The loss of a legend

One thing that I will always remember about Tom Underwood is his handshake. 

Sure, he won more than 500 games as a baseball coach at Plymouth Regional High School, coached thousands of kids from their debuts in organized baseball up through their high school careers, built successful feeder programs for the dominating Plymouth football and wrestling programs, was one of the first people enshrined into the New Hampshire Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, was a heck of a math teacher, raised three kids with his wonderful wife and had a hand in seemingly just about anything that went on in the Plymouth community over the last few decades.

But man, I can never forget that handshake. It felt like your hand was going to be crushed.

Coach Underwood passed away last week at the age of 72. Even though he had stepped down as the varsity baseball coach at Plymouth, he was still very active in the school and the community, keeping the books at basketball games, coaching junior high softball, helping with the local youth leagues. He wanted to do what he could to help the kids of the community and that he did. For more than four decades.

I look at the current crop of coaches at Plymouth and realize he had a hand in educating or coaching many of them, whether they played baseball for him like current baseball coach Mike Boyle or golf coach Gavin Brickley or football coach Chris Sanborn, or had him as a middle school math teacher or worked on the sidelines with him, like all three of the people mentioned above and then some. He left a legacy that continues to give and give to the community of Plymouth.

But still, that handshake, I can't stop thinking about it.

Coach Underwood also had a booming voice that you could hear any time he was near. He'd greet you with that firm handshake (there it is again) and ask a question about something you had in common. As Gavin told me last week when I talked to him about coach Underwood, "he knew not every kid was the same, he had to deal with kids differently and coach different to see them succeed in their role." It was the same when he had a conversation with you, he always seemed to have something that could apply to your life.

He was also the most knowledgeable baseball person I knew. He could give you stats and information from his teams from 30 years ago, but also could talk about how Mike Greenwell contributed to the 1986 Red Sox or the impact of a player like Shohei Ohtani on the sport he loved. Baseball is my favorite sport and I always enjoyed a conversation with coach Underwood because you came away learning something new.

Baseball was a passion for coach Underwood, but so was being there for the kids of the community, doing what he could to help make their lives better. 

Even though I knew he might crush my weakling hand, I always made it a point to shake coach's hand before or after I spoke to him following a game. I considered it an honor.

Coach Underwood was indeed a legend and he will be greatly missed by the Plymouth community, the New Hampshire baseball community and this simple sports reporter. 

The good news is, I can still feel that handshake.

Coach Tom Underwood stands with the captains from the 2015 season, his final season at the helm of the Plymouth baseball team.