Remembering the life of Rob Violante

SOMERS, N.Y. - When I was a sprouting scribe at the old North County News back in the day, Rob Violante, a dominant two-sport star in basketball and football at Somers High School, was the measuring stick I first used for Tusker athletes when players and parents would approach me at athletic events in the mid-to-late-90s. And long after that, truth be told.

“Wait till you see this kid, he’s gonna be the next best athlete in Somers history,” they would say. And there have been many.

“Yeah, but is he Rob Violante-good? Can he sling it like Vio did?” I’d often query.

Violante and his family set the standard back in the day, including his dad Skip, a legendary, multi-state-title-winning football coach at both Dobbs Ferry before coaching at Somers, plus his brothers Chris and Brian (and mom Martha), who would go on to do as much as any family in Somers history has ever done for the Tusker football, basketball and lacrosse programs. 

Simply put, the Violantes, who put Somers football on the actual map prior to its four NYSPHSAA titles, are Somers royalty, the kind of family that put the good of the community/team first and foremost.

Which is why the eyes of so many were weeping last week when word trickled down that Rob had been part of a sudden, tragic crash along the Taconic State Parkway. The accident killed four, including the beloved Rob Violante, the longtime head football coach at New Jersey's Bergenfield High School where he was a lionized high school faculty member, dean of students, head football coach and track and field coach. 

The Violantes are now in a position nobody can ever pretend to imagine, until it hits home, until it pours a hole in your heart. The outpouring of support and the strength for this family – plus their own emboldened bonds – will be the only thing to get them through this travesty.

“We feel the love and support of the community on so many levels, but I’m not going to lie, this is the toughest thing we’ve ever been through (as a family),” Rob’s classy brother, Chris, said, coping with the pain of a lost sibling less than 48 hours later. “We’ll get through it because we have each other and the many levels of support we have and the many memories we have of the perfect son, the perfect brother, the perfect uncle and friend to so many people who have reached out to us. It’s shock and awe right now, though, I can’t even look out at my back yard without seeing him in my head out there with my sons, training them, loving them like the guy who would do anything for our family, for any kid that needed anything, really. That’s his legacy. His heart and soul were family, friends and sports and doing everything he could to help kids along the way. He just wanted to give back.”

A humorous soul who could serve equally as a head coach or an assistant, Rob Violante was a true asset, like back in 2009 when he served as Henry Taylor’s assistant coach on the Lincoln Hall Section 1 championship basketball team. Those kids, many of whom were in and out of trouble in the rehab center, were starved for love and attention. Coach Taylor was the much-needed hard line. Coach Vio was the go-between, the guy the troubled kids went to for solace, for comfort. He never let them down, nor any student athlete before and/or after.

“Rob was a different level of competitor and it was always so evident amongst those who ever walked out there with him, or against him,” said Christian Johns, a Lakeland grad and Somers resident who grew close to ‘Vio’ after high school, long after Rob was the star QB and sensational basketball player at Somers High School from 1994 to 1998 before going on to play football as a quarterback for the University of Delaware. “When they say ‘she or he hated to lose more than she or he enjoyed winning’, that was Robbie V. I can’t think of a competitor for which that sentiment more accurately described how they competed. He always had my back and could put me in my place like few others. I have absolutely cherished seeing him watch his nephews these last few seasons.”

Those nephews were the very essence of Rob Violante, competitors he trained who would do anything for the greater good of their team, to appease their coaches. For that is the Violante mold.

Life is brutally unfair at times. Nobody knows that more than the Violantes this week. So, take a moment to pray and hug the people you love as I surely did this week, because you just never know. Prayers and God speed.