Rocco Sellitto was promoted to Bishop Kearney girls’ varsity basketball coach after four seasons as the head man of the school’s junior varsity squad, athletic director Anthony Troiano told FiveBoroSports.com on Wednesday. He takes over for legendary coach Cathy Crocket, who retired at the end of last season.
“I was glad it finally happened,” Sellitto said. “Although I felt that I deserved it and am more than qualified, when things take a long time, you are always concerned that something will happen. We have seen some crazy things happen in the league. I always had that in the back of my mind. That was a relief to finally get it done and try to move forward.”
What drew the process out was the fact that Kearney is a union school. Any job opening has to be posted in the school for approximately two weeks to give current faculty a chance to apply. Sellitto said he told the school of his interest in the job shortly after Crockett retired in mid−March, but the job was not posted internally until just two weeks ago, according to Troiano. Sellitto applied and was officially tabbed for promotion by the administration Wednesday afternoon. It was his dedication, experience and preparation that made him an appealing choice. Who will take his job as JV coach has yet to be decided, according to Troiano.
“He is always off to some game,” Troiano said. “I don’t know how he has time to be a doctor.”
Sellitto, a podiatrist and foot and ankle specialist, has been coaching at some level since 1987. He runs the Red Hook Lady Ravens AAU program, which many of the Kearney players compete with. He has spent most of his time coaching CYO, BCBA and summer league teams in multiple leagues, including high school boys from Visitation in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Sellitto has also run Kearney’s summer basketball camp the last three years.
“I think every day I am doing something basketball,” he said.
He sees the fact that he has coached every returning player in the program as a possible advantage and disadvantage. While he has a comfortable relationship with them, knows their games and their personalities, he doesn’t want them to expect things to be exactly as they were when they were on the JV team.
“It’s not,” Sellitto said. “I’ll make that clear to them.”
He said his expectations are higher and he is going to stress being the aggressor in games, making teams adapt to their style of play, not the other way around. The Tigers return a crop of tall and athletic players that he hopes to be able to get out and fast break more with. He is also a proponent of using video as a teaching tool.
“I think the best thing about playing for him was he always pushed us to do better,” Tigers junior Meaghan McGoorty said.
The forward said she is just happy to know who the coach will be and thinks the transition from Crockett to Sellitto will be smooth because there is the familiarity between him and the players.
“It was kind of nerve−racking not knowing who your coach was going to be,” McGoorty said.
Now Sellitto, the players and the program can move forward and start preparing for the upcoming season.
“Now I have free reign to get things in place that I want to do,” he said. “And start communicating with the players how I want things to be done.”
