By Joseph Staszewski
Brother Robert Kent is known for showing his players personal attention, but the longtime coach wanted the exact opposite when it came to his own milestone.
Kent, who has led the St. Francis Prep varsity baseball team for the last 32 years, hoped to reach his 600th career win quietly.
“He tried to downplay it a bit,” said Robert Williams, Kent’s former player and SFP assistant coach for the past 18 years. “After he got it, you could see it meant a lot to him.”
His players mobbed the 71-year-old Kent in the post-game huddle after the Terriers scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to beat Holy Cross 4-2 April 14. Their enthusiasm for him reminded Kent of all the people who helped him get to this point in his career.
“They were jumping all over me,” he said. “I just tried to take it like another game. It makes you realize all the kids you coached and all the guys that coached with me got me through this.”
It is because of his ability to connect with players on a personal level that his team has this kind of love and respect for him. Kent is known for taking his players aside and heaping praise, instruction and criticism on them one-on-one. Williams believe it is that approach and his passion for the game that earns his players’ admiration.
“It was a good feeling. [He is a] legendary coach, always about baseball,” senior pitcher Dylan Lawrence said. “He deserves it. He’ll get 700 soon.”
Baseball has always been a major part of Kent’s life. He played on his Holy Name parish CYO team and in high school at St. Anthony’s on Long Island when it was a boarding school.
Kent, who is also a math teacher at St. Francis Prep and the school’s alumni director, began coaching the junior varsity team in 1968 and took over varsity in 1982. He has reached five CHSAA Intersectional title games and won three. The most recent crown was in 2007.
He had to give up coaching the Terriers freshman basketball team in 2002 to help his brothers take care of their mother, who had fallen sick, but baseball remained a constant in his life. Kent even relates America’s pastime to lessons in his classes to help make learning easier for students.
“Even in math class, he is always talking about baseball,” Lawrence said. “All his problems go back to baseball, everything. Three, that’s Babe Ruth’s number.”
There is a charm, honesty and realness about Kent that leaves an impression on all he meets. Williams says wherever he goes people ask him, “How’s Brother Rob?” or “Where is Brother Rob?”
Kent, , the school’s former athletic director, is filled with stories — most of them teach you something, others just make you laugh.
He said his CYO team in 1957 was given the Brooklyn Dodgers uniforms by Ebbets Field announcer Tex Rickards to play in after the team left for Los Angeles.
“Holy Name became the Dodgers,” Kent said. “They were kind of big, but we didn’t mind.”
Kent wouldn’t mind continuing to coach. He is in good health and plans on doing so for the foreseeable future. Williams said he still hasn’t seen Kent sit down during a game in 18 years. And Kent doesn’t plan on sitting down or stepping down anytime soon.
