College of Staten Island Athletics

In the world of collegiate athletics, few things are guaranteed, but from the mid-90’s into the late 2000’s fans could bank on the College of Staten Island Baseball team making a run, and most times, winning the CUNYAC Championship.  The head of that movement was Bill Cali, who after one year as an assistant coach took over for fellow Hall-of-Famer Fran Hirschy, and led the Dolphins from there on a historic run that included a total of 16 regular season and postseason championships over the next 14 seasons, leading to his retirement.
 
Cali turned over the program in 1995, but the following year managed a team that finished nine games over .500 and made a trip to both the CUNYAC Championship and the ECAC postseason.  The following year in 1997, CSI posted a 26-win season, to that point the third-highest win total in program history.  Cali was named the CUNYAC’s Coach of the Year and more importantly, celebrated his first postseason Championship, a 10-7 win over John Jay College, a win that carried another ECAC Tournament berth as well.
 
Cali’s first undefeated CUNYAC season followed in 1998, and the Dolphins repeated as champions, dropping only 11 contests all year, to that point the 6th-lowest mark in school history.  A 21-win season followed in 1999, but the sting of a CUNYAC Championship loss, coupled with a quick exit in the ECAC Postseason left Cali and his troops with the feeling of unfinished business by season’s end.  The team hoped to parlay those feelings into motivation for the following year and it would pay huge dividends.
 
The 2000 season proved historic.  Set against the backdrop of a season decimated by poor weather, CSI won 20 more games despite a 25-game regular season.  On their home field, they then won a 13-inning marathon CUNYAC Championship over Lehman College, 5-4, and despite being given the lowest seed in the ECAC Championship Tournament that followed, CSI blew through the competition, beating a powerful FDU-Madison team, 9-3, to win the program’s second ECAC title in history.
 
For eight more seasons, Cali pioneered the Dolphins through four more 20+ win seasons, and became the first CUNYAC coach to land four-straight CUNYAC Postseason Championships from 2003-06.  In his final games as coach, Cali’s CSI Dolphins teams pulled off not one, but two upsets over John Jay College by 3-2 and 8-7 scores to secure yet another CUNYAC title in 2008.
 
Over 14 seasons, Cali amassed a 268-227 record (.541), a CSI baseball record, collecting eight regular season and eight postseason championships, a CUNYAC record.  He finished with three CUNYAC Coach of the Year honors, finishing with a 99-34 conference record overall (.744). His ECAC-Championship team of 2000 remains the last CUNYAC school to collect the honor to date.
 
On top of his exploits at CSI, Cali is also a member of the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame, and is a former Staten Island Advance Sportsman of the Year award winner.