Cory Mull: Ben Pignatone the right hire for Estero XC
Some jobs are meant for certain people.
The Estero boys' and girls' cross country position, held by the late Jeff Sommer, "was meant" for Ben Pignatone, who was hired last Friday by principal Clayton Simmons and athletic director David Burns.
Consider these examples:
• The 29-year-old hasn't missed a practice in seven weeks.
It started the Sunday after Sommer's passing at the state meet in Jacksonville, when the assistant coach arrived at Estero and herded athletes, parents, family and friends together for an emotional run.
He followed in the days and weeks after with 5 a.m. practices at the Estero track and FGCU parking lot.
No one quite told him to do it, but he knew to do it anyway. Who else would?
"No one can really replace him exactly," Estero junior Arye Beck said of Sommer. "But he's (Pignatone) been with this program enough to know what to do and how to do it."
• He has a passion for running and teaching.
It's one reason why, in 2012, Pignatone joined Sommer as a volunteer assistant with the Wildcats.
The nonpaid position was right in his wheelhouse after graduating from FGCU with a degree in human performance.
"We do a lot of drills and a lot of cool down stuff that we didn't really do when coach was here," junior Megan Giovanniello said. "I really like that and it definitely helps with my muscles."
• He's a former collegiate runner, having spent a year with the FGCU cross country team.
That's more important to some, but for a program like Estero, which has a rich tradition and countless state titles in cross country and track, it can't be discounted.
"You'll see me run a little bit with the kids," said Pignatone, who works at The Run Shoppe in Cape Coral. "It's tough to talk to them and coach them up whenever I'm sucking wind. But they like that too, because I can't yell at them to do anything."
• Speaking of which, Pignatone has a history with Estero ...
In 2008, as a sophomore with the Eagles, he routinely hopped the fence on Bode Boulevard to gain access to the Estero track.
Sommer caught him a few times, Pignatone said, but the coach had waned in intensity by then and only asked, "So what workout you doing?"
• He's got all the paperwork.
The Poughkeepsie, New York, native has certifications through the national strength and conditioning association, USA weightlifting, USA Track and Field and the Road Runners Club of America.
Paired with his coaching experience, he tailors workouts around the strengths of his athletes and adjusts per case, often quickly and on the fly.
"I take their abilities and I look at their strengths and weaknesses, like all coaches do, and I see how they fit in a group," he said. "I might group them on different levels and work with different tactics on racing, working on different parts of the body and the mind."
• He's been a volunteer assistant since 2012.
That means he hasn't been paid for three years. Millenials nowadays don't work for free, but Pignatone did and often paid out of his pocket to be with the Wildcats.
He won't get paid until the fall when his stipend kicks in, but again, he says he does it because of the feeling he gets from coaching.
"If I did it for the money," he said, "I wouldn't have been here for this long."
• He reads books about coaching.
If athletes are always graded on how well they improve and develop, why aren't coaches?
"Coach K has a book, 'Coaching a World Class Team,'" Pignatone says. "It says you have to change your coaching every year to the kids you have, so you can keep them motivated and willing to adjust and work."
• He has ideas about improving the program, but he knows how to navigate what Sommer left behind, too.
No one ever wants to be the guy who replaces a legend, but Pignatone seems to truly care how to keep Sommer's legacy alive while creating his own.
"I'm relieved, excited, I'm happy that they decided to give me a chance," he said. "I guess that shows they trust me. I just want to continue as we've been going."
It wasn't only important to him. It was important to his team, too.
"That was one of my major concerns, that if Ben didn't get chosen, that there might be a divide between that new coach and us, and that the program would fall apart and we would have to rebuild it," Beck said. "But with Ben, it can stay together a lot longer."
• He's not trying to be anyone else. He's happy being Ben Pignatone.
He's soft-spoken at times — unlike Sommer, who could light up a room with a joke or a coaching yelp — although he's earned his team's respect by the very things that made him the perfect candidate for this job.
"A lot of times, coach would be in the front cracking jokes and I was content being in the back," Pignatone said. "I guess now I have to be in the front."