By Michael Letendre 

NEW HAVEN – We have never seen anything like the Bristol Central boys basketball team in town.

And we might not ever again for 32 years or so.

That’s how long Central plans to go between state championships.

Just that fact that this outstanding group of kids at Central finally got their chance at a full blown CIAC, Division II championship is a huge accomplishment.

And when the time came to finally qualify for the Division II finals, this squad from “up on the hill” seized the opportunity, buzz sawing through all the competition.

These kids deserve everything after all the tomfoolery they had to endure due to the pandemic over the last two-plus years.  

“I hope the town is as proud as I am of these guys,” said an emotional Tim Barrette after his squad defeated Wilton. “It’s been a long year to be honest. It’s been a long two years, three years having the opportunity taken away [from these guys] as sophomores. Junior year, we won everything we could and this year, obviously, 27-0, we’ve won everything.” 

“Everything else is gravy.” 

The way Central plays is exactly the way its coach played when he attended high school at Bristol Eastern in late 1990s and early 2000s.

Every game was life or death, the scouting report was the most important part of preparation, and if you weren’t wearing a blue and white uniform, you were about to get knocked down and beaten up.

Fast forward to 2022 and Barrette’s squad at BCHS has so many of the same traits — and a 7-foot-2 center to boot.

“I pour my heart and soul into this,” said Barrette. “And so do my guys. That only way this works as a relationship is when we’re on the same page and my team and I are on the same page.” 

And it wasn’t easy to get to Mohegan Sun with that ultra-huge bullseye on Central’s collective back.

Frankly, that bullseye was firmly affixed to Central even before the pandemic took hold and when a state tournament championship was finally in the cards in Connecticut, for the first time in nearly three years, the Rams took full advantage. 

“We just want an opportunity to play for a state title,” said Barrette. “Obviously, we want to win it. At the same time, we want to have an opportunity to take the floor at Mohegan Sun this weekend and I’m hoping that we right this and that the town comes out to support this team because there are no better group of kids in town than playing Bristol Central basketball.” 

And don’t think for one second that the players at Central aren’t excited to get to play one final game from the Mohegan Sun Arena.  

“It feels great,” said Central center Donovan Clingan. “We’ve played there earlier in the year [against East Catholic] but that was just a regular season game. “Saturday is for the state championship, and that’s why I came and stayed at Central, to bring a state championship to the town, the school, to everyone that deserves it.”

“I just couldn’t be more excited.” 

And this team is playing with a little inspiration as well.

Barrette lost his aunt, Sharon Jane Wurzinger, at the end of this past January and she might have been one of Bristol Central’s biggest and most dedicated basketball fans.

She was in attendance the last time Barrette and company played at Mohegan Sun and Wurzinger will be there in spirit on Saturday when Central battles Northwest Catholic there too.

“This is really a special game for me, I’ll be honest, going back to Mohegan,” said Barrette. “I lost my aunt in January. The last thing she did was go to my game against East Catholic and the next day, she went into the hospital [with] COVID and never came back out. So I made a promise I would get back there. She got us through a little bit and Donovan just recently lost his grandfather.”

“We’re playing with a lot of emotion and we have a lot of help on our side.”  

It’s hard to see anything slowing down this program in winning a state championship on Saturday against Northwest Catholic.