Melbourne Central Catholic Baseball Coach Tom Dooley Notches 600th Win

TOM DOOLEY WAS INDUCTED INTO THE SPACE COAST SPORTS HALL OF FAME IN 2017

WATCH: With an 11-3 win over the Bayside Bears on Monday, Melbourne Central Catholic baseball coach Tom Dooley notched his 600 career win. Dooley was inducted in the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame in 2017. (The above video aired in 2017)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – With an 11-3 win over the Bayside Bears on Monday, Melbourne Central Catholic baseball coach Tom Dooley notched his 600 career win.

“We are very fortunate to have the greatest coach for the past 32 years,” said his players and fans on social media.  “It is hard to put into words how much Coach Dooley means to the Hustler Baseball program. Congrats Coach!”

The following tribute was written in 2017 when Dooley was inducted into the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame:

When Dooley was hired by Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame inductee Mike Riazzi more than 30 years ago to coach the Melbourne Central Catholic baseball team, Ronald Reagan was President and Cal Ripken Jr. was heading to spring training preparing for year five of a consecutive games streak that would go on for 11 more seasons.

Baseball and streaks go hand in hand, and the latest Hustler Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame inductee has several that rival the great ones celebrated throughout the history of Major League Baseball.

Dooley is currently the longest tenured head coach in any high school sport in Brevard county and he’s never missed a day of work at MCC, exceeding Ripken by 14 years and still going.

Raised by a single mom, Dooley’s mother, Francis Belski, was a coal miner’s daughter from a small Pennsylvania mining town where work ethic wasn’t something one developed.

If you weren’t born with it, working hard every day at whatever you did was a way of life and a character trait that was instilled in you at a very early age.

With Dooley at the helm, the Hustlers have amassed over 530 victories. His teams have won an amazing 77 percent of the games Dooley managed during his tenure.

To put that into perspective, only one manager in Major League Baseball history has ever won more than 60 percent of his games, the great Joe McCarthy.

Under Coach Dooley’s guidance the Hustlers had won more than 50 percent of their playoff games, but, as great as the Hustlers had played during Dooley’s first 24 years, they had yet to win a state title.

That all changed in 2013 when an infield led by the Capra brothers and tough as nails pitching performances from A.J. Smith catapulted the Hustlers and Dooley to the 3A state baseball title.

CULTURE OF WINNING

Coach Dooley’s culture of winning at MCC is a simple one. Get rid of excuses and just play the game. When succeeding three out of 10 times is considered exceptional, baseball is a game of overcoming failure.

Dooley says there are no excuses for not hustling, dressing properly, being a good teammate, being early, having controlled emotion and having fun. Lastly, everything is “sweat earned.” In other words, he asks his players to work hard but smart on and off the field at all times.

“I ask that they have a great passion and enthusiasm, not just for baseball but life,” Dooley said.

The record and winning percentage speak to MCC baseball culture’s success, but what speaks about the success of the man Dooley is that so many of his players have returned to assist him in coaching for the team they once played.

ABOVE VIDEO: Highlights of the Melbourne Central Catholic Hustlers Class 3A State Semifinal win in 2013. MCC would go onto to capture to state title. 

Currently, three former players are by his side in the dugout helping Dooley coach the Hustlers, including Terry Henderson, who played for Dooley on his first Final Four team in 1994.

He credits so many for his success but points out two coaches in particular that he feels helped shape and mold his style of coaching, Howard May and Dusty Rhodes.

“Coach May is a hall of fame coach that had a huge impact on me,” said Dooley. “He is an even better human being.  His influence on people runs so deep.”

Dooley’s manager in life is his beautiful wife Leslie, whom he says keeps him focused and helps him balance the life of a manager, teacher and husband.

Coach Dooley is not a man that is comfortable with accepting individual awards.

But when you get young men to buy into your philosophy for three decades and win nearly eight out of every 10 times you take the field, there is no doubt he deserves to stand alone and have his picture hang in the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE SPACE COAST SPORTS HALL OF FAME

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT the SPACE COAST SPORTS HALL OF FAME or to make a nomination, call 321-615-8111 or e-mail Contact@SpaceCoastDaily.com

SPACE COAST DAILY TV: Tim Wakefield talks about his induction into the first class of the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

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