Ed Nietopski, a record-setting basketball and baseball coach whose 47-year career included successful tenures at Cardinal Mooney and Bishop Kearney high schools, died March 6, 2023. He was 95 years old.
A Buffalo native, Mr. Nietopski was a standout baseball athlete who played professionally between 1945 and 1955. He spent one season with the Rochester Red Wings, in 1950, as a shortstop. Later that year, he joined the United States Army, serving until 1952.
Mr. Nietopski received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from SUNY Brockport. His teaching and coaching career began with a seven-year stint at Brockport High School. He moved to Cardinal Mooney in 1964, when the former high school in Greece was in its infancy. Mr. Nietopski remained there for a quarter-century — as a teacher, coach and athletic director — until Mooney closed in 1989.
He continued his love for Catholic education by resurfacing at Bishop Kearney, where he would spend the next 15 years. Mr. Nietopski retired from teaching and baseball coaching in the late 1990s, finishing with what was then a Section 5-record 705 career baseball wins along with four sectional titles. He continued to coach basketball until 2004, ending up with seven sectional crowns — including six at Kearney — for a then-sectional record 545 career basketball victories.
The longtime Greece resident was deeply committed to his Catholic faith, attending daily Mass regularly and volunteering for several Catholic organizations.
Mr. Nietopski is survived by his wife of 72 years, Betty; seven children; 10 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; brother, Timothy (Marie); sisters-in-law, Faye Nietopski and Judy Masse; brother-in-law, William (Judy) Clair; and many other relatives and friends.
His funeral Mass took place March 13, 2023, at Rochester’s Sacred Heart Cathedral. Memorial contributions can be made to the Edmund Nietopski Scholarship Fund at Bishop Kearney High School, 125 Kings Highway S., Rochester, NY 14617; School of the Holy Childhood, 100 Groton Parkway, Rochester, NY 14623; or St. John Bosco School, 501 Garfield St., East Rochester NY 14445.
Tags: Monroe County East, Monroe County West
