Occasionally, Lockport graduate Nick Setta will catch a Major League Baseball game on TV and see Tyler Jay pitching or Michael Massey hitting.
The former Notre Dame kicker watches them with a sense of pride — they are two of the thousands of athletes he has helped train over the years.
“It’s nice to watch sports and have some skin in the game,” Setta said. “Where you are rooting for someone after you saw what they were and now what they are.”
He also gets a kick out of seeing athletes he has trained succeed on the high school and college levels as well via his Setta Performance business.
Setta, who played three sports in high school and earned the rare trifecta of being all-state in all three, was one of 21 players or coaches honored Friday at the first Lockport Legends ceremony at Mistwood Golf Club.
The football star who also ran track and cross country was honored along with Alando Tucker, Samantha Findlay, Mike Zimmer, Jake Oster, Steve Walker, Scott Parzych, Tony Pashos, Sally Anderson, Julia Hudson, Barb Burk, Kent Irvin and Jim Hall.
Also honored posthumously were Bob Basarich, Glenn Malone, Tom Haller, Les Lindberg, Joe Corcoran, Jeff Hickman, Ed Flink and Bill Zimmer.
Setta, who had tryouts with five NFL teams, led the Canadian Football League with 167 points in 2007. He appreciated the company he was with in being inducted into Lockport’s version of an athletic hall of fame.
“They’ve been talking about doing something like this for a while, so when it popped up and they told me I was going to be a part of this initial event, what a special thing,” he said.
“You’re with a group of people who are legends for a long time, and it is a real honor.”
He noticed several coaches and fellow athletes from his era from 1994 to 1998 were inducted.
“Something must have been in the water,” Setta joked.
Setta, 43, had been dabbling with training when he was in college at Notre Dame. He dove headfirst into it toward the end of his football career in the early 2010s.
He trains many Lockport athletes after school and athletes from around the area at night. They have come from as far as St. Charles and Munster, Indiana. Many athletes train with their teams.
Boys basketball coach David Wilson, a longtime coach at Andrew before joining the Porters last season, appreciates the work Setta has done.
“He’s ahead of his time,” Wilson said of Setta. “You take a look at these high school kids who want to go to the next level, and the first thing they have to do is weight train and resistance train. Healthy diet. All of those things that help you take that next step.
“You can’t wait until you get to college anymore. If you can get an edge and you can make yourself stronger, bigger and faster, you have to do it. I think it’s fantastic for our high school to have this so readily available.”
Pashos, who played football at Illinois and in 104 NFL games with 82 starts as an offensive lineman, is now an assistant football coach at Bishop McNamara. He’s using the seventh and eighth periods of the school day to offer strength training.
“It came a little later for me than for Nick, but I really like it — it means everything,” he said of training athletes. “Training is important to prevent injury. Everything falls into line after that.
“We want the kids to play as hard as they can and the best that they can for as long as they can without getting injured.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
