Fitch, Ledyard and Old Lyme athletic programs should take a bow
High
school sports are “cyclical.” We’re all powerless against fluctuating levels of talent, thus making sustained success difficult.
It’s all but morphed into its own logical fallacy. It must be true if it’s repeated often enough. Argumentum Ad Nauseam.
Maybe talent levels are cyclical. But successful programs endure because of good coaches and the people smart enough to hire them.
Example: Three high schools from the region— Ledyard, Fitch and Old Lyme— achieved the highest honor athletic departments can achieve recently through the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. Ledyard, Fitch and Old Lyme are among 20 schools throughout the state to have earned the Michaels Cup, which bases achievement in sportsmanship, participation, athletic scholarship, athletic personnel, equity, chemical free initiatives and athletic achievement. What canwe learn from them? For one thing, hire an Italian athletic director. No, really. Jim Buonocore (Ledyard), Marc Romano (Fitch) and Bill Buscetto (Old Lyme) know their pasta e fagioli from Campbell’s Chunky. More importantly, though, they know the value— necessity— of hiring good coaches.
True, they inherited some. But they’ve all made good to great hires over the years, thus leaving virtually every sport in capable hands.
Buonocore: brought in Dave Cornish, for example, to coach basketball and Scott Chiasson to coach baseball.
Cornish made the state semifinals in his first season, inheriting a 1-19 team. Chiasson made the state quarters last spring. And, you know, he did play for the Cubs. Lest we forget Brittany Connors in softball, too.
Romano: Made great hires in Jeff Joyce (baseball) and Mike Ellis (football). His boys’ basketball coach, Alick Furtick, like Joyce, graduated from Fitch. They love the place. It shows.
Buscetto: OK, so his brother, Mike, likes to tease him about how Old Lyme’s athletic program is all about badminton and squash. But Bill Buscetto added to the program with Emily Macione (girls’ lacrosse), Mike Murphy (boys’ lacrosse), Becky Hall (softball) and Tracy Lenz (tennis).
It’s all commendable work. And work that should be duplicated, not dismissed. I’m guessing Ledyard’s achievements, for example, are pooh poohed because— here’s Argumentum Ad Nauseam again— they recruit everyone from here to Fayetteville, Ark. Notez bien: You’re all entitled to your opinions. Millions of people are loud and wrong every day. So join in. The reality is that Buonocore has amassed the best stable of coaches in the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
I find it interesting that success in the ECC is barely given grudging acceptance anymore. One school wins because it’s so big. One school wins because it recruits. One school wins because it has a magnet school. And the schools that don’t win hide behind “cycles” and other rationalizations that sidestep the true cause: There aren’t enough good coaches in the school. The people that work with feeder programs. They scour the halls for kids, teach them, inspire them and get them to believe in the power of becoming part of something bigger that their own self-interests.
Example: Didn’t anyone else find it odd thatWaterford hadn’t won a blessed thing in basketball for decades ... and then Greg Gwudz takes over and wins 100 games in five years, including a state championship? No doubt: Nolan Long, the 6-foot-9 kid, helped. So did Gwudz’s ability to galvanize the kids and the town into believing that there’s life outside of baseball.
I’ve grown tired of the excuses around here. It’s not about vo-ags and magnets. It’s about the principles of good leadership. Go out and find the right men and women to be around kids and let them do their thing.
It’s happening at Ledyard, Fitch and Old Lyme. Give Phil Orbe a little more time at Montville and it’ll happen there, too. You know what you’re doing or you don’t. You can live by the path of least resistance or do the job right. The proof is easy to see. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro. Twitter: @BCgenius