LHS Names New Boys’ Hoops Coach

In his first major act as Ledyard High School's new athletic director, Jim Buonocore went back to his roots.

Buonocore, a New London native, tabbed NLHS assistant coach Dave Cornish as Ledyard’s new boys’ basketball coach. Considering New London is the jewel of the area's scholastic basketball programs ,and Ledyard is coming off a 1-19 season, this Whaling City connection is almost certain to boost the Colonel program.

Cornish moves to Ledyard from New London, where he has served as the top assistant to coach Craig Parker for the last eight seasons. This past season Cornish helped lead the Whalers to the Class L state championship and the #1 ranking in the New Haven Register state poll. He also helped lead the Whalers to state titles in 2003 and 2004 as the Whalers compiled a 188-20 record during Cornish’s time on the bench.

“Dave is a person of high character who understands the importance of education and the role athletics plays in our educational mission,” Buonocore said. “He comes to us with a solid and ultra-successful background in the coaching profession, having worked under Coach Parker and Coach Ralph Roggero at New London High School. His energy and passion for competition and the sport of basketball in general will be contagious with our student-athletes. He is highly regarded in basketball circles and I believe he is just what our program needs at this point in time. He is going to do great things for the youth of Ledyard.”

Cornish, an '88 NLHS grad, has ties to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, working as a postal worker on the reservation. A number of key players on Ledyard Middle School's oustanding teams the past two years are Tribal children.

"One of my goals is to keep the talent in house that I see on the reservation," Cornish  said. "Keeping them in Ledyard instead of seeing them go to private schools or NFA can build comraderie and chemistry. If Kris Dunn went to one school, Malcom Simmons to another and Doug Henton to another, New London wouldn't be the team it was."

While acknowledging Ledyard may not produce the amount of talented basketball players as New London, Cornish remains upbeat.

"All I ask for is for kids to come and play hard," Cornish said. "When I coached New London's JVs, I often favored a kid who wasn't great but played hard over a more talented player who didn't want to play hard all the time."

Cornish will miss New London, but he felt the time was right to take over his own program.

"I've paid my dues and have heard from many people  'When are you going to become a head coach?'" Cornish said. "With blessings from coach Parker and Roggero, I'm ready to step out of the bird's nest and fly on my own."