Vin Savastano Seeks to Influence Others Through Lacrosse

Vin Savastano is proud to say that lacrosse is his family’s unofficial business. 

As a lifelong resident of Westchester County in New York’s Hudson Valley region, Savastano was primarily a baseball and football player in his youth, but lacrosse was never far off his radar since his father, Vin Sr., was a lacrosse coach and longtime physical education teacher at Yorktown High School. 

Savastano has followed in his dad’s footsteps as a physical education teacher, and it was while he was doing his student teaching at Hendrick Hudson High School that he was asked to also coach lacrosse. 

“I had never played lacrosse, but since I had been around the game for so long, I figured I’d give it a shot,” Savastano said. “That first year, we had like seven kids come out for the team, so I started recruiting some of the football players from the hallways. We didn’t win a game in that first season, but we turned it around the next year, and the ball just kept rolling.” 

And that roll has never slowed. 

Savastano is now in his 36th year as a high school coach and is a fixture in his school district, with over 400 wins to his credit. The secret to his success, which includes multiple regional, sectional, and state championships, is quite simple. 

“You’ve got to make sure that the kids know that you sincerely care about them,” Savastano said. “Once they know that, they’ll do anything for you. So that’s always been my motto. Care about the kids and really take an interest in them, and everything else will take care of itself.” 

Savastano is now in his second year as head coach at North Salem High School after spending the previous 15 seasons at nearby Kennedy Catholic, where he won multiple Catholic League titles. 

Prior to that, he spent six years serving as an assistant coach for his brother Nick’s team at John Jay High School. 

“I owe a lot of my coaching success to my brother,” Savastano said. “Our claim to fame during our time at John Jay was beating the Bratton brothers and their undefeated team at Huntington High School in the state playoffs. We had been demolished by them the year before, but we went down there and beat them in double-overtime.”

In 2011, just after their time together at John Jay ended, the Savastano brothers launched the Westchester Warrriors club program. As a pair of physical education teachers, the brothers decided that the club would only utilize educators as coaches. 

“We wanted guys that looked the part,” Savastano said. “Our interest was not just the X’s and O’s, but we wanted guys that really took an interest in the kids.”

Serving boys in grades 5-11, the club offers a competitive summer travel season as well as fall ball training committed to fundamentals and skill development. The family business has also expanded in recent years, with Vin’s two boys (Vinny and CC) and Nick’s two boys (Nick Jr. and Dom) all serving as Warrior coaches. 

A third generation of Savastanos will soon be joining the physical education kingdom. 

“They are all doing a great job, and our wives spearhead everything behind the scenes,” Savastano said. “It’s a real family affair.” 

Now in his fourth decade as a coach, Savastano says that one of the great joys is knowing that he’s had a chance to make an impact in the lives of players. 

“The most satisfaction is when I see kids from 10 or 20 years ago and see them now with their own families, and their kids are playing lacrosse because maybe we inspired them to do something,” Savastano said. “When you see these kids that you have coached go on and be successful, not just in lacrosse but in life, and to know that you might have had a little to do with it, that’s really very special.” 

Savastano is proud to be continuing his family’s lacrosse legacy. 

“My father inspired me, and now we’re trying to inspire others,” Savastano said. “One thing I always say, which is from historian Henry Adams, is that, ‘A teacher affects eternity, so you never know where your influence is going to stop.’ I take that to heart.”

Community Heroes

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