By Larry Kelley
St. Bernard High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame Class of
2008 features 13 inductees who were not only champions for Saint teams, but
winners in the arena of life during their postgraduate
years.
The 13 inductees include two attorneys, a doctor,
business owners, politicians, championship coaches, and community leaders. Many
attributed their success in the professional world to the foundation of
education, values, and friendships they made as teenagers while attending St.
Bernard.
The 2008 Hall of Fame class was inducted at a ceremony
and dinner Oct. 25 at St. Bernard. They join previous classes from 1987, 1988,
1989, 1990, 1999, and 2006.
The following is a capsulized summary of each
inductee.
Michael
E. Satti, Esquire ’79
Satti made his mark as a wrestler, earning All-American
in 1979. He placed ninth and 13th, respectively, in junior national tournaments
in 1977 and 1978. In CIAC tournaments, he won the State Open in 1978 and 1979,
finished second in Class M in 1978 and won Class M in 1979 when he was 26-0.
“My three most memorable moments were eclipsing my
brother John’s record for number of wins in a single season [26-0], winning a
State Open Championship at the Coast Guard Academy, where I began wrestling as a
kid, and convincing my teammate to introduce me to my [future] wife and
convincing her to date me.”
Satti graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts
in political science. After Columbia he attended Suffolk University School
of Law and received a law degree in 1986. He currently practices law in
New London.
“It is incredibly humbling to be inducted as a member of
the Hall of Fame,” Satti said. “I would have never imagined as a
98-pound-soaking-wet freshman that I could have achieved what I did in four
years. It is not a cliché to say that hard work and determination can take you
far.”
Satti’s brother John (’74) is a previous inductee.
Joseph
Peters, M.D., ’74
Joseph Peters distinguished himself as a baseball and
basketball standout and in the classroom, where he was valedictorian and a Merit
Scholar. After St. Bernard, he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at
Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in engineering at
Princeton, and his M.D. at University of
Connecticut Medical School.
Today, Peters is a member of the Department of
Rehabilitation at Lawrence &
Memorial Hospital. He completed his residency at
the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey/Kessler Institute for
Rehabilitation.
Tom Hayes, a SB Hall of Famer and former baseball coach
and AD, recalled Peters was a deceptive left-handed pitcher on the Saints’
outstanding 17-4 team in 1974.
“Left-handed pitchers were a rare breed back in the
1970s,” Hayes said. “Joe was never overpowering, but he always seemed to be able
to be around the plate with his pitches. He was a very coachable young man back
then, and was very intelligent out on the mound. He outsmarted many of the
hitters he faced. He well deserves to be inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame.”
Pricilla
L. Lutz ’67
Pricilla Lutz was a member of one of the school’s first
cheerleading squads, captaining the 1967 team that won the Varsity Division at
the Eastern Connecticut Conference Competition.
Lutz received a bachelor’s from Bryant University, where she
was a cheerleading
captain, and a master’s in business administration from Central Connecticut. Much of Lutz’s post-education life
has been dedicated to teaching at Ledyard High and Montville Alternative High
School,
running small businesses and cheerleading.
For the past 30 years, she has been part owner of
Claudio’s Men’s Formal Wear in Montville. Since 1979, she has been owner and
director of the New England Cheerleaders Association, Inc. (NECA). NECA has
operated hundreds of summer overnight cheerleading camps, private camps, and
one-day clinics at different colleges and high schools all over New England, and
from 1990 to the present, NECA has given hundreds of cheerleaders and NECA staff
members the opportunity to cheer at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.
“My experiences at St. Bernard have had a huge impact on
my cheerleading career,” she said. “The deep passion and intense spirit I have
for cheerleading developed when I was in high school. I am very proud that St.
Bernard recognizes cheerleading as a sport, and I am sincerely touched at being
inducted.”
Michael
Buscetto III ’89
Mike Buscetto became the second St. Bernard grad to
attend college on a full basketball scholarship after former Villanova national
champ and NBA player Harold Pressley. After being named All-State and All-Area
in 1988-89, Buscetto, a 5-11 guard, enjoyed a standout career at Division II
Quinnipiac University, where he majored in business and graduated in 1993.
Buscetto is still the program’s all-time assist leader and No. 2 in career
steals.
Buscetto returned to coach basketball at St. Bernard
briefly, but has made his mark in the business world as past owner and vice
president of Michael’s Dairy in New
London and as a self-employed property
developer.
