JEROME BONOMOLO

Jerome Bonomolo has proved that no matter how long it may take, if you have a dream and a passion for achieving a goal, with hard work that goal will be met.

He attended Ithaca College after graduating from Pearl River High School in 1951. In 1953 Jerome enlisted in the Army, where he served in Korea and Japan for 16 months. He had a successful career in business but always harbored the dream of teaching physical education and coaching. With that goal in mind, he went back to school in 1962, bringing his wife, Annette, and two young sons, J.P. and Gary, to Ithaca, where the Bonomolos’ third child, Andrea, was born. He graduated in 1964.

Jerome’s first job as a teacher was at Midland Park (N.J.) High School from 1964 to 1968. He was the varsity basketball coach and assisted in football and baseball. Jerome’s career at Nanuet spanned 20 years, from 1968 to 1988. He taught physical education at all levels – kindergarten through 12^th grade – at Highview and George W. Miller elementary schools, Nanuet Middle School and Nanuet High School, and coached freshman, junior varsity and varsity sports.

Jerome coached varsity boys’ basketball for 16 years, coed varsity golf seven years, JV baseball 12 years, JV football 12 years, and JV girls’ volleyball eight years. His basketball teams earned more than 100 victories. He coached three Section 9 (Rockland, Orange, Ulster, Sullivan counties) championship teams – 1971, 1974 and 1975, and he coached the Golden Knights to a runner-up position in Section 9 in 1969, his first year at the helm. The 1974 team had the best record in the program’s history at 17-4, playing against Rockland County schools large and small.

The 1975 team played in the first crossover game against another Sectional champ (Section 1), at the dawn of the New York State playoffs for boys’ basketball. In all but two of his 16 years as head coach, Nanuet – the smallest public school in Rockland – played against Class A (large) schools in addition to similar-sized schools.

Jerome ran the Saturday morning basketball program at the high school for grades 3-6, coached by the Nanuet basketball players. He started the summer evening basketball open gym at the middle school for children from all schools in Rockland. He also was the organizer of the St. Agatha summer basketball tournament with Larry Burns. The tournament had teams from Westchester, Orange, Bergen and Rockland counties as well as New York City. Games were played at St. Agatha, Pearl River and Nanuet.

Jerome had the privilege to have coached Darryl Brown, who later starred for Fordham University. At Nanuet Darryl was the county scoring champion his senior year and the first 1,000-point career scorer in school history. He was selected first-team New York Daily News All-Stars and first-team All-County by The Journal-News. Darryl is a charter member of the Nanuet Sports Hall of Fame and also was enshrined in the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame.

Several other players enjoyed outstanding careers under Jerome’s tutelage. Tom Gavigan was first-team All-County and small-school honorable mention All-America at Dominican College. Steve Maizes also was first-team All-County and had an outstanding career at Wesleyan College, where he made Atlantic Coast Athletic Conference player of the week on multiple occasions. Dave Powers went on to become a record-setting varsity girls’ basketball coach at Nanuet, while Mike Delli Pizzi became the varsity boys’ basketball coach at Nanuet. He now holds the same position at Mahwah (N.J.) High School.

In golf, Jerome’s team was the first public school in Rockland to have a girl (Annemarie McCarthy) play on a boys’ team. The golf team won a co-championship in 1987. Jerome coached John Hackett, who qualified for the New York State tournament at Cornell. John was one of six players from all of Rockland and Westchester to qualify.

In 1974 Jerome had the honor of being named boys’ basketball Coach of the Year in Rockland as well as New York Daily News Coach of the Year, which encompassed Rockland, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties.

Jerome was inducted into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 as an athlete and coach, and earned enshrinement into the Pearl River High School Sports Hall of Fame as an athlete in 2000.

Jerome turns 74 on November 19. He and his wife, Annette, will celebrate 50 years of marriage in 2007. Their three children, J.P., Gary and Andrea (Smith), all went through the Nanuet school system. Annette retired after 24 years teaching in Nanuet. J.P., a 1976 Nanuet graduate, was named All-County in football and baseball by both The Journal-News and New York Daily News. He and wife Charlotte have two boys, Matthew and Bret, now attending Nanuet High School.

Gary, a 1978 graduate, starred for the ’78 baseball team, which was inducted into the Nanuet Sports Hall of Fame two years ago. Gary and wife Patti also have two boys, Kevin and Brian, who attend Westwood, N.J., schools.

Andrea, a 1981 Nanuet graduate and captain of the varsity cheerleaders her senior year, has been teaching in the Nanuet School District for 22 years. She and husband Bryan have two children, Stephanie and Joseph, who attend Pearl River schools.

The Bonomolos and Nanuet are truly a family affair.