GACCIONE, KENNEDY RETURN TO CALDWELL AS OPPOSING
COACHES IN COMMERCE BANK HOLIDAY CLASSIC
12-22-06
CALDWELL, N.J. – Brian Gaccione and Damian Kennedy were
point guards on some of Caldwell College’s best teams during the early
1990s. They competed against each other in practice while at the same
time helping the Cougars win four Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference
regular-season titles and two CACC Tournament crowns. Despite battling
for playing time at the same position, Gaccione and Kennedy remained
friends off the court, and their friendship continues today, over 10
years after graduating from Caldwell College.
On Saturday, Dec. 23 at 10:30 a.m. in the George R. Newman Center, the
two alums renew the competitive side of their relationship in a boys’
high school basketball game between St. Joseph’s of the Palisades and
Rutherford to be played at their alma mater as part of the Commerce Bank
Holiday Classic at Caldwell College. Kennedy is the head coach and Vice
Principal at St. Joseph’s of the Palisades, and Gaccione is the head
coach at Rutherford High School, where he once starred.
“We played each other at Caldwell last year, and it was a good
experience,” said Gaccione, a 1995 graduate of Caldwell College. “When
the opportunity with the Commerce Bank tournament came up, we were both
happy to come back. It gives our players a chance to see where we played
in college.”
Kennedy agrees. “I’m looking forward to going back to Caldwell and
coaching in front of my old coaches,” he said. “It’s not far from both
of our schools, and [the Newman Center] is a nice place to play.”
It is fitting that the two former point guards would come back and coach
their teams at the college where they learned so much about basketball,
and friendship. Both Gaccione and Kennedy share the same philosophy of
the game that was taught to them by their coach, Mark Corino, who is in
his 19th season as coach of the men’s basketball team at Caldwell
College.
“Coach Corino has had a heavy influence on my coaching style,” said
Kennedy, who graduated from Caldwell College in 1996. “How he runs his
program is how I try to run my program. If you watch my team or Brian’s
team or [former Caldwell assistant coach] John-Mike Santulli at Clifton
High School, you’ll see us run the same things that Corino ran. I saw
Brian’s team play recently and they ran I-Attack, just like we do. We
even call the plays by the same names.”
That’s not a bad idea, considering Corino’s Cougars won 98 games during
the five-year span with Gaccione and Kennedy. Gaccione was a sophomore
starting point guard and Kennedy was a freshman when the Cougars won the
program’s first CACC tournament crown and advanced to the NAIA national
tournament in 1993. In 1996, the year after Gaccione graduated, Kennedy
took over at the point and helped lead Caldwell back to the national
tourney with the school’s second conference tournament title.
“I use a lot of the same offensive and defensive principles that Coach
used. The only difference is he had 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-10 guys for his
power game,” said Gaccione, referring to former Cougar greats such as
Matt Stuart and Brian Tonkovich. “I have 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-2 guys to
work with.”
Corino, who ranks fifth all-time among New Jersey men’s college
basketball coaches with 417 career wins in 24 years, is proud of how
well Gaccione and Kennedy have done as coaches and educators after
graduating from Caldwell. Gaccione is in his 10th year as a
seventh-grade math teacher at Hackensack Middle School, while Kennedy
taught history for six years at St. Joseph’s before becoming a vice
principal at the Hudson County Catholic school in 2005.
“[Brian and Damian] have had nice careers,” Corino said. “It’s an honor,
and it makes me feel good that they have gone on to do so well.
Hopefully some of the things we were able to provide for them are being
passed on to their players. I’m looking forward to watching their teams
and seeing if they adhere to some of the philosophies that we taught
here.
“It’s nice to provide the opportunity for Brian and Damian to come back
and play here, and to continue to be a part of the Caldwell College
family.”
And that, more than ‘I-Attack,’ ‘Double-Stack’ or any other play the two
alums learned from Corino is what all of his former players take from
their experience at Caldwell: a sense of family. “Coach created a family
atmosphere with his teams, and I try to do the same with mine,” said
Kennedy, who, along with Gaccione and many other former Cougars have
come back to play in the annual alumni games. “I’m still great friends
with my old teammates. I can’t stress enough the value of the
friendships I made at Caldwell. That was the best part of my experience
there.”
Gaccione recalls a time when Corino provided a bit of fatherly advice
that helped him become a better player. The program’s first major
recruit from talent-rich Bergen County, Gaccione had what he calls a
“disappointing” freshman season. “Coach told me he’d have to go in a
different direction if I didn’t get in shape,” said Gaccione. “So I took
his advice and worked hard in the offseason. I ended up having my best
year as a sophomore.” That year, he led the NAIA in assists with 7.8 per
game, as the Cougars captured their first of five conference tournament
crowns. Gaccione finished his career as Caldwell’s all-time leader in
assists with 803.
“[Corino] has a way of communicating with people and dealing with
different personalities,” Gaccione said. “He would get on people when he
needed to, and at the same time he would stroke people when he needed
to.”
Gaccione marvels at how the program and the College has grown, citing
Caldwell’s NCAA Division II status, exhibition games with Rutgers and
Seton Hall, and the five-year-old state-of-the-art Newman Center as
signs that Caldwell College has made great strides since he graduated.
He remembers parking his car on game nights where the Newman Center now
stands. On Saturday, when he brings his Rutherford team into the Newman
Center, he can point to the rafters and show his players the banners he
helped the Cougars win when he and Kennedy were teammates.
“Damian was my college roommate and my backup for three years,” Gaccione
said. “He was always competing with me, trying to take my minutes. Now
we’re trying to beat each other as coaches.”
Regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s game, the relationship of the
two head coaches - former teammates and roommates during their time at
Caldwell College - will not change.
“We worked hard against each other in practice, but off the court we’ve
always been good friends,” Kennedy said. “We’ve always been able to put
the competition aside.”
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