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6 p.m.
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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Glovework formed Stankiewicz in 2 sports
2/15/2022 10:00:00 AM | Baseball, Paul Coro
GCU coach passes on lessons from dad's boxing world to baseball team
There is a lot of fight in Andy Stankiewicz.
A baseball head coach does not guide Grand Canyon to the NCAA tournament in his third Division I attempt without knowing the ropes.
A 5-foot-7 baseball player does not navigate a decade of collegiate and minor league baseball and reach the majors without the toughness to roll with the punches.
Stankiewicz was learning how to fight before he could hit a baseball, running back or jump shot. The 11th-year Lopes coach grew up as a multisport athlete who gravitated to America's pastime in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, but he was raised on boxing and enlightened by the personalities of the sweet science.
From ages 4 to 10, Stankiewicz watched his father, a police officer/insurance salesman/boxer known as "Lanky Al Stankie," fight professionally at Grand Olympic Auditorium during a 27-7-3 career. He tagged along when his father returned to the Los Angeles force to run a boxing program that trained teenagers at an East Los Angeles youth center, whic his father fundraised to build.
Stankiewicz and his brother, Alan, toyed with boxing, but their 4-foot-11 mother, Morenci, Arizona, native Esperanza Morales, firmly told their 6-foot-3 father, "Please don't let my boys do this."
Their father acquiesced, but boxing never left the family environment. Dad would bring wayward young men into the home for weekends, and Andy would hold the spit bucket in the corner at bouts or have his Pepperdine University baseball teammates join him for monthly trips from ocean breezes in Malibu to fights at The Forum.
His father, who remains in Los Angeles, trained Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez and was an early trainer for Hall of Fame boxer Oscar De La Hoya just as Stankiewicz was rising through minor league baseball.
The divergent worlds of boxing and baseball account for much of the manager makeup in Stankiewicz, who notched GCU win No. 300 when the Lopes earned the WAC Tournament championship and an NCAA tournament bid last May.
"It was a cool upbringing because I got a chance to see different worlds," Stankiewicz said. "That's where I learned about a life, diversity and how everybody has a story from different worlds. You see life in a new lens.
"I grew up with fighters in my house all the time. My dad fed them. We're talking about teenagers who just got out of jail. They respected my dad too much to do anything to our family. My dad was their father figure."
Stankiewicz carries on that role to the droves of players who helped him raise a historic program to a Division I stalwart.
"When Grand Canyon hired Andy Stankiewicz, everybody had the same reaction – look out, it's over," national college baseball analyst Mike Rooney said. "You knew Andy was going to build a great program."
Stankiewicz draws from his charismatic father's motivating tactics and the contrasting styles of his former major league managers – Buck Showalter's attention to detail and Felipe Alou's player trust and joy.
"Coach has the ability like no one I've ever met to be humble and compassionate, but tough as nails," said Gregg Wallis, who has served on Stankiewicz's staff since the 2014 Division I transition. "He's taught me how to act with grace and class and to treat everyone with respect no matter how big or small a role they play in the program. He commands respect from his players because they can feel how much he cares about them, not only becoming better ballplayers but more importantly growing as men and leaders."
Stankiewicz's brother embodies the grind they saw in their father by owning and operating a recycling company in Los Angeles. Their sister, Andrea, mirrors his bleeding heart with her volunteer work.
Even the GCU baseball players unknowingly hear and speak the vernacular of Stankiewicz's father.
"Conceive it, believe it, achieve it," former Lopes pitcher Pierson Ohl often yelled at GCU Ballpark, repeating a "Lanky Al Stankie" line about his "backward ABCs."
Stankiewicz considers his college and minor league baseball time a 10-year internship that sent him to the majors. Being a college head coach followed a similar trajectory with a decade of dedication culminating in GCU reaching the NCAA tournament.
Instilled with his father's underdog mentality and inability to stay idle, Stankiewicz began that coaching arc after his seven-year major league career ended in 1998. "Stick-to-it-iveness" created a second successful career and supported his growing family.
Stankiewicz and his wife of 29 years, Mari Ana, have two sons, Dane (24) and Drew (28), and two daughters, Mia (20) and Marisa (27), who played or are playing baseball or softball at college or pro levels. He raised them and a program well, ushering the Lopes into national notoriety. GCU Ballpark opened in 2018, and 12 former Lopes players were drafted by major league teams since then.
"I feel like I've still got so much to learn," Stankiewicz said. "I ask the staff, 'What are we missing?' There's always something missing. We've never arrived. I want this program to be great. We've got to keep working. We've done well and established ourselves as a formidable program, but we've got a long way to go. I want to keep learning. I want to learn how to recruit better, coach better and build a better program."
