Veteran Hanover Park baseball coach dies

• The wake for Dave Minsavage will take place on April 17 at St. Joseph%27s Church in Hillsborough from 2-to-4 and 6-to-9 p.m. The funeral Mass will take place April 18 at St. Joseph%27s at 10 a.m.

Dave Minsavage, who spent the last 19 years as the head baseball coach at Hanover Park, died Thursday morning at his home in Hillsborough with his family by his side, after an eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Minsavage was 53 years old.

A native of Parsippany and a 1979 graduate of Parsippany High School, Minsavage was hired by the Hanover Twp. school district and became the freshman baseball coach and assistant coach under long-time legendary head coach Wendell Wear.

"I obviously knew who he was," Minsavage said in an interview last June. "He was the legendary Coach Wear. I have to admit. I was a little intimidated at first, but I think that was out of reverence and awe."

When Wear decided to retire five years later, he recommended Minsavage take over, giving him the dubious distinction of trying to replace the man who won more than 300 games, two Morris County Tournament titles and two NJSIAA state sectional crowns.

Two years later, in a strange twist of fate, Wear returned to serve as Minsavage's assistant, where the two remained together until Wear decided to retire at the end of the 2014 season.

"It blossomed into a friendship where we would spend time together socially, my wife and his wife," Minsavage said at the time of Wear's retirement last June. "It's been a blessing for me to be a part of his life. It was one thing having that great baseball mind. But he became my closest friend."

When Minsavage was diagnosed with cancer last August, he decided to take a leave of absence from coaching baseball, provided that Doug Wear, Wendell's son and already the girls basketball coach at Hanover Park, would take over the position in Minsavage's absence.

"When Dave got sick, I didn't know if I wanted to take it," Doug Wear said. "But I sat down with Dave and we decided that I would take over this year, giving Dave the chance to see his sons play at Immaculata. That was our goal, that I would hold down the position."

Minsavage's two youngest children, Peter and Tomas, are currently members of the Immaculata baseball team. Peter is a senior and Tomas is a junior.

"For the last 20 years, Dave was someone who helped to mold me into a person, into a better man," Doug Wear said. "Just by the way he handled himself with class and manners. He was a people-first person. He cared about so many people. He made me realize what it was like to be a better husband, father, friend. That's what's important."

Minsavage and the elder Wear guided the Hornets to the 2003 Morris County Tournament championship as well as two NJSIAA North 1 Group II titles.

"Dave was the eternal optimist," an emotional Wendell Wear said. "He was a great teacher and coach, a devoted husband and father. He accepted what life had to offer and dealt with losing and life accordingly. He permeated a positive attitude in whatever he did. I don't think there is a single person who could ever say a bad thing about him. The legacy he leaves was that he was always a positive person and never had a defeatist attitude. He preached being positive. ... He maintained a tradition of excellence, which was his motto. He was a spiritual person who people would emulate and follow."

Even after Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center physicians told Minsavage that there was nothing they could do, he found out about a clinical study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he recently began to receive treatment.

He said even if it wasn't going to save him, it might bring others there," said his wife of 24 years, Christine. "We really thought UPenn was the answer. We weren't giving up. ... He was not afraid to die. He was more worried about leaving us and our heartache. He wanted to fight. He wanted to tell everyone that he was not quitting. He said, 'Make sure everyone knows I'm not a quitter.' "

Minsavage's personality on the field is what others will remember. Hanover Park and Madison are participating in the Rose City Classic, along with Newark Academy and Montclair Kimberley, this weekend at Madison, and the Most Valuable Player award will be named the David Minsavage MVP.

"I don't know if there was another team to face Hanover Park as much as we did over the last few years," Madison head coach Mickey Ennis said. "We played each other four times one year (in 2012). I got to know Dave very well. He was just a class guy. I do scouting reports for each opponent and at the top of Hanover Park, I wrote, 'This team will never quit and this team is fearless.' That was Dave. I'll always remember how positive he was. He was just a gentleman. He had nothing but good things to say about other people and the game of baseball. He's going to surely be missed."

Mount Olive is scheduled to face Immaculata and the two Minsavage boys Saturday night at Diamond Nation.

"As good of a baseball person he was, he was an even better person in life," said Marauders coach Jim McDermott, who knew Minsavage for more than 20 years. "He cared about every kid on every level. He was a great guy."

Doug Wear will now try to carry on the tradition established by his father, and later his friend Minsavage. On the day Minsavage died, his beloved Hornets defeated his alma mater, Parsippany, 3-1. Junior Paul Wettengel was the winning pitcher and sophomore Donato Casolaro finished up with three scoreless innings, as the two combined to pitch a four-hitter.

Said Wear, "To lose 49 years of experience with my dad retiring and 24 with Dave, that's a pretty big void."

As Minsavage's health began to fail over the last two weeks or so, he still wanted to put up the fight.

"He still managed to find the strength to kiss me and tell me that he loved me," Christine Minsavage said. "He was just amazing in every way. He never gave up. That's how we'll live and what will keep us going. He told me to never give up and we won't."

Roxbury head coach Greg Trotter also had fond memories of Minsavage.

"His teams were always so well prepared and played so hard for him," Trotter said. "As for Dave the person, I have never come across a nicer, more genuine person in my 16 years of coaching. He was a special man."

Hanover Park football coach Gerry Moore, a teaching colleague of Minsavage, was also saddened by Minsavage's passing.

"A great man, a person of high character who expected the same from all his students and athletes," Moore said. "He is someone who will be missed deeply by the Hanover Park community."

Joe DiRocco, who went from Hanover Park to Seton Hall University, eventually becoming the Big East Pitcher of the Year for the Pirates in 2011 and was drafted and signed by the Seattle Mariners that year, fondly recalled his coach.

"Coach Minsavage was a great coach and teacher, but he was an even better person," said DiRocco, who is now a Madison police officer. "He was always very nice and always positive about everything. As a coach, he was instrumental in helping my career because he gave me the chance to play as a freshman and helped me get noticed. I was always grateful for that. He made our practices fun and always had a positive attitude. I still remember every time I threw a bad curveball, he would yell from the bench, 'Don't cast it," and that stuck with me through my career. I also had him as a teacher and you couldn't ask for a better one. He would make class interesting and really understood how to teach the material to the kids. He had a big heart and he will be missed."

The wake for David Minsavage will take place on April 17 at St. Joseph's Church in Hillsborough from 2-to-4 and 6-to-9 p.m. The funeral Mass will take place April 18 at St. Joseph's at 10 a.m.