Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella learned a lot from stint at St. Mary's

While a senior at Seton Hall University, Tony Bozzella had a need for some spending money and an intense desire to coach basketball.

In an attempt to fulfill both requirements, he interviewed for the head boys position at St. Mary?s High School, now known as Cardinal McCarrick, in South Amboy. After thinking the interview had gone really well, Bozzella was informed by athletics director Gilbert Pritchard that a lack of experience prevented him from getting the job.

?I was devastated,? said Bozzella, who on March 27 was officially introduced as the new Seton Hall University women?s basketball coach. ?(Pritchard?s) like, ?I can give you the girls job, that?s open.? I didn?t want to coach girls. He said, ?They?re much better than the boys, they?re going to listen to you, and you?re going to have a great opportunity to teach basketball and be the varsity coach.? ?

Looking back on it, Bozzella refers to his three years at St. Mary?s as ?the best part-time job I?ve ever had in my life.? He led his girls to 21 wins in the first season, advancing to the semifinals in both the county tournament and state parochial bracket. The South Amboy school went undefeated against fellow Greater Middlesex Conference Gold Division opponents in his tenure, with the first of those victories coming in Bozzella?s first-ever experience on the sideline.

?We won that game against Gold Division favorite Highland Park,? he recalled. ?That win will probably still always be in my Top 5. It was the greatest day. We played 1-3-1 defense the whole time, and I had no idea what I was doing, But we won.?

Even more impactful than the success, Bozzella learned a valuable lesson at St. Mary?s that he still carries with him today.

?Being able to relate to all different types of people, it helped me a lot through the years. At St. Mary?s, it wasn?t diverse ethnicity-wise, but it was diverse in terms of economics. We had some kids that didn?t have a lot of money, and South Amboy is a very hard-working middle-class town.?

(Page 2 of 5)

The same can be said of his hometown of Glen Cove, N.Y., located roughly 45 minutes from the city. Bozzella never was a star hoopster, and in high school he played minimally while also acting as an assistant coach. He got to sit in on meetings and even helped scout games.

His classmates came from a wide variety of backgrounds. Bozzella credits his high school mentors with teaching him how to adapt to all sorts of people, getting the players to understand the team concept and making sure they were all on the same page.

Joining the college ranks

Upon graduating from Seton Hall, Bozzella quickly realized the hour-plus trek from Glen Cove to South Amboy was much more difficult than his previous commute from South Orange. He elected to leave St. Mary?s for an assistant coaching gig at Division II C.W. Post.

In 1992, Bozzella became the head coach of Southampton College, which is part of Long Island University. After limping to a 3-21 finish in his first year, he turned the program around, finishing with a 120-104 record in eight seasons there.

?I thought I would stay there my whole life,? Bozzella said. ?I was just going to coach part-time at Southampton, and I took over my dad?s distributive hardware business.?

After a 20-9 campaign in 2000, Bozzella caught wind of an opening at Division I Long Island University and decided to investigate.

?I hit it off with athletics director John Suarez, and we seemed to have a great vision together. And he called me on a Tuesday and said, ?You were great, I loved you, and I?m not going to give you the job. I?m going to give it to someone else who was an assistant at Georgetown.? ?

Although disappointed, Bozzella understood the circumstances. The Georgetown assistant was a proven winner at a big-time school, while Bozzella was still putting the final touches on a rebuilding project at Southampton.

Two days later, late Thursday morning, he received a call from Suarez and was urged to come back to his office right away. The Georgetown candidate felt the job was not for her and backed out.

(Page 3 of 5)

?I almost didn?t take it,? Bozzella admitted. ?I loved my job, I loved my players, we had a really good team (at Southampton), and my dad had just passed away. But I felt a great connection with Mr. Suarez. He believed in me and I believed in him. And my friend goes, ?If you don?t take this job, you?ll never have this opportunity again.? ?

Bozzella accepted the position, taking over a group of Blackbirds that hadn?t had a winning season in two decades. In another remarkable rebuilding effort, LIU went 16-15 that first year, winning the Northeast Conference and clinching a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

A new beginning

Similar to LIU, Iona College had one winning season in program history before Bozzella took over in 2002. After reaching unparalleled heights for the Blackbirds, he was back to square one with another Division I team in need of an immense makeover.

?Iona was just a great blend. You could take a kid that wanted to go to New York City and go there, or you could take a kid from the Midwest.?

At the onset, it was Iona and Bozzella that wasn?t blending very well. The Gaels went 1-27 that first year, and they only managed 13 combined wins the following two seasons. Iona switched athletics directors, bringing in Pat Lyons.

?I?ll never forget, I?m going to the AD after winning six games (in 2005) thinking I might get fired,? Bozzella said. ?And he says, ?You are doing a great job with this program. The kids are working hard, everyone?s graduating, you?re going to get it.? And that athletics director is Pat Lyons, who is my AD here. He saw something in me and how we were building Iona.?

