Six years after they took away his gym, his rims, and his season, Ron Naclerio became the winningest basketball coach in New York State history. Yesterday, Queens gave him his day. I was there.
Yesterday I went to Queens Borough Hall. Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. presented Coach Ron Naclerio of Benjamin Cardozo High School with a Proclamation recognizing him as the winningest basketball coach in New York State public school history, declared the day he broke the record Ron Naclerio Day in the Borough of Queens, and handed him a Key to Queens.
Garrett “Bam” Morgan was also there.
If you’ve seen 15 DAYS, you know Bam — the public school football player who lost his shot at a college scholarship because NYC closed public school sports while private schools kept playing. We wrote about him here. Seeing him in that room yesterday felt like something closing, a loop that began in 2020 and finally, quietly, completed itself.
I first met Ron at one of the very first open schools rallies just an ordinary NYC public school mom standing next to a basketball coach from Queens I’d never seen before. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. A photocopy, worn at the creases. He read from it — about his father Dr. Emil Naclerio who on September 20, 1958, saved Dr. Martin Luther King’s life when he was stabbed in Harlem. Ron’s speech spoke about what it meant to show up for kids when no one else would. That speech, that photocopy he carries everywhere, said everything. He showed up at rally after rally after that. Every single time. Always with the same conviction, always for the kids.
Ron is one of the most powerful voices in 15 DAYS: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures, honest in a way only someone with nothing left to prove can be.
When schools closed in March 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered the basketball rims removed from the city’s public parks. Ron played anyway.
“There were no rims. I was shooting around without the rims. It was amazing that you could do that.”
He applied to work at a school so first responders’ children would have somewhere to be. He rode his bike through empty streets. He texted his players and met them in the park when he could, even after he was told not to.
“I know they needed me. And I knew I needed them. I can’t just sit in my house doing nothing. I’m a creature of habit and my habit is to worry about the students on my team.”
His father, Dr. Emil Naclerio, was a thoracic surgeon. On September 20th, 1958, a man was stabbed in Harlem — a knife just touching his aorta. A sneeze or cough would have killed him. Dr. Naclerio removed the knife from the side to avoid triggering that reflex, saving the man’s life. The patient was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The two became close friends for the remaining decade of Dr. King’s life.
When sports finally resumed, the damage was visible. One kid had gained 56 pounds. Another high-level athlete couldn’t make it once around the track.
“I started calling other coaches. Is it just me? Is it just my team? No. It was the majority of kids.”
For his players, most of them black, many from difficult family situations, a scholarship was often the only path to college. Two years without scouts or games didn’t just cost them a season. “It’s going to devastate a lot of kids, not just the teenagers, their whole adult life. They walk around like everyone else. They don’t even know that they’re done.”
Ron has been at Cardozo since he was 18, starting as a volunteer assistant at St. John’s. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, got to Major League camp, then tore the ligaments in his ankle three times. He chose coaching and never left.
He gets paid for 216 hours a year. He puts in 1,138.
His father, Dr. Emil Naclerio, was a thoracic surgeon. On September 20th, 1958, a man was stabbed in Harlem — a knife just touching his aorta. A sneeze or cough would have killed him. Dr. Naclerio removed the knife from the side to avoid triggering that reflex. He saved the man’s life. The patient was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The two became close friends for the remaining decade of Dr. King’s life.
“It’s amazing how many kids got obituaries instead of diplomas. And it’s amazing how many kids got offered or initiated into gangs.”
Ron grew up with that story. He told it in the film to explain why he shows up, every day, for decades, for kids the system keeps failing.
He has also lost players to gun violence and runs a tournament at Rucker Park in their memory. “It’s amazing how many kids got obituaries instead of diplomas. And it’s amazing how many kids got offered or initiated into gangs.”
When I spoke to him for the film, Ron told me he was 89 wins short of 1,000 and didn’t know if he had a few good seasons left. On January 30th of this year, he got win number 973 — breaking the New York State record.
“15 days of closing schools became 25 months. Whatever happened to those 15 days? Shame on the people who made that rule,” he said three years ago during one of our interviews.
Yesterday, Queens gave him a key to the borough. But Coach Naclerio has spent his life handing something far more valuable to the kids who came through his gym.
I made 15 DAYS so stories like his would not be forgotten and to let Americans know that superheroes don’t always wear capes!
Watch Coach Ron Naclerio in 15 DAYS: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures. Get your copy HERE.