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Coaching through the pain: Central's Nault whirlwind schedule includes teaching, coaching and helping his sons get well

Friday, March, 14 By Bill Burt
Staff writer

LAWRENCE | If not for the large crucifix hanging high above the basketball court and the occasional clergyman who strolls by to check out the commotion, you might confuse what was happening at Central Catholic's famed gymnasium from 3:30 to 5 p.m. with "90 minutes of hell."

Boot camp might be a better description as coaches, sounding more like drill instructors, all yelling at once, oftentimes for different reasons.

Bodies are not only flying, but they're colliding. One player, junior Rory Blinn, was rubbing his neck after taking an elbow on one end. Two minutes later he was lying on the floor, head down, following a collision near the basket, moaning.
Sympathy was nowhere to be found.

"Get up!" shouted Central Catholic boys basketball coach Ricky Nault, guessing correctly that there were no broken bones.

Fouls? In almost any other gym in America, absolutely.

But not here. Not with Coach Nault around.

Nault never played football, but Central football coach Chuck Adamopoulos, standing on the sidelines of Central's Wednesday practice in preparation of their Division 1 state championship game against St. John's of Shrewsbury tomorrow night at the DCU Center in Worcester, admits he has nothing over his basketball peer.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Adamopoulos, whose son Zak is a junior forward for the Raiders. "Everybody's banging into everybody. And nobody is complaining or whining. I love this. Ricky's been here only two years, but you would think he's been here 20 years. He's the best."

Nault, 36, has only kept his promise, which wasn't too descriptive when he took the job in June 2006.

"I'm not an offensive guy or a defensive guy. I'm an effort guy," he said the day he was hired. "When someone walks in the gym and sees us play, I want them to say, Wow! I want them to see that our guys work their tails off."

The last three Central wins | Charlestown, Lowell and B.C. High | have something in common. Central appeared, at least on the scoreboard, to be in trouble.
The team and coaches knew otherwise.

"We know that the fourth quarter is our quarter," said senior Adrian Gonzalez, who will be playing for Division 2 power Bentley next year. "Nobody practices like we do. Nobody. The games are easy compared to practices. The games are fun."

...
Monday night was special for Nault.

His wife, Nichole, got to see first-hand, what everyone in the Merrimack Valley has been talking about when the Central defeated B.C. High, 54-44, at the TD Banknorth Garden.

She has been busy most of the other big games. She has been basically living the in intensive care unit at Children's Hospital in Boston, caring for their son, Avery, who turns 2 in May.

Avery has mitochondrial disease, the same disease his 5-year-old brother, Isaiah, has.

In a nutshell, this disease is both debilitating and devastating. Isaiah can't walk, talk or get up on his own. Avery's motor skills are a little better, but he's been in the hospital for nearly half of the last six months battling respiratory problems, particularly pneumonia.

"I can't tell you what it meant to have Nicky at the game," said Nault, referring to his wife. "Here I am going through one of the greatest thrills in life and she's in the hospital every night taking the burden off me. The funny thing is she is more nervous than I am for these games."

He doesn't go out of his way to talk about his boys' illness.

"It's not something we put out there," said Nault, whose oldest daughter Janessa is 7. "We hate the idea of people feeling sorry or pitying us. To be very honest, my wife and I are grateful for what we have. We believe we've been put in this situation for a reason.

"Do we wish our boys were healthy?" he said. "Of course. But I've never looked at it that way. We are grateful for the time we have with them."

...

Even those who hold Central in disdain, and there are many in the Merrimack Valley, find it tough to root against Nault.

A French Canadian, Nault grew up on the Tower Hill side of Haverhill Street, the only white kid among hundreds of Hispanics.

Apparently, hockey was never an option.

"My family was never really into sports," said Nault. "It wasn't until I was in fourth grade and joined the Lawrence Boys Club, that I even shot my first basketball. (Boys Club coordinator) Steve Kelley was the fourth grade coach and I thought he was crazy. But I remember liking basketball from the first moment. I was hooked."

The club became his home away from home and basketball became his ticket out of any potential trouble.

"I loved the game too much to mess around," said Nault. "And the guys at the club, particularly Steve Kelley, were important role models for me."

Nault's decision to attend Central, he feels, was the most important of his life.
"It's an incredible place because, like the club, it feels like home," said Nault. "It was a great school, but more importantly, it was great to be around so many talented people. It's like we're all a family."

...

Dick Licare certainly left his imprint on Central.

"He helped put the school on the map as a power in this state," said Nault, who later played at Worcester State, where he was a captain his senior season. "I loved playing for him. He knew the game as well as any coach I know. And he got us to play defense."

When Licare announced his resignation, the names, some of them big, were astounding.

Central grads Dave Fazio (Andover High) and the great Leo Parent (Pentucket Regional), who were both successful local coaches, and famed Salem (Mass.) High and Charlestown High coach Jack O'Brien were some of the names bandied about. Nault was a longshot.

While he had no head coaching experience, he was a junior varsity coach and assistant under Licare for six years. Better yet, he was a Central alum.
"I told them at the interview that this was the only job I wanted," he recalled. "If Dickie had stayed for 20 more years, I could have stayed with him. That's how much I love this place."

While it appeared to be a gamble going with the inexperienced Nault over some behemoths in the Massachusetts high school basketball landscape, those who knew Nault best figured it wasn't such a gamble.

"I loved him when I was a freshman and he was coaching the JVs," said junior Billy Marsden. "He was just like he is now. He was all over us about the little things. He was very demanding, but he was fair. I never played as hard as I did my freshman year."
Nault's talent, as he has oft-noted, was not X's and O's, it was his ability to deal with kids.

"Ricky went to Central. He grew up in Lawrence. He went to the Boys Club," said Central assistant coach Tom Sipsey, one of three assistants who are also alums. "He can talk to these kids like nobody else can. He relates to them unlike any coach I've ever seen. It really is special."

...

Nault says nothing has changed since when he took over one of the highest profile coaching positions in the state.

He wants to stay here until he is old.

"A friend of mine from the western part of the state said, 'Ricky, are you going to coach some college after the state championship?' " said Nault. "I told him, 'No chance.' This is where I want to be.

"We have a great family. We have a great house in Methuen. We have so many people that care about us around here. But you know what? I owe a lot of it to Central Catholic. They gave me the opportunity. I don't want to be anywhere else. I am happy with my life. I love this team. I really do."

Tomorrow night, Nault's life, will get a lot more exciting and a lot more hectic.

In fact, it is a lot like his practices, fury and stability, all rolled into one.

"Our personality is a lot like Ricky's," said assistant John Sexton. "We are all over the place. We play with a lot of emotion. We play in-your-face all game long. But you know what? There is no panic, just like Ricky. He never panics.

"So when we're down in the first half or even the third quarter, there is no shouting or yelling," said Sexton. "Ricky asks for our advice and we give it. Then he makes his decision and the guys believe in him. He's an incredible coach. He's an incredible person."