Nino Giarratano was named the head coach at San Francisco 16 years ago or shortly after Nico Giarratano left short pants behind.
For years, Nino heard about Nico’s prowess on the baseball field through text messages from Brenda Giarratano and phone calls, his coaching duties preventing him from seeing his son develop as a competitor and ballplayer.
They weren’t totally separated by the game, but at an age when most budding baseball players have the opportunity to be coached by their dads, Nico was being coached by other fathers. Nino was working to build the Dons into a program that would draw players such as the Zimmer brothers – Kyle and Bradley – and other high-round draft prospects.
“I never got to coach him or see many of his at-bats or the plays he made,” Nino said. “His mom was always sending me texts – I got to see him play here and there in the summer.”
What he saw was enough to know that Nico was going to be a good ball player.
Nico delivered on that promise with a predictably award-filled high school career and invitations to Perfect Game USA. What became a challenge for Nino was how hard to pursue his son as a recruit for the Dons.
“All the coaches (profiled Nico). I kind of trusted what I saw out of him,” Nino said. “I saw him play at a very high level at the USA Trials when he was in Perfect Game Nationals. I thought he was going to be a very good player. I wanted to make sure that this was where he wanted to be.”
Nico was recruited by a variety of programs – many with bigger national names than USF – so the process became complicated for the coach, who wanted both to land a prize recruit to play short stop for the Dons, and the father, who wanted to see his son in the best situation to further his baseball career and education.
“It’s harder (recruiting your son), a lot harder actually,” Nino said. “You want what’s best for him and he’s being recruited by a lot of really good schools.
“You just don’t know where the best place is going to be. And then, eventually, it came that being together, father and son, was the best place to be.”
It’s worked out for the Dons. Nico earned the starting shortstop job and has consistently hit behind junior Bradley Zimmer this season. Those tasks haven’t been too much for the freshman: he’s fifth on the team in batting average at .259 having started all 45 games and is fielding at .933 on 193 chances with 13 errors.
