SI Advance

Nine individuals who have gone above and beyond the sports community honored at CYO-MIV

Dr. Robert Griswold did what Hall co-chairman Jay Price called "a Superman imitation," arriving late and changing from work clothes to a suit in the bathroom.

"He was getting dirty -- lifting cartons and driving a truck and supervising the Bread of Life food drive he started 16 years ago," Price said.

George Esposito didn't make it at all. He was busy trying to restore the Verrazano Babe Ruth League fields after Friday's rain forced the postponement of opening day for a league he and his wife, Maria, saved from extinction.

Both were all but invisible as they went about their tasks yesterday. When was the last time somebody noticed a truck driver or stopped to watch someone take water off a ballfield?

But, there would be huge holes in the fabric of this community without them or the rest of yesterday's heroes: Fire Captain John Drennan, William Klapach, Vic Navarra, Bob Schnurr, Rich Salinardi and Joan Walsh.

Holes that would deprive Staten Island of its unique character. Holes that would be obvious to those they served.

As recounted in the Advance recently, Drennan was a hero long before a fire claimed his life and those of two other firefighters, but one statistic and one story provide a small measure of the former Wagner College football player, a member of Wagner's undefeated 1964 team, and the Tottenville HS coach for four seasons.

Fifty-two of the one-time Tottenville HS coach's players followed him into the fire department.

The second was a letter received by his family by a homeless man after Drennan's death.

John tried to help him, getting him into a program, and getting him a job and a decent place to live. The man lost his job and his apartment, but Drennan stayed with him.

After Drennan's death, he wrote the family, who knew nothing of what John had done: "I feel like I lost the father I wish I had."

When the Espositos arrived on the scene, the Verrazano Babe Ruth League had all of 10 returning players and no place to call home. They secured a lease from the city for an overgrown baseball field at what was originally called Farm Colony, turned it into top-flight baseball and softball fields. When the season opens today, Verrazano will consist of 16 baseball teams and a smaller, but comparable softball league.

Griswold, who came here from Hornell, N.Y., for his dental residency and to start a practice, apparently has little time for his practice.

In addition to starting the Notre Dame Club of Staten Island which is responsible for countless good works, including yesterday's food delivery, he's actively involved in at least eight other community service organizations.

He's also made time to team with Salinardi to make Staten Island Special Olympics swimming a model for Special Olympics meets across the country.

Klapach, a member of America's Greatest Generation and an active member of the Staten Island Baseball Oldtimers, was a behind-the-scenes operative for Hall of Fame member Fred Muche. In the pre-Little League/Babe Ruth era, where would Island baseball players -- kids or adults -- have gone without the half-dozen Kiwanis and Twyford-Muche Leagues? Then, there was his involvement in kids soccer before Pele came to New York and put soccer on the Island sports map.

Navarra's influence is apparent not only on Staten Island but also around the world whether one looks at the NYC Marathon where he coordinated the start since 1976, the Staten Island Half-Marathon, most local road races, or even marathons in locales like Jamaica, Honolulu and Russia.

But he gained hero status when, after 9/11, the retired firefighter went to Ground Zero to aid in the search for survivors. That selfless act very likely caused the cancer which took his life on Dec. 30, 2007, but not before Navarra, then blind, was present for the start of the 2007 NYC Marathon.

Salinardi came from New Jersey to play football for Wagner College where he was a defensive back on the 1967 undefeated team. Fortunately for Staten Island, he stayed to teach in the public school system.

He started and nurtured the Special Olympics program and now serves as the state Special Olympics chairman. Schnurr, the face of Wagner College basketball for nearly four decades -- and of football for much of that time -- is a model and an inspiration for Salinardi's and Griswold's kids.

Disabled since birth, he makes his way of crutches, but "Sticks," as he's affectionately called on Grymes Hill, hardly let that slow him down or keep him from being self-sufficient.

The Wagner community's respect and affection for Schnurr became obvious when it was decided to raise money to get him a scooter. "We needed $5,000," said basketball coach Mike Dean. "We sent out letters and three weeks after the mailing, we had $10,000."

Walsh was a pioneer in women's sports -- although she started 40 years ago by coaching her son's Our Lady Queen of Peace CYO baseball team.

She's been at it ever since, coaching the OLQP softball, swimming and track and field teams. As a major player the OLQP program and in the Staten Island Little League's starting girls' softball, Walsh affected thousands of girls' lives.

Which put her in good company yesterday.