Jerry Lee, who served as a sportswriter and administrator at the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com for over 43 years and was considered an aficionado of Staten Island’s rich sports history, died suddenly on Sunday. The long-time Great Kills resident was 70.
Lee began his career at the Advance shortly after graduating from college in 1974 and during his career at the newspaper, he held a plethora of positions including general sportswriter, high school columnist, assistant sports editor and deputy sports editor. He always did an admirable job announcing the honorees during the Fall and Spring Advance All-Star Dinners and, perhaps most noticeably, he was a huge advocate of girls’ sports, particularly on the high school level.
Lee is survived by his wife, Mary Copp-Lee; their four children, including James, Jennifer, Megan and Caitlin and several grandchildren.
“Jerry was synonymous with Staten Island sports. He made it his business to know everything there was to know,’' praised Staten Island Advance publisher Caroline Harrison. “With an encyclopedic knowledge, he was the go-to guy for all local sports history. He was an athlete with a passion for the game, a writer, an editor, a coach, a mentor, and a friend.
“Above all else, he was proud of the achievements of the four children he and Mary raised. My heart is with Mary, the family and all those feeling the sting of Jerry’s sudden passing. Jerry leaves an indelible legacy in the community, and he is remembered dearly by his Advance family.
“He was a one-of-a-kind, all-around great guy. I will miss him.”
“It’s hard to put into words all that Jerry meant to the Advance and the youth sports community,’' said Advance/SILive.com Executive Editor Brian Laline. “Staten Island is blessed with so many dedicated adults who do so much for the kids, but no one — absolutely no one — did more than Jerry Lee, through our coverage and his own involvement on the fields.
“But what’s so impressive about Jerry was his total dedication as a dad and husband. Family was everything to Jerry and he was proudest talking about his wife, Mary, and their kids. We knew his family as well as we knew Jerry.
“He’s a guy who’ll never be forgotten.”
“Staten Island sports has lost one of the great champions of high school athletes with Jerry’s passing. There was no one who knew as much — or cared as much — about scholastic sports and the young men and women who played them than Jerry,’' added former Advance sports editor and Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame committee member Lou Bergonzi. “Jerry always introduced the honorees at the Advance High School All-Star Dinners and he was able to personalize each and every winner’s presentation. His knowledge about them as athletes was only exceeded by his appreciation of their talents.
“When women’s sports began to explode — especially on the high school level — Jerry was their chief advocate,’' Bergonzi added. “He made sure their coverage was equal to that of the men, and he championed their cause every chance he got. Even after he retired from full-time reporting, he was still the go-to guy for information on Island athletes and their accomplishments, especially women’s sports. He was the person we on the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame Committee called when we had a question about a prospective inductee or when we needed to verify a fact. His passion never waned.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever see the likes of him again on the Staten Island sports scene.”
Lee grew up in Dongan Hills and graduated from St. Ann’s in 1966, Monsignor Farrell in 1970 and Niagara University in 1974.
While at Farrell, he was a two-time Advance All-Star baseball player during the 1969-70 seasons.
After graduating from Niagara, Lee worked at several parochial schools as a gym teacher, including St. Sylvester’s and Our Lady Help of Christians, to name a few, and, of course, he accepted a job at the Advance as a part-time sports reporter.
At one point or another, Lee was a part of or headed every major high school beat at the newspaper, including football, boys’ and girls’ basketball; baseball and softball. He eventually did a column pertaining to high school sports and, after becoming assistant sports editor in the 1980s, one of his responsibilities was laying out the daily sports section through pagination.
The Advance Sports Department has long relied on a ‘red book,’ for its list of daily assignments on the high school and college levels. During his time at the paper — especially after he became assistant sports editor and eventually deputy sports editor — it was also Lee’s responsibility to not only keep the ‘red book’ up-to-date, but dole out assignments to the sports staff.
Jerry also had the good fortune of calling his wife, Mary, and son, James, colleagues on the sports staff during his long tenure at the paper.
In addition to his wealth of knowledge of Staten Island’s sports scene, Lee often had good ideas for potential features and was generally witty with his leads and headlines. Although he retired in 2017, he returned to the Advance as a freelance sports reporter in the last year or so and covered a number of high school and youth baseball games. In fact, he recently covered a Little League District 24 All-Star baseball championship game at South Shore Little League.
He touched the lives of many inside the sports department.
