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A Man of Steele
Rarely does a school's Web site contain a softball Web page as detailed and colorful as Broad Run High School's.
There are numerous digital images of on-field action to accompany the slew of beaming headlines from notable contests and achievements, along with photographic representations of the facilities available to athletes of that sport.
Such protracted attention is rare because such prolonged success is rare.
Ed Steele, gentleman educator with a fierce competitive streak, has coached the Spartans' softball team from 1992 to present, winning two state titles and nearly winning two others.
He has won eight district championships and six regional ones. Last season's 29-0 run, during which they outscored opponents 279-6, culminated in a No. 5 national ranking by USA Today.
From 1985 to 2004, he coached the once-nondescript Broad Run wrestling program to more than 200 dual-meet victories and four district titles, guiding nearly 50 grapplers to individual district titles and several to state titles.
He has seen numerous wrestlers, many of them novices to the sport as freshmen, graduate to become championship coaches themselves.
Protégés past and present
"Part of what I am today is based on what I got from him," said Rob Puterio, formerly a Spartan wrestler and student in Steele's biology class, now head wrestling coach of perennial power Potomac Falls.
“He could tell you the names and stats of any girl he has coached,” said Spartan assistant JV softball coach Kristin Brumm, a four-year outfielder for Steele. “He is proud of each and every player that he works with.”
"He is great support to have," said Broad Run senior first baseman Karla Powell, an All-State power hitter and student in Steele's AP chemistry course. "I'm going to miss him next year."
J.J. Totaro, former Spartan grappler, said, "He is one of the nicest, yet one of the most competitive, people you will ever meet." Totaro is currently an assistant wrestling coach and head JV softball coach at the school.
Those activities -- wrestling, with its testosterone-fueled hand-to-hand nature, and softball, a non-contact team sport -- seem diametrically opposed.
But what softball and wrestling have in common is that they each let Ed Steele be the generous, even-keeled guy that he is while he incessantly tries to emerge victorious.
"There is nothing he ever wants to lose at," Totaro said. "He refuses to lose, and that is something that he has passed on to everyone that he has coached."
Steele has coached John Puterio, who took over Steele's old post as Broad Run's wrestling coach, as well as Freedom wrestling coach Pat McNanley. Potomac Falls' JV coach Mike Grafton is a former wrestling pupil, and son Scott is an assistant coach at Park View. Steele's coaching tree branches out geographically, as former wrestlers now coach in Georgia and Minnesota.
In softball, Steele has presided over five Division I signings in the past eight years, and his current crop boasts several more signees.
Christy Anch took her skills to the University of Tennessee after winning a state title in 2000. Jenny Clohan, a three-time All-State pitcher at Broad Run, now plies her craft for James Madison University.
"He constantly pushes us to work harder," said Powell, herself bound for the University of Wisconsin to play softball. "We're just blessed with a great community with great softball players."
Playing hard softball
When asked about his penchant for player development, Steele says, laughing: "Luck. Good luck. Actually, Ashburn's a good softball community with a lot of involved parents."
No position can dominate a softball game like the pitcher. From Anch to Clohan to Villanova-bound Caitlyn Delahaba, the Spartans have had consistently strong starters.
"I've been really lucky in getting one good pitcher after another," Steele said. "[Outfielder] Judy Betz may be the second-best pitcher in our region. She's just on the same team as the best pitcher [Delahaba]."
The 2008 Spartans return all but two players from last season's state champion roster.
"We know everyone's after us, so we'll have to work 10 times harder this year," Powell said. "We have to be on top of fundamentals."
To coach is to teach
Fundamentally, Steele is a teacher. He sees coaching as an extension of teaching, and he wants his teaching to have a demonstrable positive impact.
"Sometimes kids come back and tell me they want to be a teacher or a coach and that I may have influenced them a little bit," Steele said, seemingly uncomfortable when discussing himself.
Totaro is one of those "kids," one who wrestled for just his senior year under Steele but received as much attention as 1999 state champion Brandon Calderwood.
"He is a major part of why I am teaching today," Totaro said. "The best thing he ever taught me was that I could get much more out of myself than I ever thought by how hard he pushed us in that wrestling room."
Growing up in western Pennsylvania, Steele found himself inclined toward a profession that wouldn't involve coal mining or steel smelting or having a boss.
Upon being introduced to wrestling as a freshman, he saw his own coach's job as a position that he could enjoy and succeed in, while running things his own way. After California University, Steele became a teacher, and except for a stint in the business world, he has always been a teacher.
"You just like watching kids get better and you know you had something to do with it," Steele said, as close as he comes to self-compliment.
"That kind of impact lasts, especially if you experience successes you never had before," said Puterio, another who ascended to coaching after having been introduced to the sport at Broad Run by Steele.
In 2004, Steele's wife, Linda, threw a party for Ed's retirement from wrestling. Of the dozens in attendance, some came from as far away as Florida to honor him.
"He can be very nostalgic," Puterio said. "I think he remembers everyone who comes through his programs at least a little. I bet he finds himself missing some of them from time to time."
No quitting
Linda will not have to put together another shindig for a while, as Steele intends to remain softball coach for as long as he is an educator.
"What am I going to do, sit in a rocking chair and read?" Steele asked rhetorically. He answered his own question with a resolute statement: "I love competition. I love working with the kids that want to work hard and win."
Steele recalls a moment during his third season as softball coach that symbolizes an upward change in the way his Spartans saw themselves.
The 1994 softball regional final was in Harrisonburg versus a heavily favored Turner-Ashby club, winners of some 24 consecutive contests. The Spartans won that game 2-1 and went on to challenge for their first state championship, finishing as runners-up.
"That was an overachieving team, not nearly as talented as this [season's] team," Steele said. "But they were just a bunch of kids that wouldn't quit."
Steele also won't forget a "heartbreaking" 12-inning loss to traditional rival Park View in the state championship game in 2002, a game in which he says he can probably remember every play. He also vividly recalls how the perfect 2007 season nearly wasn't so, with a close 1-0 nine-inning victory over Tunstall in the state semifinals.
He likewise will never forget when his wrestling crew once donated their brute strength to build and paint a new porch on the Steeles' abode. Totaro was one of those laborers.
"He's honest but welcoming, and he's tough, but he will always let you know why," he said.
"They've had more impact on my life, in making it more enjoyable, than I've had on them," Steele said of his former pupils, athletic and academic.
Puterio might not agree.
"I don't think he knows what he was to each of us: A second father who trained us hard, often to the breaking point, only to build us up again and prove to us that we could do anything we set our minds to."
Steele said, "I try to do everything the right way, no shortcuts, no short-changing people. I try to treat every kid with respect. I don't ever play favorites. I try to be fair."
Seems like Coach Steele has been more than fair.
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