NORTON SHORES – If you’re a fan of Mona Shores soccer – or you love Greek Tony’s Pizza – you should be grateful for a chance encounter that occurred back in the 1960s.
Tom Pallas, a former teacher and football coach at Fruitport High School, attended a wedding in Marquette, Michigan.
According to legend, he spotted a young woman there and asked her aunt who she was. When the aunt asked why he wanted to know, he reportedly said, “Because she’s going to be my wife.”
That turned out to be the case. Pallas met and married Nina Moulatsiotis, who was visiting from Greece, and brought her back to settle down in the Muskegon area.
Not long after that her father, William Moutatsiotis, came to the U.S. from Greece and settled in Muskegon, as well. A year or two later William’s wife, Konstantina, and his youngest son, Tony, joined him.
A lot of history has passed since then, and the Moulatsiotis family has had a huge impact on the community, particularly in the restaurant industry, local government, and high school soccer.
[1]In the mid-1980s Tony Moulatsiotis became the very first coach of the Mona Shores club soccer team, and in 1990 returned to the school to coach the boys varsity team for nine seasons.
His son, Bill Moulatsiotis, served for years as a ball boy with the team and later played for his father. He said his dream was to win a championship with his dad, but that never occurred, because the Sailors played in a very tough conference back then.
He finally realized that dream this fall, during his first season as head coach at Mona Shores.
Bill’s Sailors are currently 13-1-3, won the regular season title in the O-K Green conference, and will play Grand Rapids Union on Tuesday night in the conference tournament championship game.
Needless to say, Coach Bill is having the time of his life at his alma mater.
“It’s different from my days at Shores,” said Bill, 41. “Back then we were loaded with talent but we didn’t care to do the work. But these guys are gung-ho. They can’t get enough of it. Five or six of my players are the best I’ve ever coached, and even the guys who don’t get much playing time would probably beat a lot of teams around here.”
On the sideline for every game is his dad, Tony, who left coaching after the 1999 season and has been the Muskegon County Treasurer for nearly 20 years.
He said watching his son coach at Mona Shores has been a special experience for him and his wife Karen.
“I am reliving my life through him,” said Tony, 70. “My wife has never liked sports, and now she’s the first one at the games to yell ‘Go Shores!’ We were at a game at West Ottawa, some of their fans were yelling at the referee, and she told them to shut their mouths. I said, ‘We’re in enemy territory, be quiet!’”
Learning the hard way
Tony Moulatsiotis was born in Greece in 1952.
His father traveled to the U.S. alone, when Tony was a young teen, to get a job, save some money and prepare a home for his family.
William Moulatsiotis put in the hard work necessary to get the family off to a good start, and went through some tough times in the process.
He was severely injured while working in a Muskegon foundry, and because he didn’t speak any English, the company allegedly tricked him into signing papers saying the accident was his fault so he couldn’t file a lawsuit.
William later had an opportunity to seek financial damages but chose to move on and put the episode behind him.
“My dad earned very penny he ever made, and he was very proud of that accomplishment,” Tony said. “Whether it was a little house in those early years, or an old car, he earned it with his own sweat.”
Tony and his mother made the trip to America and joined William in 1967. The oldest son, George, came in 1968, after finishing a stint in the Greek military.
Tony enrolled at Muskegon Public Schools and was put into ninth grade at Nelson Junior High. With no way to communicate, he quickly became frustrated and started going home before the end of the school day. But Pallas, his brother-in-law, kept pushing him back, insisting that he needed to learn English and finish his education.
[2]“He dropped me off my first day and said here’s your school, here’s your schedule – go,” Tony said. “I couldn’t even read what he gave me.
“I knew where my homeroom was, but after that I didn’t know where to go, so when the bell rang that first day I just went back home. The next day the same thing happened. I went home and watched Gomer Pyle on TV. That’s how I learned English, by the way, from watching Gomer Pyle. That was my favorite show.
“The school called Tom and he came and took me back. He started yelling at me, and I was crying, saying ‘Tom I’m having a hard time, I can’t do this.’ But he said you’re in America now, you’re going to have to learn the hard way.”
Luckily the school hooked Tony up with another student who helped him find his way around. He focused hard in class, understood what he could, learned the language and graduated from Muskegon High School in 1970.
“Anybody can do anything when your back is to the wall,” said Tony, who was a kicker for the Big Reds football team during his high school years.
Tony worked at the old Tahado House restaurant in downtown Muskegon while he was still in high school, and that’s where he met a fellow employee named Barbara Mayville, who became his wife and Bill’s mother.
After graduation they both enrolled at Eastern Michigan University and lived in nearby Ann Arbor. Tony, who had been a very good soccer player as a child in Greece, joined the EMU club soccer team.
He still has an old clip from the Ann Arbor News, reporting on a game where he scored seven goals. He wore the number 10 – the same number as the great Brazilian soccer player Pele – whom he met as a child when he played in Greece.
It was during that time that Tony opened his first business, an import shop in Ann Arbor, with $300 he borrowed to pay his first month’s rent. That was his first venture in a long career as an entrepreneur.
[3]Tony also became an American citizen while living in Ann Arbor.