“Jerry was one of the people responsible for giving me my start at the paper in 1986. I wrote for the school newspaper at Our Lady Star of the Sea, which his wife, Mary Copp-Lee oversaw,’' explained current Advance/SILive.com sports manager Joe D’Amodio. “And when I applied for the job, he recognized my name and put in the good word. He was a great mentor to me, very demanding and organized. He was my go-to guy when I had a history question about sports on Staten Island. He always knew the answer or had a clipping or photo from years ago that told the story. He had been doing great freelance work for us the last couple of years. He loved covering youth and high school games. He felt invigorated again, I think. He will be missed.”
When girls’ sports took off in popularity in the early 1980s, Lee pushed to make sure the student-athletes received proper coverage in terms of staffing and on the sports pages. He was instrumental in the creation of the Smith Cup, which is awarded annually to the Island’s top high school softball player. The highly popular award’s first year was 1991.
“Professionally, it was great to work with Jerry,” said Carmine Angioli, the Advance’s sports editor from 2000-2014 and currently the newspaper’s sports section curator. “He was organized, insightful and cared so much and knew so much about local sports. Our section was always better because of what he brought to it.
“Personally, we worked together for over 30 years – a lot of late nights and early mornings with guys like Danny Siani, Bill Maroney, Joe D’Amodio, Kevin Donnelly, Bob Wietecha. Those hours breed a certain kind of camaraderie and Jerry was so important to that. It was a privilege to work with him and I will miss my friend terribly.”
“He was a pillar in the sports community. He was Jerry Lee,’' added Susan Wagner softball and girls’ volleyball coach Marco Altieri. “He was a coaching confidant, but most importantly, a friend. I’ll miss very much. He always spoke so lovingly about his wife, kids and his grandchildren.’'
Lee was also a part of an Advance group of sportswriters who were inducted into the second annual New York State High School Softball Hall of Fame just over nine years ago, as well.
But Lee’s involvement in youth sports didn’t end with his responsibilities at the Advance/SILive.com. He also coached and, eventually, became sports coordinator at St. Joseph Hill. In fact, his time at Hill was almost as long as his one at the Advance.
“Jerry was one of the first coordinators who reached out to me when I became (CYO County Coordinator) in 2014,’' said Mike Neely, who still heads the Island’s CYO scene. “And from that moment on, he has always been a friend to me, which is the biggest thing (pertaining to our relationship).
“What I remember most about Jerry was, we never had a conversation where he didn’t put the best interest of the kids first,’' continued Neely. “He was always trying to make things better for Hill, and CYO in general. He certainly wasn’t short on ideas and, since he was involved with CYO a lot longer than I was, I’d frequently pick his brain when discussing ideas for our organization.
“This loss hurts Staten Island’s youth community. It really does.’'
Lee also coached Hill teams in the now-defunct Staten Island Elementary School Basketball League.
Each of Lee’s four children — James, Jennifer, Megan and Caitlin — were big-time participants in youth sports growing up, including on the high school level. Jerry and wife Mary were very proud of their children in general and rarely, if ever, missed a game while they participated in Little League, travel or high school baseball, softball and basketball, to name a few.
Jerry, in fact, was highly involved in Little League and the travel softball circuit. At one time or another, he coached his daughters in All-Star softball at Great Kills Little League and with the Staten Island Saints and Staten Island Sapphires in travel softball.
In addition to his daughters, each of which excelled on the diamond, Lee coached some of Staten Island’s best during his coaching tenure.
“Probably one of the smartest guys I’ve ever coached with,’' said Ralph Moroni, the current Hunter College softball coached who enjoyed impressive stints at Moore Catholic and in travel softball. “He knew the game so well.
“Stevie Caso, who Jerry coached while with the Sapphires, always called him the ‘professor’ — that’s the best way to describe him. He made everyone’s jobs so much easier. He was just great at calling games.
“Whenever Jerry and I had a phone conversation, it would always start off talking softball, and end with talking about our families. He was a good man, a good family man,’' concluded Moroni. “This is just a stunner.’'
Although Lee was an avid fan of the Yankees and Jets and kept tabs on the Rangers, the Bronx Bombers were his true passion on the professional level. He loved talking Yankee baseball and often bragged about being at Yankee Stadium on June 17, 1978 — the date Ron Guidry struck out 18 California Angels in one game.
Lee was also an active member at St. Clare’s, his parish.
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