Who is Tony Vitello's father, Greg? Taking a look at Vols HC's father's career
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello guided his Volunteers to their first national baseball championship by winning the best-of-three College World Series final over the Texas A&M Aggies 2-1 on Monday night.
The Volunteers had a banner college baseball season, winning the Southeastern Conference East Division as well as the SEC regular season and tournament titles, the Knoxville Regional and Super Regional crowns and the national championship.
Vitello also helped Tennessee become the first SEC team to win 60 games in a season, including the postseason. His ability and passion to coach a team could be traced to his father, Greg, who has coached soccer and baseball for De Smet High School for 46 years.
Who is Greg Vitello?
Greg Vitello played soccer and baseball at St Benedict's College and enjoyed a standout career in both disciplines.
In 1969, Vitello arrived at De Smet and first handled the school's freshman football department. He eventually moved to track and field as an assistant before becoming the soccer and track and field coach.
As the soccer coach, Greg Vitello helped De Smet reach 14 state Final Fours and win four titles (in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2011). It was in the latter part of his career that Vitello guided the baseball team to a state championship in 2000.
Those achievements helped him to be enshrined in the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. A teacher at heart, he always wanted to mentor the youth, especially those at De Smet.
“Ever since I could, I worked kids camps for all kinds of sports, but mainly soccer and baseball. There is no greater satisfaction than to see a young child light up when they get a bit of instruction in their sport and run with it,” Greg Vitello said.
He also teaches his players to stay true to one's self and keep a philosophy that they must follow.
“Have a philosophy, stay with it and no matter what, don’t veer. Once you start veering, then things get out of whack and you end up in a cluster. Stay true to yourself,” Vitello said.
Tony Vitello also played under Greg Vitello in high school
Tony Vitello also played baseball and soccer under his dad's watch. Tony was on the 1997 De Smet High School soccer squad that won the state championship.
He idolizes his father so much that he also ventured into coaching. His first experience was with the Salinas Packers in 2002, when he served as the team's associate head coach.
After a year with the Packers, Tony was hired as assistant coach for Missouri, where he stayed until 2010. Between 2011 and 2017, he worked as an assistant coach for TCU and Arkansas before getting the biggest break of his career, which was becoming the Tennessee Volunteers' head coach in 2018.
In seven seasons, Tony Vitello reached five NCAA tournaments, including three College World Series stints, four NCAA super regionals and five NCAA regionals.
After the championship game, Greg Vitello spoke about his son's success son with WBIR Channel 10. Greg praised Tony's coaching staff for helping his son fulfill his dream of becoming a national champion coach.
"It just takes so much hard work to get here. Besides him, his staff is just phenomenal. I mean, these people, I can't tell how much they mean to him. But hey, man, we're here. We got a natty," he said.
Greg felt that the championship win was mind-boggling and he and his son wouldn't trade this moment for anything.