By Michael Letendre

UNCASVILLE – To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.

Or in scholastic boys basketball in Connecticut, to be the team, you have to beat the team.

And the team over at Bristol Central did not have an equal during the 2021-22 campaign.

The Rams went a sterling 28-0, winning its own holiday tournament all the way to the CIAC Division II championship with Central’s 56-36 victory over Northwest Catholic the crowning moment.

The win over the Lions ended up being the largest margin of victory in the ten games played on championship weekend this year.

An undefeated season is amazing over just one campaign, but Central head coach Tim Barrette did it over back-to-back years.

That’s 43-0 over two seasons – the maximum number of wins possible with the schedule allowed due the pandemic and the like.

“Only one team gets to walk away saying they didn’t lose our last game and we’ve been lucky to do that two years in a row,” said Barrette after the victory over Northwest. “I can’t give these kids enough credit. Forty-three straight wins without getting tripped up, that’s a major accomplishment.” 

Per usual, Barrette passed the credit over to his players throughout the years such as Donovan Clingan, Victor Rosa, Damion Glasper, Steve Alseph, Carson Rivoira, D’Ante Ross, Eli Rodriguez and Sean Wininger.

That group never lost over their senior seasons.

As tremendous as those last two years were, you need the right mentors in place to make it all work.

Central assistant coaches Joe DeFillippi, Kyle Phelan, and Keith Lipscomb were the perfect balance to help Barrette make everything work.

And the program was successful this season on every level.

“I want to give my coaches a lot of credit,” said Barrette. “This is not a one-man show. My staff is great. I have experience, I have enthusiasm, and top to bottom this year as a program, we’re like 65-4. I can’t thank my coaches enough.” 

Barrette was a bulldog as a player at Bristol Eastern and that never changed as coach at Bristol Central.

And he’s proven to be one heck of a coach and a remarkable individual.

Running the Gauntlet

If you truly peel back all the layers of what made Central’s season a complete success, it takes so many different elements to fall into place – especially if you want to win a state title.

And if you need a blueprint for success, look at what Bristol Central accomplished because it was a model program.

Call it lighting in a bottle as Barrette and those veteran players captured it in the most amazing way.

Undefeated seasons and state championships are near impossible to tally but even with a bullseye bigger than your average 7-foot-2 center on Central’s collective backs, those players and that coaching staff made it all work out in the end.

And no one knows how truly hard it is to accomplish all of that than Pete Wininger, the coach Barrette took over for at BCHS and the school’s current principal.

“So I think there’s a lot of factors that make it near impossible” in winning a state title said Wininger. “These kids have been together for the last three years, two of which were kind of taken away from them in terms of the tournament standpoint. To string together the number of wins that [Barrette] did and to handle all the pressure throughout the year with the target on your back, with the biggest and best player in the state, to be able to handle that pressure, and for the kids to be able to handle it, it’s just a credit to Barrette.” 

These athletes played as a unit, and for each other, with a singular focus – taking one game at a time – and winning at an elite level.

It was also that family atmosphere that Barrette fostered which made it all work out in the end.

And in the end, there was always a mission to accomplish.

“Coach Barrette was able to manage these kids, keep them focused – their eye on the prize – and they’ve always set those goals,” said Wininger. “They’ve always focused on [those goals], met them, and here we are.” 

“That’s a tremendous credit to him, his staff, the school community, and the players especially, and their parents. 

“It’s a phenomenal group.”

And Wininger had some good teams under his watch.

He was an excellent coach and mentor for his teams with the likes of D.J. and Aaron Hernandez, ‘Big Deli’ Jeff Salovski, Steve Hasler, Chris Klepps, Mike Cifone, and Brandon Dudzinski on the court in the mid-2000s.

But the team, 24-2 in 2003, just couldn’t get over the hump against Bridgeport Central in state tournament play – losing 85-81 in overtime – and one year later, it was a 63-54 loss to the same program as the Rams were 19-6.

And for Barrette, Central’s nemesis was Northwest Catholic (25-3 overall this season) and head coach John Mirabello.

Mirabello is one of the state’s best, putting together several championship squads at NWC, and that mentor – with over 600 wins on his ledger – was the veteran Barrette had to lock horns against.

And over the last two seasons, Bristol Central was 3-0 against that juggernaut.

The Lions were considered one of the best programs in Connecticut this season but was only second best in reality.

That’s because Central was the best and early on, the Rams went from being hunted to being the hunter.

On the way to a perfect 2021 campaign, Central spun Northwest 71-60 in the semifinals of the CCC Tournament and then this year, it was a repeat performance – times two.

In the finals of the CCC’s on March 3, the Rams got to the pay window via a 63-56 victory over NWC and then everyone knows what happened at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday night.

Who is the best now?

It’s the program from Bristol Central.

“I tell these guys all the time that John Mirabello was coaching when I was in high school,” said Wininger. “I played against him when he was coaching [at St. Paul]. And John is a tremendous coach. He has 600 wins.”

“You have to beat the best to be the best and we’ve shown that this year for sure.”