A baseball head coach does not guide Grand Canyon to the NCAA tournament in his third Division I attempt without knowing the ropes.
A 5-foot-7 baseball player does not navigate a decade of collegiate and minor league baseball and reach the majors without the toughness to roll with the punches.Stankiewicz was learning how to fight before he could hit a baseball, running back or jump shot. The 11th-year Lopes coach grew up as a multisport athlete who gravitated to America's pastime in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, but he was raised on boxing and enlightened by the personalities of the sweet science.
From ages 4 to 10, Stankiewicz watched his father, a police officer/insurance salesman/boxer known as "Lanky Al Stankie," fight professionally at Grand Olympic Auditorium during a 27-7-3 career. He tagged along when his father returned to the Los Angeles force to run a boxing program that trained teenagers at an East Los Angeles youth center, whic his father fundraised to build.
Stankiewicz and his brother, Alan, toyed with boxing, but their 4-foot-11 mother, Morenci, Arizona, native Esperanza Morales, firmly told their 6-foot-3 father, "Please don't let my boys do this."Their father acquiesced, but boxing never left the family environment. Dad would bring wayward young men into the home for weekends, and Andy would hold the spit bucket in the corner at bouts or have his Pepperdine University baseball teammates join him for monthly trips from ocean breezes in Malibu to fights at The Forum.
His father, who remains in Los Angeles, trained Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez and was an early trainer for Hall of Fame boxer Oscar De La Hoya just as Stankiewicz was rising through minor league baseball.
The divergent worlds of boxing and baseball account for much of the manager makeup in Stankiewicz, who notched GCU win No. 300 when the Lopes earned the WAC Tournament championship and an NCAA tournament bid last May.
"It was a cool upbringing because I got a chance to see different worlds," Stankiewicz said. "That's where I learned about a life, diversity and how everybody has a story from different worlds. You see life in a new lens.
"I grew up with fighters in my house all the time. My dad fed them. We're talking about teenagers who just got out of jail. They respected my dad too much to do anything to our family. My dad was their father figure."
Stankiewicz carries on that role to the droves of players who helped him raise a historic program to a Division I stalwart.
"When Grand Canyon hired Andy Stankiewicz, everybody had the same reaction – look out, it's over," national college baseball analyst Mike Rooney said. "You knew Andy was going to build a great program."
Stankiewicz draws from his charismatic father's motivating tactics and the contrasting styles of his former major league managers – Buck Showalter's attention to detail and Felipe Alou's player trust and joy.
"Coach has the ability like no one I've ever met to be humble and compassionate, but tough as nails," said Gregg Wallis, who has served on Stankiewicz's staff since the 2014 Division I transition. "He's taught me how to act with grace and class and to treat everyone with respect no matter how big or small a role they play in the program. He commands respect from his players because they can feel how much he cares about them, not only becoming better ballplayers but more importantly growing as men and leaders."Stankiewicz's brother embodies the grind they saw in their father by owning and operating a recycling company in Los Angeles. Their sister, Andrea, mirrors his bleeding heart with her volunteer work.
Even the GCU baseball players unknowingly hear and speak the vernacular of Stankiewicz's father.
"Conceive it, believe it, achieve it," former Lopes pitcher Pierson Ohl often yelled at GCU Ballpark, repeating a "Lanky Al Stankie" line about his "backward ABCs."
Stankiewicz considers his college and minor league baseball time a 10-year internship that sent him to the majors. Being a college head coach followed a similar trajectory with a decade of dedication culminating in GCU reaching the NCAA tournament.
Instilled with his father's underdog mentality and inability to stay idle, Stankiewicz began that coaching arc after his seven-year major league career ended in 1998. "Stick-to-it-iveness" created a second successful career and supported his growing family.
Stankiewicz and his wife of 29 years, Mari Ana, have two sons, Dane (24) and Drew (28), and two daughters, Mia (20) and Marisa (27), who played or are playing baseball or softball at college or pro levels. He raised them and a program well, ushering the Lopes into national notoriety. GCU Ballpark opened in 2018, and 12 former Lopes players were drafted by major league teams since then.
"I feel like I've still got so much to learn," Stankiewicz said. "I ask the staff, 'What are we missing?' There's always something missing. We've never arrived. I want this program to be great. We've got to keep working. We've done well and established ourselves as a formidable program, but we've got a long way to go. I want to keep learning. I want to learn how to recruit better, coach better and build a better program."
Stankiewicz at GCU
Players Mentioned
RHP
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