Ramapo Legend Walks Into the Sunset

Coach Joe Del Buono looks forward more than he looks back. And while he's doing his best to squeeze 40 years of involvement in scholastic sports into one conversation, there are clearly too many highlights, too many friendships, too many life lessons passed on to kids he coached, some of whom probably still fall back on them.

So Del Buono calls you back. There are a few people he forgot. And a few minutes later, upon further reflection, he calls you back again. He might have kept calling if his beloved granddaughters, Virginia and Sophia, weren't waiting for him in the next room. Needless to say, when Del Buono hung up his whistle after 13 years at the helm of Ramapo's basketball team at the end of this season, there was simply no calculating all the lives he's touched in a wonderfully positive manner.

"In my early years, all I cared about was the kids I was coaching," he said. "Now, I'm older, wiser, more philosophical, and maybe more of a politician. So, I'll continue to be active with the Bergen County Coaches Association, and expand my roles as far as organizing tournaments, and be involved in other directions. I haven't ruled out coaching again, but for now, these are the challenges I want to take on."

To have seen him on the bench this year, during time-outs, addressing his team before and after games, there was every bit as much fire and spirit as you'd see in a first-year coach ready to take on the world.

"I didn't want to mention that this would be my last year until we were close to the end of the season," Del Buono said. "And my team this year sent me off into the sunset with a wonderful gift. We hung in there together and turned a sinking ship into a sailing ship. The way we persevered—this team made my last season a very special one."

Indeed, they went from 1-5 also-rans to contenders, finishing 12-6. The day following their Bergen Jamboree tournament win, Paramus Catholic was scheduled to play at Ramapo. So what does Del Buono do? He calls and offers to reschedule for the following night. "That was the sporting thing to do," he said. "We wanted to play them at their best." Ramapo took Paramus Catholic to a five-point game, and the act of sportsmanship was one his players will always remember.

Del Buono started winning long before he got near the hardwood at Ramapo. He broke into coaching in 1971 at St. Luke's in Ho-Ho-Kus. It was there, under John Carty, that he developed the coaching philosophies he holds dear today: "Do what's best for the kids," he said. "Coaching should be an extension of your day as a teacher. You create a family atmosphere, and you emphasize the importance of hard work."

Following that, he signed on at Mahwah, where he coached three sports for three years, and then moved over to Midland Park High School. He taught history there for 29 years and became the first winning basketball coach they ever had. He arrived at Ramapo in 1982 to coach baseball with Steve Turro, football and some track. He led Ramapo to the only baseball county title in school history in 1997, with a pitching coach named Joe Del Buono Jr. right at his side. "A tremendous highlight," he said. "And to have both my granddaughters at a game this year, and old enough to realize what was going on—that was very special, too."

To hang around as long as Del Buono has, you've got to have a few tricks up your sleeve. He saw his versatility as his strength as a coach.

"If I was anything, I was adaptable," he said. "Each team I had was unique. They all had their own identity, and I didn't demand they adapt to me, I adapted to them."

Well, almost all of them.

"In my 13 years of coaching basketball," he says, "I had one kid quit on me. One kid!"

For the hundreds of wins he's participated in (including five straight divisional championships from 1998-02 and a state sectional title in 2005), he feels like he's made many more friends. Start with all of his assistant coaches over the years: Bob Brown, Don McLaughlin, Dan Van Der Molen, Pat Lawlor, Ryan Psirari (a 2002 Ramapo grad who returned to work the bench), and current sidekicks Mickey Hunt, and, "the best dressed assistant coach in Bergen County," George Berger. He's indebted to both past and present athletic directors Mike Miello and Todd Meyer. There's been great bonds with Ramapo's girls basketball coaches, Steve Silver and Sandy Gordon, team manager Mike Sotzky, and, of course, the voice of Ramapo basketball, Chick Franchavilla.

For nearly 30 years, Del Buono has consistently delivered wins, which may only have been overshadowed by his infectious enthusiasm for anything with a ball, a score and a couple of kids. How do you sump all that up in one conversation, one article, or a few sentences on a plaque?

"I'd like to be remembered as a coach who was always prepared, who always had his teams ready for whatever they might face," he said. "I taught my kids how to play fair, play hard and play smart. And, of course, how to win."

If Del Buono had a dollar for every coach who asked him about his late-game "spread" offense, Ramapo's signature formation to protect a late-game lead, his "retirement" could involve an NBA franchise. Instead, he'll have his priceless memories of kids—at times smiling, at times anguished, but always comforted that they gave their all.

"Kids I had this year, Tyler Ward and R.J. Voorman, I remember them when they were 8 years old at summer camps we ran, and to see those kids grow up into the kind of young people and the athletes they are, it's just tremendous. I can still picture them like it was yesterday."

As grateful as they have been to have him all this time, Del Buono can't imagine his good fortune to have had such a long run in such a terrific place.

"The Ramapo gym is always packed with support and adrenaline," he said. "To see the kids and coaches from our other teams supporting you and living and dying with your wins and losses as much as you do, I can't imagine having worked in a more positive atmosphere, or to have done anything that would have brought me so much joy."