Just Kickin’ It

Here’s someone you should know about

October

I wrote my weekly notebook on a fine gentleman named Bob West. He was a fixture in this area well before my time, but as the first African-American coach at Nanuet, his legacy is something that transcends generations in my mind. Of the people I talked to, no one could say anything bad about him. There’s so much I learned that I couldn’t fit in the story, such as how he got kids from a nearby orphanage in Nanuet to come to the school and play soccer.

I have to give credit to the brother of Suffern coach Bob Walkley, Eddie Walkley. He is the one who alerted me to this and he lives all the way down south. I’m grateful he did.

Here’s the story. Please check it out.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 2:45 pm by Rod Boone. Print | Email

One Response to “Here’s someone you should know about”

Bob Walkley October 20th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Mr. West was truly an inspiration to me as a youth during my college days and later as I began coaching. He not only came to visit me while I laid dying in the hospital but later after my long and amazing recovery I had the opportunity to be coached again by Mr. West.
He attended my wedding. We remained friends until he moved away after retirement.
I tried to find his address. Nanuet school officials would not release his address according to the privacy act?
It took us over 15 years but some alumni were able to secure his telephone number.
My brother, Pete Patrikis, myself and Ed Mooney all gave him a call and asked if he would accept a nomination to be inducted into the Nanuet Schools Hall of Fame. He seemed as delighted as we talked for at least an hour. Of course he said yes!
I, Pete and Ed, my brother were going to fly out to where he lived during the summer and just walk up and knock on his door and say HI!
Well, with being involved in so much soccer we all decided to wait until the end of the high school soccer season.
A poor decision on our part. We never thought or knew how sick he was. We would have dropped everything and flew out to Arizona to visit him one last time.

We feel he has left a mark on how we handle players and coach the players and the team. He was truly a man we admired and postured ourselves after.

With all of our love to coach West!
Bobby & Eddie Walkley

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