Bill Buscetto has big plans for St. Bernard School’s athletics program. That’s to be expected from the school’s athletic director and baseball coach. But it’s as much about how the student athletes play the game as it is about winning.
“We’re trying to bring St. Bernard back to where it was in its hey-day,” said Buscetto, a 1991 graduate of the school. That included pulling off a a golfing tournament to benefit the school’s athletic department and programs.
On July 21, more than 130 golfers showed up at the Pautipaug Country Club in Baltic. Buscetto estimated the total donations to be close to $15,000.
“I can’t thank the sponsors, local businesses and individuals enough for their support of this event,” he said. Buscetto has been organizing golf tournaments for ten years. Jean Finnegan, the school’s associate director of advancement, helped him with this one.
Among the many sponsors and donors, he acknowledged Rich Radicioni, whose son, Richard, Jr., was an All-State basketball player and graduated from the school in 1985, for $2000. His brother Michael Buscetto III gave $1500. Donors contributing $1000 include Matt Kobyluck and Kobyluck Trucking, Mike Satti, Dairy Queen of Pawcatuck, Matt McBride, Dime Bank Foundation, Dr. Mark Kozlowski, Mohegan Tribal Nation and Mashantucket-Pequot Tribal Nation.
The Next Level
Buscetto was hired last August, after a turn as head baseball coach at Stonington High School from 2001 to 2007 and athletic director for Stonington Community Center. He also has run the Batter Up Baseball Camp in Stonington for 15 years.
“We were always very successful with our sports program. We always won and played the games with class,” he said. “Not to say that they got away from that in recent years, but it wasn’t the level we’re looking to reach now. We’re trying to set the standard for all teams and programs in the area, as far as how an athletic department is run. We want our kids to be competitive but we also want them to play with sportsmanship and pride in their school, and represent their school and their family, as well as themselves.”
Since August 2006, the diocesan Catholic co-educational St. Bernard School has encompassed grades six through twelve, dropping the former “Academy” for the middle school.
William McKenna, Headmaster, who also assumed his role in August 2006, said he was looking for a high energy person, someone who could lead an athletic program inclusive of sixth through eighth grades, as well as ninth through twelfth grades.
“I remembered Bill and his brother Michael as athletes here when I was a vice principal at Xavier High School in Middletown,” he said. “Now that we have this new identity, looking at ourselves as one entire school, I was looking to start working toward the development of a league system, interscholastic athletics in a variety of areas that haven’t been tapped at this point. We thought this would be a great time to get started on that.”
The school offers its 375 high school students 24 different varsity sports, from soccer, football, cross country and cheerleading in the fall to basketball, fencing, wrestling and indoor track in the winter, and baseball, softball, track, lacrosse and golf in the springtime.
“The great thing about St. Bernard’s is there’s an opportunity for every kid,” Buscetto said. “Ninety-seven percent of our kids participate in interscholastic athletics. They play at least one sport.”
McKenna said the goal is to have St. Bernard School be recognized not only as a good academic college preparatory school, but also one that provided athletic outlets for a good number of youngsters. There are approximately 125 middle school students, too.
The school is on the mend from what he refers to “two bumps in the road” in the past couple of years. Mike Garvie, the former athletic director and baseball coach, recently received a probationary sentencing for teen-enticement. He led the 2007 baseball team to its state title. There also was the first-degree larceny conviction of former school employee Salvatore Licitra in 2007 for embezzlement of more than $800,000 of school funds over several years.
“From the very beginning, we cooperated fully and exposed the problems as soon as we learned of them, and immediately turned them over to the proper authorities,” McKenna said. “Since that time, my encouragement to the staff has been ‘that’s a bump in the road that is lamentable. Our job is to attend to the present and the future and we’re going to do just that.’”
One milestone is the preliminary notification of new accreditation the school received from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) for sixth through twelfth grades. McKenna got the news in late June. Mrs. Mary Dillman, middle school principal, and Mrs. Debbie Fitzgerald, vice principal of academics, co-chaired the school’s year-long effort to apply for this.
“I think the faculty and staff feel that they have real ownership in the school, perhaps more than they had for a long time,” he said.
As for the athletic department, McKenna said Buscetto has come on board and totally assumed the role of athletic director in the past year.
“I’ve never seen a person become as acclimated to the job as quickly as Billy,” he said.
Future Plans
The funds can be used for new uniforms and equipment. Longer term, he hopes to give the girls softball team a home field. The school and the Town of Montville have agreed to swap facilities over the years; the girls have been playing home games at Camp Oakdale in the spring while the town’s youth basketball program uses the school’s gym in the winter.
“Our girls’ softball team has never played a home game at St. Bernard’s, in 40 years,” he said. “Camp Oakdale is a great facility, but my goal is, if not this year, next year, we clear out some land and build these girls a nice softball field here on campus.”
While Buscetto is looking out for his department, he urges parents to just let their kids be kids on the sports field and to aim for academic scholarships.
“Kids can’t play sports uptight and nervous. If you play nervous, you don’t play as well as you can. You need to be able to relax,” he said. “The kids feel that pressure more from their parents than from themselves. We go to away games, when there aren’t as many of their parents there, and typically the kids will play better, they’ll have more fun, they’ll be looser than at a home game where mom or dad are yelling at then from the bleachers or the stands.”
Instead of spending thousands of dollars on batting lessons or a personal trainer for the kids, he recommends parents invest some of it in academic tutors. Odds are, the return will be better.
“It’s a nationwide epidemic, where a lot of parents are very misinformed. They think taking their kids of to every Amateur Athletic Union team and travel team for every sport increases their chance for a college scholarship,” he said. “This is with every sport – soccer, basketball, baseball, softball. In reality, they should be focusing on academics because the academic money outweighs the athletic money for scholarships by about five to one.”
Buscetto is the son of Nancy de la Cruz, a Montville Parks and Recreation commissioner. He graduated from University of New Haven, where he was an All American baseball player. The Day and the Norwich Bulletin both named him 2008 Coach of the Year.
He and his wife Diana live in Stonington. Their daughter, Jordan, 14, will attend St. Bernard School as a freshman in the fall, and son Billy, 13, will start 7th grade there.
“The school is doing great and we’re looking forward to bigger and better things out of St. Bernard’s,” Buscetto said.
For more information, see www.saint-bernard.com