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Bob Guidi has seen a lot of baseball during his 57-year coaching career, but he still swears by one of the best defenses he has seen was at Shawsheen Tech last month.
“Without a doubt, (it was) the best defense I’ve ever seen, and I played at Tufts,” said Guidi, who still has a jump in the step while recreating interceptions, and a twinkle in his eye when talking about the game at an age of 77 years.
His love of sports began when he himself was a student-athlete at Winthrop High School. He played four sports - football, basketball, tennis and baseball - and was later inducted into the Winthrop High Hall of Fame in 2010. He continued to play three sports at Tufts before graduating in 1964 and starting his coaching career.
He has spent most of his life on the sidelines and in dugouts across the North Shore. The only thing that slowed him down - like most of us - was the pandemic. That’s how he ended up taking the head coach job at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School.
“I just like to exercise,” Guidi said. “I had not trained for a year and a half. I was willing to train anything. ”
So when Guidi saw the opening in Mystic Valley, he jumped on it - and the school liked what they saw. The truth is, how could they not?
Thousands of student athletes have played under Guidi since he began training in 1964. A retired math teacher began his journey as a novice baseball coach in his hometown of Winthrop.
A few years later, he became the head coach of St. Mary’s baseball team. While the Spartans compete in Division 3’s Catholic Central League today, Guidi started his 13 years at the helm against the Division 1 competition. The change in the leagues took place during his period.
Guidi trained these Spartans for nine tournaments, three CCL titles and the Eastern Massachusetts Championship in 1977. That year, he was named Boston Globe’s Coach of the Year. He finished the run at St. Mary’s with a 145-77 record.
Since then, Guidi has coached all levels of football and basketball. He coached varsity basketball at Matignon, Lynnfield and North Shore Community College. He also coached football at several schools, and had a 12-year career as a baseball coach at Wakefield.
He recently trained basketball and baseball at Belmont before COVID-19 stopped both.
It’s quite a resume, and it will continue to grow in Mystic Valley. Guidi returned to Lynn last month, and his Eagles gave Lynn Tech a loss at Fraser Field.
If you ask him, Guidi will say that the season is going well, but how could the great coach not enjoy himself after returning to his home on the diamond this spring?