He remembers meeting with a federal naturalization official to review his application for citizenship. He said the man did not even look up when he walked into his office.
“On his desk he had a picture of me and my mother when we first entered the U.S. in Boston,” Tony said. “He said he had one question for me, and I should think carefully before I answered. If war broke out between the U.S. and Greece right now, which side would I fight on?
“I froze at first. I said that was not going to happen, because Greece is just a small nation, but he wanted me to answer. I figured I was screwed at that point, but I said, ‘Well, sir, my answer is that I would fight on the side of the Greeks. That’s my birth country, after all.’
“Then he wrote something down, stood up, put his hand out and said, ‘Welcome to the United States, Tony. You gave me an honest answer.’”
Tony will never forget taking the oath to become a citizen in a packed courtroom in Detroit.
“I felt like I was elevated – like I wasn’t even on the ground – I was so proud,” he said.
The side note was that, as a new American citizen, Tony was suddenly eligible for the military draft during the bloody Vietnam War.
He was close to being drafted, and his parents wanted him to return to Greece to avoid the foreign conflict, but he chose to stay and was prepared to fight.
“I wanted to go, but I was not drafted,” he said. “I have always believed, and I still believe, that (military service) makes a man out of you.”
‘My kids away from home’
Tony and Barbara were married, she became a special education teacher and found a job in Muskegon, and the couple returned home to settle down and raise their family – daughters Stacey Tipler (now an attorney in Dayton, Ohio) and Maggie Henderson (a content design manager for a company in Colorado), and their only son, Bill.
Not long afterward, Tony opened his first restaurant, a Greek eatery on Henry Street called Plaka, then in 1981 he opened the first Greek Tony’s Pizza on Grand Haven Road in Norton Shores. At one point there were a total of 17 Greek Tony’s, spread around West Michigan, Indiana and Texas.
In the mid-80s Tony was asked to become the first coach of the new Mona Shores club soccer team, which did not have official varsity status. He did that for one season before he got a call from a friend, Tom Coletta, the athletic director at Reeths-Puffer High School.
“He said, ‘Tony I need to see you,’ and he wanted me to coach their new varsity soccer team,” he said. “I didn’t have the time, and I tried to find him somebody else. Then he called again and said he had something he needed to show me, please come over, so I went and he led me into the principal’s office and said, ‘Let me introduce you to our new varsity soccer coach.’”
Tony coached at Reeths-Puffer for three seasons, 1987 through 1990. By then the Mona Shores team had become a varsity program, and the coaching position opened up. Tony’s children were attending Mona Shores schools, so he decided to apply.
“I was the last one to interview out of nine,” he said. “I did the interview and they said they would let me know in a few days. That night I went home and got a call from Jerry Fitzpatrick (the Mona Shores athletic director), asking me to stop by again the next morning. When I got there he said, ‘Congratulations, coach.’”
[4]Tony said it was hard to leave his players at Reeths-Puffer, and he was crushed when he learned that his former goalie, Eric Marcil, tragically passed away from cancer in his early 20s. The school later named its soccer field after Marcil.
“When they dedicated the field, I got a call and they invited me,” Tony said. “When I got there Eric’s mother came running over and gave me a hug. That was one of the saddest and proudest moments I’ve had in coaching.”
Tony coached the Mona Shores varsity for nine years, compiling an overall record of 91-69-13 and posting winning records in all but two seasons.
He threw himself into the job and became known for the genuine affection he had for his players and the different ways he showed it.
He raised money independently so he could take his team to a special camp every summer at the old Sugar Loaf ski resort in northern Michigan.
“We raised thousands of dollars every year to go to Sugar Loaf,” Tony said. “We paid some pros to come and work with the kids. We became a family. Even today I get goose bumps when I see some of my former players. They were my kids away from home.”
[5]There was one season when the Sailors were particularly good and expected to make a long run in the state tournament. They were set to face Fruitport in the district finals, but the night before the game, several top players were caught drinking and smoking marijuana, and Tony benched them.
“We had beaten Fruitport 8-1 earlier that season, and we ended up losing 3-2 after we had a 2-0 lead,” Tony said. “Some parents told me I had just lost the championship, and I said, no, I just taught your kids an important lesson.”
There was a new principal and athletic director at Mona Shores in 1998, and they tried to replace Tony following that season, because they wanted the coaches to be on staff at the school.
Hundreds of supporters packed a school board meeting to protest the move, and Tony was allowed to stay, which he did for one more season.
“He was actually going to retire, but because they tried to force him out he decided to stay for one more year,” Bill Moulatsiotis said.
Tony and Barbara were later divorced during a tough part of his life. Tony went on to win election to the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners in 2000, then four years later was elected to be the county treasurer, a position he still holds today.
Following in his father’s footsteps
After years of serving as the enthusiastic ball boy for his dad’s teams at Mona Shores, Bill finally reached varsity and stood out as a senior in 1998, winning the Sailor’s Golden Boot Award for producing the most points. He only had one goal but piled up more than 30 assists.
“Bill was an unselfish player,” his father said.
After high school Bill attended Muskegon Community College, but that experience did not go well.