In recent years, Buscetto has emerged as a leader in the
world of politics, becoming a first-term New London city councilor running on the
Democratic ticket with the highest number of votes given any elected city
official. Buscetto has remained a community leader as well, donating time and
money to many causes, serving as a guest auctioneer at many fund-raising events
and assisting his wife, Heather, in coaching Little League softball. He is also
one of the founders of the City of New
London Athletic Hall of Fame.
Karolyn
Welsh Busconi ’81
At St. Bernard, Welsh earned 10 varsity letters in a
spectacular career that included many team championships and an individual
Junior Olympic National
Championship in the javelin throw in 1981.
Few Saint athletes can list as many accomplishments on
their resume as Welsh. She made All Conference in cross country from 1977 to
1979, was a member of two State Open championship teams in 1977 and 1978, and
three undefeated state class championship squads from 1977 to 1979 under coach
Mike Doyle.
In track and field during her Junior Olympic national
championship season in 1981, she was listed in Track & Field News as being one of the
top five javelin throwers in the nation and was the Connecticut Interscholastic
Track Coaches Athlete of the Year. Welsh was a state javelin champ from 1979 to
1981 and still holds records at St. Bernard and Class M in that event.
In basketball, Welsh was selected an All Conference
player in 1980 and ’81 and selected to play in the Big Brother, Big Sister
Tournament in 1981. She won the Most Valuable Player award. In tennis she won
the Conference championship in 1981.
At Springfield, she continued her record-setting
pace, earning Division I and II All-America in the javelin. Her 1982 record
remains the women’s best toss in all New
England divisions. She said her most memorable moment was winning
the prestigious Penn Relays in 1984, when she showed up to the meet late because
of a scheduling mistake but still won and set a new meet record.
Coach
Robert Mondani
Bob Mondani has seemingly served several coaching stints
wrapped up into one long, esteemed career.
A ’73 Xavier High and ’77 Eastern Connecticut State
University grad, Mondani’s Saints’ girls’ cross-country and girls’
track-and-field teams won several state championships and he won numerous
coaching honors from 1981 to 1992.
Mondani was named the Connecticut High School Coaches
Association (CHSCA) Coach of the Year in 1989, the Connecticut High School Track
Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 1988 and in 1991, New London Day Coach of the Year six times, and the
Norwich Bulletin Coach of the
Year five times. In girls’ cross country, Mondani’s teams compiled an 82-6 dual
meet record and won eight state championships, including two consecutive State
Open titles. In girls’ track, his teams won a state championship and showcased a
dual meet record of 33-1.
Presently, Mondani coaches boys’ cross country at
Woodstock
Academy where he has won
four state championships since 1992. Mondani was named Connecticut High School
Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1999, making him the only coach in
Connecticut
cross country history to be named a Coach of the Year for girls and boys, while
at two different schools.
“My most memorable moment occurred in 1991, my last
season of coaching at St. Bernard,” he said. “I was not able to be with my team
at the state class championship meet because my sister was getting married. My
friend and mentor, Hall of Famer Mike Doyle, coached the team in my absence. Our
team won, and the team crashed the wedding reception in Mystic. The girls showed
up in their uniforms, and we all danced to ‘When the Saints Come Marching In.’”
Anthony
Desmond ’62
As one of the first 100 boys in the first freshman coed
class in 1958, Desmond stands out as one of the first great athletes in school
history.
Desmond pitched in a 3-2 victory over Norwich Tech for
the first varsity baseball win in baseball history. Hall of Famer Art Lamoureaux
was the catcher, and Hall of Famers Ronan Lacey and Bud Abbott were also members
of coach Jim Powers Sr.’s team, which had only sophomores and freshmen. Desmond
became the first St. Bernard All-Conference athlete as a junior and led the team
in batting for all four years. As a basketball player, Desmond
was a defensive specialist on
the Saints’ first conference championship team. His primary function was
to stop the best offensive player on the opposing team and coach Jim Powers Sr.
called him the best defensive player in Eastern
Connecticut.
After St. Bernard, Desmond graduated from UConn and later
opened an insurance office in South Windsor
with his wife, Tina. Desmond served as the vice president of the South Windsor
Little League and as president of the South Windsor Youth Hockey League. In
1979, he co-founded the South Windsor American Legion Baseball Team and coached
it for 15 years. In 2006, the Legion started a yearly college scholarship in his
honor.
