It’s the end of an era at Warwick Continental. Monday’s loss to Central Coventry in the District 3 championship game didn’t just bring a close to the Continental Major Division all-stars’ run, it marked the end a coaching legacy that spanned the last 11 years – and many more.

Continental manager Al Mann, 77, and coach Lou D’Abrosca, 73, have teamed up in different capacities to coach the 12-year-old all-star team every year since 1999. When Mann managed, D’Abrosca coached and when D’Abrosca earned the right to manage, Mann served as his top lieutenant on the bench. Together the pair helped bring along more than a decade’s worth of Continental’s best ballplayers and led the team to three District 3 championships and three more runner-up finishes in the past seven years. It is, by far, the most successful such string in league history.

And the pair has done it without the typical familial connections that come with coaching Little League. D’Abrosca’s son, Lou Jr., played at Continental in the 1970s and Mann’s grandchildren passed through the league years ago. They haven’t hung around to coach their own kids: they’ve done it because they love bringing the game of baseball to the next generation.

“I first went to Continental to coach my grandsons,” Mann said. “But I got hooked and I stayed. I enjoy working with the kids and I love to see them improve. To see where they start and to see how they improve through the years is very gratifying.”

“I was asked to take over the team during my son Lou’s last season,” D’Abrosca said. “And I was reluctant to do it because, knowing myself, I was afraid that I’d never leave. Sure enough, that’s how it turned out. I’ve just completed my 36th year as far as coaching goes. I’ve been retired 12 years and I’m not a golfer. This is it for me, this is my joy.”

D’Abrosca hooked up with Continental in 1972 and has been a major figure in the organization ever since. Mann, on the other hand, took a different route. He coached at St. Gregory’s for 27 years before coming to Continental, where he has made his home for the past two decades.

The two men share more than 80 years of coaching experience at the youth level. And it’s difficult to argue with their success.

D’Abrosca, who has managed more than 20 all-star teams, was at the helm of the 1991 Continental team that won the Rhode Island state championship, marking the last time the league made it to Bristol, Conn., for the Eastern Regional.

There have been some close calls since then though, especially since the two coaches joined forces in 1999 and put together one of the strongest Little League dynasties in the state.

Continental was one win away from winning the state championship in 2004 and lost to Cranston West in the state finals in 2005 and 2008. Three other Continental teams, including this year’s club, fell just one game short of a state tournament appearance.

“We’ve had some good runs over the past few years but we just couldn’t get over the hump,” D’Abrosca said. “Nineteen ninety-one, the team that won the state, was my ultimate joy but I’ve truly enjoyed every all-star team that I’ve been associated with. You get to work with the elite ballplayers from the league and it is rewarding to see the kids get the success that they work so hard for.”

But it’s about more than wins and losses for Continental’s all-stars. The teams have enjoyed a great deal of success over the past few years but D’Abrosca and Mann seem to value seeing their players develop, both on the field and off, as much as any win.

“I love the game and I love the kids,” D’Abrosca said. “But hopefully we’re not just contributing to their Little League experience, but teaching them life lessons as well. Looking back on a lot of former ballplayers, I think we’ve been very successful in that regard. It has been a great experience.”

Health complications have slowed down both coaches in recent years and prompted them to bring on Mike Giard as an assistant coach this year. Giard will take over the Major Division all-star team next season as part of an initiative that could easily be dubbed “the Mann-D’Abrosca rule.”

In the past, Continental’s all-star manager was decided based on the previous year’s house-league winner: the manager of the team that won was awarded the next year’s all-star team. But D’Abrosca and Mann won so many consecutive house league titles – and selected each other as assistant all-star coaches – that they cornered the managerial market. As a result, the league went to a voting process to choose the all-star manager, with Giard being the beneficiary in 2010.

“Giard was a great assistant coach this season,” Mann said. “Lou can still do more than I can but we both relied on [Giard’s] help this year. But changing that rule is directly so that parents can coach their own kids. And I think one of the advantages that we always had was that we played the kids that deserved to play and not because they were our kids.”

That doesn’t mean that the door has closed on Mann and D’Abrosca. Both will continue to coach in Continental’s house league and both hope to, one day, take another team into the District 3 tournament.

“This year could very well be our last fling with the all-stars but, as long as my health warrants, I will continue coaching,” D’Abrosca said. “I’ve given thought to calling it quits before but I can’t give it up. Hopefully, somewhere down the road, I’ll get another opportunity and get to my ultimate dream of taking a team to Bristol.”

Mann’s plans are a little more definitive. While he initially viewed this all-star season as his last hurrah, Mann doesn’t see himself letting go just yet. He is hoping to take over Continental’s 10-year-old all-stars next summer and follow them up to the Major Division one last time. If that all works out then both Mann and D’Abrosca could be back on the bench for the 2012 all-star season.

“I’ve coached for 47 years and I’d like to make it to 50,” Mann said. “I’d love to take the 10s next year and stay with them all the way up and, hopefully, I’ll get voted to do it. I’d like to help them develop. That’s what keeps me going.”