“Back in those days I was a partier, and I didn’t take things very seriously,” Bill said. “One day my dad saw my MCC report card – I didn’t get to the mailbox fast enough – and he told me he wasn’t going to pay for classes that I didn’t go to.”
Tony offered to take Bill into the family business and teach him how to run Greek Tony’s. Bill gratefully accepted, and today he manages the company with his brother-in-law Jeff DeWitt.
Tony said he never expected Bill to remain in the family business long-term, but he’s doing a great job with it.
[6]“I had a playpen in my office at the pizza place when he was a baby, and he was with me all day long,” Tony said. “I didn’t want him to go into the pizza business. I know hard it is, and how the long hours can take you away from your family. I didn’t want him to follow in my footsteps, but he’s making new footsteps for himself. That’s the difference.”
Bill started coaching youth travel teams after high school, then has a long stint coaching the club soccer team at Muskegon Community College.
“I was only 22 or 23 at the time, coaching guys who were close to my age,” he said. “I would play with them half the time. We had no budget, we only practiced once a week, and we beat the hell out of everybody. There has always been a great deal of soccer talent in this area.”
Bill left the MCC job after seven years and was eventually approached to become the boys varsity coach at Muskegon Catholic Central.
He was considering that offer when he took a trip to Greece with his father in 2010. They were in a rented car in Athens, and Bill was driving when they made a left turn and were struck by a train.
Bill suffered serious injuries and spent about two weeks recovering in a Greek hospital, including several days when he was in a coma and his life hung in the balance.
“The train never blew it’s whistle like it was supposed to,” Tony said. “In the hospital the police asked us if we wanted to press charges.”
[7]When he was finally able to return home, Bill accepted the coaching job at Muskegon Catholic.
“I wanted to start filling my life with positive things,” he said.
Bill coached at Muskegon Catholic for six years, winning two district championships and one regional title. The best year was 2016, when the Crusaders started the season with an atrocious 0-6-2 record, then suddenly found their game and advanced all the way to the state finals before losing to Genesee Christian 3-1.
“Those kids really didn’t have any business on a soccer field,” Bill said with a smile. “But they played with so much heart. The kid who scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime of the state semifinals had never scored before. He had buried his grandfather that morning, and earlier in the game had dislocated his shoulder, but begged to go back in.”
Bill left coaching again after the 2016 season. He was married to his wife Abby by then, they had two small daughters, and there was no time for sports.
Earlier this year the Mona Shores job opened up, Bill’s daughters had both reached school age, and Abby gave him the green light to apply. He ended up beating out a big field of candidates for the job.
“I got a call from Mike Apostle, saying don’t tell anyone but this is going to be my last year coaching, so I put in for the job,” Bill said. “There were 13 candidates. The interview panel asked me why I wanted to coach at Mona Shores, and I said ‘Since I was nine years old I have wanted to coach this team. I can tell you everything about every season that this team has played.”
‘These kids are going for it’
Bill didn’t have to wait very long to have the championship season he always longed for as a Mona Shores player.
The Sailors started out with a so-so 2-1-2 record, but then went on a nine-game winning streak and won the regular season championship in the O-K Green, a very tough soccer conference.
Their latest victory came last Thursday, when they trailed Holland 2-1 at halftime in the conference tournament semifinals, then rallied to win 3-2 when Abe Freye (whose father played at Mona Shores for Tony) scored on a penalty kick in the final minute of the game.
On Tuesday the Sailors will host Grand Rapids Union in the conference tournament title game, then next Monday will open Division 1 district play by hosting either West Ottawa or Hudsonville.
The Shores roster is full of a lot of exciting players who are having great seasons, including Kaden Pulaski (15 goals), Dan VanderPloeg (9 goals) and Freye (6 goals).
[8]“Everything I thought might be a weakness at the beginning of the year has turned out to not be a weakness,” Bill said about his team. “These kids are going for it. They can’t get enough of it.
“God blessed me with two daughters, but now I feel like I also have 25 sons.”
Tony loves watching his son have success as a coach, and he’s enjoyed coming back to the high school where he first coached and helped put soccer on the map.
Tony said Bill has encouraged him to share his comments and advice during games, but he’s kept his thoughts to himself.
“He’s doing such a great job and the kids listen to him,” Tony said about his son. “When you see this team warm up, they don’t look like much, but when the whistle blows you’re in awe of their passion. There are some things they need to improve on yet, but it’s a hell of a team, one of the best high school teams I have witnessed.”
Bill said he learned a lot about coaching from his dad, and one element in particular.
“My dad taught me the most human things,” he said. “He never made cuts when he was the coach. Before my senior year, I told him this was my last chance, so let’s make cuts and put the best possible team on the field. He pointed to a buddy of mine, who was terrible, and said ‘How about him?’ I said that was fine because sacrifices had to be made.
“Then my dad asked me if he was in band, and I said no. He asked me if he was in choir, or if he was going to be on the basketball team, and I said no. Then he asked me, ‘Where else is he going to feel like he fits in and belongs?’
“That made a huge impact on me. I think I bring a lot of that into my coaching.” 
[9]