The Gaels won 17 games in 2006 and posted the 20-win plateau on three separate occasions, with the latest of those coming just this past spring. Iona never got over the hump in the MAAC championship game, falling to powerhouse Marist a couple times, but Bozzella had put the school on the national scene while boosting his own reputation in the process.

Back to the Hall

Bozzella was chosen as the fourth women?s basketball coach in Seton Hall University history after Anne Donovan left to lead the WNBA?s Connecticut Sun.

(Page 4 of 5)

?I would?ve only left Iona for one job, and that?s Seton Hall,? he said.

The Pirates went 11-20 last season, winning only five conference games in Big East play. For Bozzella, it?s another chance to take a team that can go nowhere but up and mold them into championship contenders.

?Our goal is to eventually win a Big East championship,? he said. ?If you have any goals less than that, than you really shouldn?t play. I realize it might not happen in Year One, or it might. I didn?t think I was going to win the NEC in Year One at LIU, but at Iona I thought I might win the MAAC in Year One and we won one game. It?s a humbling sport.?

One of his main focuses will be luring high-profile recruits from New Jersey, an area he has already made progress in.

?I have a lot of friends in the high school and AAU ranks who have been very loyal to me in my 21 years as head coach. We?ve probably had 10 or 12 Jersey kids already up on campus.?

Bozzella is a big believer in making the women better individually, with hopes that the Pirates? offense will involve spacing the floor, attacking the defense one-on-one, and getting out in transition. Some members of the roster are still teenagers, meaning there is room for development and growth in the skills department.

He also hopes to implement a fast yet efficient pace at Seton Hall, something that was nonexistent before.

?I thought at Iona I had a pace, but it wasn?t the pace I wanted. One of the things we have to establish here at SHU is the pace.?

Bozzella gives an example from earlier this past spring, when the Pirates finished up a drill then went their own way. He was stunned. At Iona, the girls would huddle up no matter how successful the drill was, chat about the specifics and fill up their water cups as a collective unit. That?s how it?s going to be in Walsh Gym from now on, too.

On the court, Bozzella plans to promote a winning culture, producing a team that ?you?re going to be proud of as a Seton Hall alum to come watch play.? Off the court, there is no doubt that he will continue to demand excellence in the classroom as well as on the hardwood.

(Page 5 of 5)

?My best record is I have an 1000 (Academic Progress Rate score) the last five years. I?m very proud of that. All of our girls are going to graduate and represent Seton Hall the way we want them to.?

As for this coming winter, the Pirates are abundant with question marks with the exception of guard Ka-Deidre Simmons, SHU?s returning leading scorer at 11.5 points per game.

Sidney Cook, who sat out last season with a broken foot, was an ESPN Top 100 recruit coming out of high school. Bozzella says Bra?Shey Ali, a Kentucky transfer, has already bought into the program and has a lot of talent. Guard Alexis Brown is an energetic, feisty competitor, while frontcourt mates Brittany Webb and Janee Johnson should be solid if healthy.

Bozzella and his staff also signed three incoming recruits.

Family man

A devoted family man, Bozzella loves the Seton Hall campus not just for Walsh Gymnasium and his old classrooms, but also because it?s the place where he met his wife, Maria.

Along with his daughter Samantha and son Joseph, Bozzella is more than appreciative of all the sacrifices his loved ones have made in order for him to carry out his dream. Sam is his ?right-hand man? when it comes to watching film, and one story in particular stands out about his wife.

?She was the ultimate scouter,? said Bozzella of Maria. ?I?ll never forget, we were on a date senior year when I was coaching at St. Mary?s, and we were going to go to the movies. She?s like, ?What?s wrong?? and I said, ?Metuchen is playing South Plainfield tonight and I really want to go.? So she says, ?Let?s go. We?ll eat at the diner right by there.? No other woman is going to make those sacrifices.?

Now, it?s time for the Seton Hall women?s basketball program to become a hotbed for local recruits and a major player in the revamped Big East.

?We are great educationally, and we are putting a lot of resources into the school and athletics. I will tell you, three or four years from now, if you?re the best player in New Jersey, you?re going to want to come to Seton Hall. And that?s how we?re going to do it.?

For a guy who never thought twice about coaching girls until being convinced to try it at St. Mary?s High School, there is no doubt as to what he wants now.

?I hope I end my career here as the Seton Hall coach, and hopefully that?s many years from now.?

Source: http://www.app.com/article/20130707/NJSPORTS02/307070067/1010/SPORTS02&source=rss

Eddie Murphy died Suzanne Barr Clint Eastwood speech Maria Montessori clint eastwood Julian Castro Blue Moon August 2012