ringwald, his “baseball” friend at Eckerd and one of his dearest friends today.
John also feels fortunate that he’s still close with his three siblings – Mary, Danny and Terri. Although brother Dan now resides in Florida, John and his sisters still live within 10 minutes of each other. “It’s a comfort knowing family and friends are nearby. That’s what Nanuet and Rockland is all about—family and friends.”
John spent most of the 2000s as general manager of the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. The venue hosted some of the world’s most famous entertainers, such as Bruce Springsteen, The Who, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Luciano Pavarotti and Taylor Swift, among others. For the past 12 years he has worked in the props department at the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
John, who is 64, is back living in Nanuet after having resided in New Hempstead, town of Ramapo. He met his ex-wife Suzanne at Eckerd College and they have three adult children: Annabella, 32; Luke, 29; and Suzannah, 28, “three of the kindest and most beautiful souls on earth.” He dearly misses his mom, Ann; dad, Donato; and sister Rosie.
“I have been so very blessed,” he says with a strong conviction. “I always loved family, friends, baseball and music. My entire life has overflowed with all of it!”
John’s induction comes one year after his former teammate and good friend Kurt Lundgren earned enshrinement.
Reunited again in Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame glory!