Roger
Street, Booster
Street, a 1978 graduate of Montville High School, was never able to play sports
due to having poor hips from birth. However, he helped coach football, baseball,
and wrestling, winning three varsity letters during his high school career and
winning the prestigious Warren St. John Award upon his graduation, signifying
his exemplary service to Montville High
School.
Street worked in St. Bernard’s maintenance department for
18 years before moving to Backus Hospital. Former athletic director Art
Lamoureux said Street immediately made his mark as a Saints Booster.
“There were two people I could always count on to get
things done for me in the athletic locker rooms or on the athletic fields: Eddie
Deparche and Roger
Street,” Lamoureux said. “Roger was always my ‘go to’
guy whenever I needed someone to fill in on any sport, be it a basketball
scorer, timer, football/basketball/wrestling ticket seller,
football/basketball/wrestling ticket taker, you name it, Roger was able to do
it.”
“It means a great deal to me.” Street said. “I have so
many fond memories of St. Bernard and I made so many great friends like Mr.
Lamoureux, Mr. Pesapane, Mr. Pagliuca, Mr. Hayes, and Mr. Powers. I spent 18
good years at St. Bernard and I saw two people go into professional sports:
Harold Pressley in basketball and Brooke Fordyce in baseball. I would like to
thank everyone for picking me to go into the St. Bernard Hall of Fame.”
Scott
W. Sawyer, Esquire ’84
Scott Sawyer was an All-State and All-Area basketball
selection as a shooting guard for coach Rich Pagliuca in 1983 and
1984.
After St. Bernard, he graduated from Connecticut College, where he was a 1,000-point
basketball scorer and team record holder in free throw shooting. He went on to
earn a master’s from Wesleyan University and received his Juris
Doctorate degree from Seton Hall University School of Law. He currently
practices law in New
London.
“This satisfaction is shared with so many people such as
my wife, Corinne, the most important person in my life, as well as my children,
Collin and Cora. It is also shared with my parents, Meg and George, who provided
all of the love, support, and guidance a child could ever need, and it is also
shared with all my coaches, teammates, and friends.”
James
and Doris Shutt, Boosters
The East Lyme residents,
who were parents of St. Bernard students from 1978 to 1983, officiated many SBHS
swim meets when Art Callahan was the coach and helped Rich Pagliuca with his
basketball teams. One of their most memorable moments was meeting Patrick Ewing
when St. Bernard played an exhibition game pitting Harold Pressley against
Patrick Ewing. Doris volunteered as the
athletic department secretary for Art Lamoureux.
“Daisy Shutt was the real backbone of the athletic
department in the early days of my athletic administration,” Lamoureux said.
“She organized all our files, made all our deposits, made sure that I returned
all my phone calls, ordered all my buses, confirmed all my officials, and in
general served as much as my assistant athletic director as my secretary.”
James was president of the St. Bernard Athletic Booster
Club and was responsible for developing what became the original set of bylaws
that guided the organization. He started the Southeastern Connecticut Swimming
and Diving Officials organization, and he and Daisy officiated at all the high
school swim meets in southeastern Connecticut.
Robert
Walsh ’75
Walsh compiled a four-year record of 105-7-3 in
wrestling, which included a Class M championship, State Open championship and
All-America distinction during the ’74-’75 season.
In football, he was an All-Conference linebacker in 1973,
in 1974 was named St. Bernard High School Offensive Player of the Year, and in
1975 received the Class of 1975 “Best Athlete” award. He earned a rare
distinction being named team captain in three sports (football, wrestling, and
track).
After getting his bachelor’s at Springfield College and a master’s in physical education at
Eastern
Connecticut State University, Walsh became a physical
education teacher in the Groton School System where he has worked for the past
28 years.
Walsh returned to St. Bernard as wrestling coach from
1992-2001, compiling 101 wins, placing third in a Class M tournament, and
producing nine individual champions. In his post-coaching career, Walsh has
become involved in marathon running, qualifying for seven Boston Marathons.
Edward
Deparche, Benefactor
Deparche was a fixture at St. Bernard for nearly half a
century, working in the maintenance department from 1975 through retirement in
2007.
Deparche was credited for saving the school thousands of
dollars in maintenance fees over the years. He donated time, money, and
equipment to St. Bernard. He purchased his own tools while working at St.
Bernard and then used them on the job, used his own truck to haul material, plow
snow, and carry tables for school functions.
“Eddie was a jack of all trades and a master of many,”
former coach Tom Hayes said. “He could just about fix anything. He was also a
workaholic all the years he was at St. Bernard.”
Jean Finnegan contributed greatly to
this report.