Copyright berkshireeagle
John J. Consolati, 60, was born on Babe Ruth's birthday in Steve Blass' hometown (Feb. 7, in Canaan, Conn.), but it is his own ability as a coach, good teams and touch of good Italian luck that is responsible for all the Lee High School sports victories over the past 34 years. Consolati has fielded winning teams ever since he became coach at the high school in 1937, beginning at an annual salary of $1,200 and coaching baseball, football and basketball, besides carrying a full teaching load. He still carries the full teaching load but now limits his coaching to football. An outstanding triple-threat athlete in high school, he captained the football, baseball and basketball teams in his senior year at Lee High. After high school, Consolati went on to Massachusetts State College at Amherst — now the state university — where he was captain of the baseball team in his senior year and winner of the Governor's Cup as the team's most valuable player. Consolati also understudied the great Louis Bush on the gridiron, playing left halfback at Bush's old position after Bush graduated. Bush was the leading scorer in the nation in his senior year. A Turners Falls boy, Bush is now a chemistry teacher and director of recreation in Greenfield High School. Some of the records Consolati teams have compiled are awesome. In the 25 years he has coached baseball, his teams won 15 South Berkshire Championships, eight of them in a row in the middle 1950s. During those eight seasons Lee won 75 out of 80 league games. Consolati football teams have scored a total of 123 wins for him, against only 59 losses and 14 ties. That record includes a still-standing Western Massachusetts record of 25 straight wins, a skein which began Oct. 21, 1945, and ended Oct. 1, 1949, when Lee was beaten by Enfield (Conn.) High School, 25-6. In the late 1950s, Lee teams went on another rampage for the soft-spoken coach, scoring 24 consecutive wins, before losing finally to Dalton in the last game of the 1958 season. The only other coach in Western Massachusetts with over 100 victories to his credit is William Moge of Chicopee. The most exciting basketball game John can remember, was when Lee High School for the first time won the Berkshire County championship. It was March 17, 1953 (St. Patrick's Day), and his team came from behind in the last half-minute of play to sink three baskets and beat Pittsfield High School 49-45. In the mid 1930s he coached the famous Troy's Garage semipro baseball team from Stockbridge. That team once played both the Boston Braves and the Cincinnati Reds but was edged out in close games.
