Banach Brothers return to salute hometown role models!

Steve, Ed, and Lou Banach join in the Pledge of Allegiance on their hometown football field.

Lou, Steve, and Ed Banach stand behind of their former hometown coaches, Ed Polanis, and Ray Holyk. The Steve, a retired colonel and war hero, and Lou & Ed, 1984 Olympic Gold Medal wrestlers, credit the three and other coaches with helping them overcome many challenges as children and teens and with being positive influences in the paths they have chosen in life.

Lou (left), Steve (second from left), and Ed Banach (right) stand with their former coach Ray Holyk and behind otherr former hometown coaches from left, front row, Dave Simmons, Ed Polanis, Mike McCarthy, and Bob Witherow. Steve, a retired colonel and war hero, and Lou & Ed, 1984 Olympic Gold Medal wrestlers, credit the impact of these and other home town role models with helping them overcome many challenges as children and teens and with being positive influences in the paths they have chosen in life.

Lou, Ed, and Steve Banach applaud Varsity Football Team and Coaches as they make their way onto the historic Glennette Field for the Bell Game on October 10, 2015. This athletic field is known as the local location where thousands of football players have made plays and memories and fans have filled the stadium generation after generation, as it did last weekend.

Players involved in the Port Jervis Youth Football League joined Steve, Lou, and Ed Banach (center back), who were home for the weekend to pay tribute to their former coaches and hometown friends and neighbors, in saluting the positive impact of coaches in children’s lives. They are pictured with some of the region’s current local coaches standing behind and alongside them.

This 1984 photo, captured during a parade celebrating the Banach Brothers’ Olympic Gold Medals earned that year, was recreated last weekend (minus a few of the passengers, and with the three Banachs in the car this time). Pictured in this 1984 taken in the same historic downtown location as this year’s photo (with the street blocked off by Port Jervis Police Department for the minutes needed to capture this year’s photo) are: (clockwise from driver) Tom Snyder, Maureen Decker, Patty Norrell, Sandy McCann, Kathy Hankins, Eddie Wulff, and Joyce Beirne.

Tom Snyder, Patti Norrell, Steven Banach, Lou Banach, Maureen Decker, Eddie Wulff, and Lou Banach recreate a memory of riding in the parade held in their honor in 1984, following the Olympic Gold wins by Ed & Lou. Missing from the original 1984 similar photo are Kathy Hankins, Sandy McCann, and Joyce Beirne – although the car made a stop at the bank where they all once worked and caught a photo with Beirne who still works in the bank.

Hundreds of people lined up to have their copy of Ed, Lou, and Steve’s jointly penned Common Bonds: A Journey in Optimism personally signed by the brothers. Pictured with Ed Banach is one of the brothers’ many siblings, who joined the hundreds of other local people who came to say hello to the ‘Banach Brothers’ while they were in Port Jervis last weekend.

Retired Port Jervis School District teacher Geri Hill Romeo is pictured reminiscing with her former students as she receives has her book autographed last weekend. Pictured Ed (foreground) and Steve Banach (and brother Lou Banach, not pictured) signed hundreds of copies of their jointly penned book Common Bonds: A Journey in Optimism which shares stories about local people and memories of growing up in the tri-state region.

Ed, Lou, and Steve Banach signed hundreds of copies of their jointly penned Uncommon Bonds: A Journey in Optimism.