Kerrigan was an old-school, caring coach to his Manchester West baseball players
May 24—If you misplayed a ground ball after it hit one of the many rocks that covered the makeshift practice field at Rock Rimmon Park, Bob Kerrigan would still get on you.
If you showed up five minutes late to the sand-and-dirt field, which looked more suited for dirt bike riding than playing baseball, Kerrigan did not sugarcoat his disappointment.
Wearing a flat-brimmed hat and pants hiked up to his knees, Kerrigan tossed batting practice from behind a 3-by-4-foot gate — not an L-shaped screen that's used these days.
Kerrigan, the head baseball coach at West from 1970-95, winning a pair of state titles, was the definition of old school, his former players say.
Born in Manchester and a longtime Queen City resident, Kerrigan died on Sunday at age 80 from complications due to Alzheimer's disease.
"He would discipline when it was needed but, really, he just treated the players like adults and expected us to do our job and trusted that we would," said John Tippett, who played center field for Kerrigan at West from 1986-90. "He did not feel the need to be a disciplinarian or to micromanage or anything like that. He just wanted us to do our jobs and grow and be better people and players."
Kerrigan, a star football, basketball and baseball player at Bishop Bradley (now Trinity) before playing college football at the University of New Hampshire, was low key but direct.
When Kerrigan spoke, his players knew to listen because it was important.
Kerrigan, who lived in both Berlin and Littleton for a time while growing up, had a passion for baseball and taught his players to be respectful, play hard and give all they had.
Denny Linehan, a catcher and right fielder at West for Kerrigan from 1987-89, also played at Sweeney Post No. 2 in American Legion ball for John "Jumbo" Reilly, who, years earlier, was Kerrigan's coach.
It was easy to spot the similarities between Kerrigan and Reilly, his mentor, Linehan said.
"They didn't say a whole lot," said Linehan, who still plays catcher in the over-38 New Hampshire Baseball League for the Bedford Bison. "It wasn't a constant, 'Put your elbow up. Stand like this. Widen your stance.' There was none of that constant instruction. ... I think that sometimes less is more and I think that when it came to how he coached and how he provided instruction, that was kind of his philosophy."
Linehan and Tippett both played with Kerrigan's son, Ryan, who graduated from West in 1990. Tippett said Kerrigan did not play favorites with his players and that was true even when coaching his son.
"He did probably one of the best jobs, I think, of coaching a son that you can do on a sports team," Tippett said.
Many of Kerrigan's players, like Ed Poisson, turned into friends.
Poisson played for Kerrigan at West in the early 1970s. Kerrigan encouraged Poisson to enroll at Daniel Webster Junior College.
When Poisson graduated from college, he received an invitation to join Kerrigan's coaching staff at West over a beer at the Raphael Social Club.
Poisson served as Kerrigan's assistant for 14 years before applying (at Kerrigan's insistence) and then becoming the head baseball coach at Trinity in 1986.
The two coached against each other in playoff games and scouted games together.
When Kerrigan married his wife, Marea, whom he met at West, Poisson was at the wedding, which was on Valentine's Day.
"He was almost like a big brother to me," Poisson said.
After helping West win the 1990 Class L title as a senior (West won the title in 1983, as well), Tippett went on to play at Dartmouth College.
As a junior at West, Tippett had no idea how to go about getting recruited by colleges so Kerrigan helped him through the entire process. Kerrigan even drove Tippett to tour colleges on weekends.
Kerrigan's cousin, Pat Smith, a former Union Leader reporter, said Kerrrigan cherished his interactions with his players.
They did, too.
"He meant a lot to me and to a bunch of us," Tippett said.
A Manchester Catholic High School and Queen City Athletic Hall of Famer, Kerrigan won over 300 games. The Blue Knights also made the 1980 and 1989 Class L finals under Kerrigan.
Kerrigan was a physical education teacher for 35 years at West, where he also served as the school's head football coach (1977-79) and head girls basketball coach (1985-89).
He was also an assistant football coach at West in 1967-71, the head football coach at Bishop Brady High School for a two-year stint before becoming West's head football coach and coached Manchester Post 79 for one summer with a roster that included Cy Young Award winner and Trinity graduate Chris Carpenter.
Kerrigan concluded his coaching career with a stint leading the Saint Anselm College baseball team from 1995-2000.
"Most teenagers do a lot of growing up at high school," Smith said, "and Bobby was one of those people that, whether it was through coaching or daily life or anything like that, he was one of those guys that made a lot of difference in a lot of people's lives just by using a little bit of sense of humor, being steady, being caring — just doing his job to the best of his ability."
