University of Miami athletes depend on former Staten Islander Vinny Scavo
The first one to notice was Tammy Scavo.
It was the night before the University of Miami’s Sept. 22 football game at Georgia Tech, and the Hurricanes’ head athletic trainer, Vinny Scavo, and his wife of 22 years were sitting in the hotel lobby as a film camera lurked nearby.
“She says, ‘What’s that camera doing following you?’” the former New Dorp HS pitcher said. “I said, ‘I don’t know.’ So I asked around.”
It turned out the camera, at the direction of filmmaker Madison Murr of 3Pennyfilms, was recording Scavo for its next installment of “Raising Canes,” an internet series shown on Youtube.com and Hurricanes.com which has become a vital part of the Hurricanes’ recruiting program. This particular episode dealt with the return of junior defensive end Shayon Green from an ACL injury.
As an instrumental part of Green’s rehab as Miami’s director of athletic training, Scavo was tabbed to make his computer-screen debut after 30 years of taping, flexing and fixing athletes in various organizations. Green had given Murr the go-ahead to film Scavo applying the layers of Hurricane-colored green and orange athletic tape from mid-shin through thigh in the otherwise private confines of the training room.
Scavo, whose sister Maryanne still lives in their childhood home in Grant City, was called on to offer his version of the Green’s rehab and recovery, sanitized of course.
“I said, ‘This is beautiful,’” the 52-year-old said. “I had no idea that was going to happen. I usually drop a few F-bombs in there, but I didn’t do that, or my wife and sister would have yelled at me.
“But it wasn’t uncomfortable. I just went about my business. I didn’t think about it. We usually don’t allow press in there to protect the privacy of our players, but Shayon agreed to do it.”
LOTS OF ENTHUSIASM
Scavo’s enthusiasm for his job and his school show through loud and clear on film.
“He was a good sport,” Murr said. “The trust factor was there. We wanted to get his own story. He said, ‘Whatever you need.’ He was a great interview. He’s been there so long and is very passionate about the program, so that was a great positive.”
It wasn’t as if Scavo carved out a section of schedule for some face-time. He doesn’t have many leisurely minutes in Coral Gables. Since becoming director of the school’s entire athletic training program last year after head football coach Al Golden hired him to be the his team’s head trainer in 2010, Scavo has overseen the treatment and rehabilitation of the university’s 400 athletes.
As if that hasn’t kept him busy enough, he also tends to U of M alumni who live in the area such as the Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed and New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, and one former local baseball player of note.
The one who name adorns the school’s baseball stadium.
“We’ve had Alex Rodriguez in here,” Scavo said. “Our doctor (Dr. Lee Kaplan) operated on him and we’ve had him in. He’s talked to me about different ideas he’s had for his rehab. I have no idea whether he used them or not, but he worked very hard in our strength rooms down the hall.
“He was very nice, very pleasant. To me, he’s just A-Rod, and he needs rehab.”
Scavo has provided those services to every level of athlete since he graduated New Dorp in 1977 after four years playing baseball, his true love, and one playing football. After a semester at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, he ventured south to pitch at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla. There, he became interested in athletic training.
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Vinny Scavo, left, walks an injured Miami player to the sidelines during a game in 2012.
Caneshooter.com
A meeting with future Yankees manager **** Howser led to temporary stops at Florida State, where Howser was the baseball coach, and the minor league Oneonta Yankees once Howser accepted the Yankees job. Then it was back to college and “The U,” for stints as assistant football trainer under national championship winners Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson.
Upon marrying Tammy in 1991, he took a job at Coral Gables HS that paid more money.
“Believe it or not, I couldn’t afford to be a college trainer,” he said.
The downward step proved no impediment to his being named to the Olympic Trials staff. After that, he directed the minor league training operations for the upstart Florida Marlins from 1992-96. Then it was back to high school until, in 2006, Dr. Kaplan asked him to direct the sports medicine clinic he set up at the University of Miami Hospital.
EYE FOR TALENT
He moved on-campus in 2011 when Golden pushed through the construction of a facility dedicated solely to strength, conditioning, and athletic training.
Despite his nearly year-round residence in Florida, Scavo said he remains a Staten Islander at heart. What little vacation time he gets is spent up here, visiting family and old friends and teammates. He bled, right along with his Island brethren, when Superstorm Sandy struck.
“I have (FOX) Five on my satellite and I watch it every night,” Scavo said. “I told my sister what was happening before she even knew it.”
He also reads The Advance every day to keep up on hometown news. That’s where he learned about Augustus Edwards, Tottenville’s 6-foot-1, 230-pound running back with 4.5 speed. Golden’s staff hadn’t even looked at Edwards until Scavo brought his name up.
A discussion with the school’s recruiting coordinator led to a visit not long ago.
“I met him coming out of the hotel, and he had a Yankees hat on,” Scavo said. “I said, ‘Good move. Good move.’”
Edwards committed to the Hurricanes in early February.
If Scavo has his way, Edwards won’t be the last recruit from his old borough.
“We need more Staten Island kids down here,” he said.
