Oswego East’s Patrick Molinari driven to ‘make a difference and impact lives’

Patrick Molinari’s creed is defined by the dash.

The 42-year-old Oswego East teacher and coach tells his students that in every life there is the year you’re born and the year you die. The most important time, a person’s legacy, is that little line – the dash – that runs between the dates.

Molinari knows well how precious life can be, to make the most of that dash.

Many years ago, Molinari was down in Tennessee doing a favor for his parents when he decided to go out and watch college football on opening night of the season. On the drive back with his buddy, Molinari fell asleep at the wheel 15 minutes from home. The truck went off a winding road down a hill, 15-20 feet from going over a ravine. Only by divine intervention, Molinari said he imagined himself driving through a cornfield on Route 59. He grabbed the wheel and turned left. As he stepped on the gas, the back of the truck kicked out and Molinari wrapped the passenger side of the truck around a tree. Molinari’s friend was in a medically induced coma for six months, but he lived and is now a licensed plumber.

“Any time your life flashes before your eyes, you gain a perspective,” Molinari said.

Molinari’s is a life lived to the fullest, a man determined to use his platform to influence the thousands of kids he’s crossed paths with since arriving at Oswego East for the 2007-08 school year. Born in Irving, Texas, the son of a bricklayer, Molinari’s family moved to Bolingbrook and eventually Plainfield when his dad received a job transfer. Molinari went to the original Plainfield High School, and then Joliet Junior College for two years before going to Marshall University on a baseball scholarship.

When he talks to kids he is just a great motivator. He speaks from his heart, he’s true to his classes and the sport that he teaches. He’s all in.”

—  Ryan Velasquez, Oswego East head basketball coach Ryan Velasquez

Molinari got his first job out of college at Drauden Point Middle School in Plainfield, and was hired as a physical education teacher at Oswego East in 2007. He helped coach varsity softball for a couple of years and JV soccer under Steve Szymanski.

Since then, it seems there are few athletic programs Molinari hasn’t made an impact on.

He now coaches varsity football with the defensive line and is an assistant for the varsity boys basketball and JV girls soccer teams while teaching Oswego East’s excel strength and conditioning class.

“I don’t know where to start with Mo. When you think of somebody who pours his heart into Oswego East in the classroom – he’s a teacher first,” said Oswego East head basketball coach Ryan Velasquez, who brought Molinari aboard as an assistant coach in his second year. “The relationships he makes with the students speak volumes to what he does in the classroom. On top of that, he is a phenomenal coach. The kids love him, and they love him for a reason. He cares about the students, he invests in the season he’s coaching. When you see coach Mo, he’s always walking the hallways, on the field, in the classroom. He is just always there.”

Molinari, the father of four boys, did youth baseball camps going back to Marshall and enjoyed the opportunity to work with kids. His brother, Mark, is the head football coach at Downers Grove South. Patrick had the opportunity to observe his classes and watch Mark’s interactions.

“I wanted that opportunity to make a difference and impact lives,” Molinari said. “I take that very seriously. I knew it was my calling.”

Molinari is an open book when sharing his journey here.

His house was a difficult one to grow up in. His relationship with his dad, a Vietnam veteran who battled addiction, was a strained one. But their relationship took off for the better after Molinari’s accident. He was the last one to see and talk to his dad in the hospital after he suffered a massive heart attack. Molinari remembers standing hour after hour at his dad’s wake shaking hands and realizing that this hard man, his dad, left big shoes to fill.

“Just like my dad, I want to be a man of influence and change,” Molinari said. “I didn’t have the greatest life growing up, but I learned from the past and cultivated that. It’s given me the opportunity to work with thousands of kids. I value the opportunity I get to have a chance to make a difference.”

Velasquez said that as a coach Molinari is a quick learner, always picking his brain for thoughts and ideas. But what it circles back to is more than basketball, but life skills and life lessons.

“He has something, and it’s hard to explain,” Velasquez said. “When he talks to kids he is just a great motivator. He speaks from his heart, he’s true to his classes and the sport that he teaches. He’s all in. There is no secret to his success. It’s putting in the work. He’s passionate, he brings it, a high energy guy.”

The class Molinari teachers, excel strength and conditioning, is in the weight room Monday, Wednesday and Friday to try to give kids workouts that will benefit them on the playing field. Developed over the past 10 years with fellow teacher Jeremy Hillman, they also do cardio and strength work on Tuesday and Thursday.

There is an emphasis on SEL – social emotional learning.

“We try to help our kids gain a perspective on life,” Molinari said. “We want to build character, serve others and try to get the most out of everybody.”

Task-oriented, Molinari is a creature of habit and ritual. Velasquez joked that Molinari probably has had the same lunch at school for the past 15 years – “ham and cheese on a bagel with spicy mustard, potato chips and a pop.” Velasquez also estimated that his friend and colleague has not missed a workout in 15 years, a testament to his dedication.

“Off of school Friday, he’ll be in the gym Friday morning. If not in school, he’ll have his basement set up,” Velasquez said. “He takes his profession seriously and practices what he preaches. He is passionate about health and wellness, and the kids grow from that. He has a contagious task-oriented attitude.”