Grateful Puliceno Eager to Pay Back Dowd with Title

UPDATE: Burlingame lost 41-32 to Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Central Coast Section Division III title game on Saturday afternoon.

 Rodrigo Puliceno had just moved to America from his native Brazil and didn’t speak a word of English when he showed up for his freshman year at Burlingame High on a late summer day in 2007.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Puliceno recalls.

Later that day, a PE teacher helped put him at ease. That PE teacher happened to be Jeff Dowd, the longtime boys basketball coach, who took Puliceno under his wing.

Under Dowd’s guidance, Puliceno has learned English and developed into one of the Peninsula’s best basketball players.

Puliceno, a 6-foot-3, 223-pounder who also plays football, is one of the Central Coast Section’s most physically dominant players. He leads the Panthers, averaging 12.1 points and 12.1 rebounds, and has Burlingame on the brink of its first section championship.  

The Panthers (26-3) meet their nemesis, Sacred Heart Cathedral, in the CCS Division III finals for a third straight year today at 4 p.m. at Santa Clara University. SHC (22-6) won both title games and also knocked Burlingame out of the 2008 Division III quarterfinals.

But the Panthers are red hot, riding a 17-game winning streak going into the finals, and are coming off in Wednesday’s semifinal that avenged their most recent loss (on Dec. 30).

Puliceno has experienced the postseason every year since playing varsity as a freshman, but has blossomed into a special player this year, Dowd said, noting that Puliceno’s physical playing style is especially valuable against West Catholic Athletic League opponents.

Puliceno’s quickness enables him to play much smaller than his size, and his unusually long wing span allows him to play much bigger, Dowd said.

“If anyone’s going to lead us against Sacred Heart it’s going to be him. He’s the heart of the team,” Dowd said.

“He’s the guy we run things through. He’s our best defensive player, and he’s the guy we count on to hit the boards.”

Along with the physical skill-set, Puliceno has brought the Panthers some toughness, something he attributes to growing up in a rough patch of Rio de Janeiro.

“It can be pretty tough there,” Puliceno said. “You have to be strong to protect yourself.”

Puliceno, who was living with his grandmother in Rio de Janeiro, moved to Burlingame to live with his father.

He hasn’t decided whether he’ll pursue basketball or football in college. Although this is his last year of basketball eligibility, he’ll still have a year of coursework to complete after this semester and is considering returning to Burlingame in the fall to play football.

He plans to become the first person in his family to attend college. His father was a soccer player whose scholarship opportunities dried up when he suffered a knee injury.

“Playing (sports) in college is a big deal for me,” Puliceno said.

But right now his focus is on winning a CCS basketball title, which he describes as a personal mission to pay back a coach and an extended Burlingame community that’s embraced him.

“It’s a big thing for me because I came from nowhere, nobody knew who I was,” Puliceno said. “I want to win it for Dowd and I want to win it for my school.”