Growing up in Rhode Island, he found himself taking up the hammer throw in high school, which would ultimately earn him a track scholarship to Boston University. After college, he would begin a thirty-five-year teaching and coaching career at New Britain High School and in his spare time writing critiques on Operas that he had attended for a local newspaper. His coaching style was based on discipline and while today he would be most likely be described as old school, his methods must’ve worked. His teams would go on to win twenty-eight state championships. Gerry Neipp, who once coached at New Britain High School and is now a Professor of Education at Sacred Heart University described Irv’s method of success. “As I think back I believe he was as successful as he was because his athletes were in better shape than those they competed against. He was very creative with workouts and training methods that were not only ahead of the curve but very imaginative as well.”…show more content… It’s hard not to believe that having this illness as a youngster didn’t contribute to the disciplined work ethic that he maintained throughout his life.
In 1979, he founded the Northeast Sports Timing Service, in part because he got tired of coaches squabbling at the finish line over inconsistent stopwatch readings. It was probably during these years that many people got a taste of Irv’s demand for us “to do things the right way.” He was, if nothing else, a perfectionist in an imperfect world.
Over the years, I had many discussions with him about coaching, teaching, and life, and it was through these opportunities that I learned what made him tick. Very simply put, he expected you as a coach, an athlete, or a student to “do things the right way and to the best of your ability.” Anything less was not
