Kotys Family Album

A Story from the 1972 Season

 By Tom Injaychock

As we all know Coach Kotys was a strong believer in being in shape so we always ran wind sprints even on the day before a game.  We also know he was a strong believer in special teams, and at the end of most practices we always worked on extra points and field goals.  On this particular occasion, it was the day before a game and coach to challenge our kicker (Tuty Portela) a little.  As he pushed them back to kicking maybe 30 yard field goals he said, “If you make it I’ll cut off 2 sprints”.  Tuty made it so coach moved him back, and challenged him again, Tuty again made the kick.  Finally coach gave him one more chance if he made the kick there would be no sprints.  Tuty made that kick too.  The key thing here is that Tuty was the first soccer style kicker we had, and coach was not a big fan of that, but we all know he did what ever it took to win, and Tuty was good.  When Tuty made the last kick all the players cheered, but all we heard coach say was, “Crips Almighty, these sidewinders are killing me.”  He was a man of his word and we didn’t have to run a single sprint.

I can still hear him say, “Play for the breaks and when one comes your way score!”  Now I don’t know if that is an original Nick Kotys saying, but I remember hearing it first from him. 

Lastly, Coach Kotys was a great man not only on the field but also off the field, and from my standpoint as a son of a coach on his staff; he inspired everyone around him to do great things.  My dad (Ed Injaychock) was very fortunate to work with such a great man as Nick Kotys, and owes a lot of his success to him.