RIP, Dick Ernst

When Jack Capuano became Sound Tigers head coach for real in the spring of 2007, I did a long feature on him, tried to dig deep. I don’t think it made the final story, but we talked about his influences, and he went back a ways, back to Shawn Walsh and Jay Leach, back to Tom Army, and back to Cranston East and Rhode Island legend Dick Ernst. He said he learned a lot playing for Ernst, and that Ernst was never upset that Capuano went away to prep school on the way to Maine and the pros. Ernst, also a longtime tennis coach, died Sunday at 78.