Catching up with Joe DeFillippi, Victor Rosa and Tom Angels; by the way, someone from Discovery called

Posted By: David Fortier April 27, 2024

By Bob Montgomery

Joe DeFillippi

Joe’s name came to mind the other day, so I looked him up on my computer because he has such an awesome bio. He joined head coach Tim Barrette as his assistant in helping Donovan Clingan grow as a person and basketball player at Bristol Central. In fact, it was a school community effort also led by principal Pete Wininger, the administration and teachers.

Back to Joe. He’s been a mentor to Bristol’s youth for decades after being a two-three-sport athlete here at Memorial Boulevard and Bristol Central, while also being a captain in two sports. He’s coached Little League teams to state titles, and is a model father to his son, Joey, a Bristol Central and college basketball standout. 

Victor Rosa

When I see someone on TV from Bristol, I sometimes will mention them here. Such is the case with Victor Rosa, Bristol Central graduate who is now practicing with the UConn football team for the third straight spring. With this, here are his stats the past two seasons, the latter where he was slowed down with injuries:

2022 — Led team with 11 rushing touchdowns and 636 rushing yards; 2023 — 550 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.

He’s played in 23 games, and his yards per carry averages were 4.5 and 4.9, respectively. He’s also a close friend to Donovan Clingan when they were the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked basketball players for Bristol Central not so long ago. Donovan being No. 1.

This and that

Someone asked me if I knew of Joe Caminiti. I told them that I did and the fellow told me that Joe is in his late 90’s, is full of zip and still drives. He’s one of our cherished WWII vets; Shout outs to — Dave Mills, Marilyn Buchanan and Bob Hilliard; a fellow by the name of Liam called me the other day from Discovery. He was asking about our annual high school Thanksgiving Day game here after seeing videos. We chatted for a while, and in summing things up, I told him that to me it was one of Bristol’s big social events of the year.  

Spotlight on Lydia Jasinski

Lydia is actually a classmate of mine from Bristol Eastern. She’s a retired Bristol educator who filled important positions at the Bristol Historical Society for many years. I believe she was vice-president of the organization multiple times. She is absolutely one of the town’s most knowledgeable historians. 

Bristol Blooms (Blossoms) no longer?

When I drove on Farmington Avenue up the hill towards Terryville a couple of weeks ago, I saw that the property with the “Bristol Blooms” flowers had empty shelves. A day or so before, it was loaded up with them? Don’t know what happened, but I’ll miss the place.

Interesting to note, the lady who operated the business is the daughter of Phil, who used to have a cart on the old Pine Street called “Phil’s Dogs.” Nice folks!

Tom Angels

My friend called Tom, owner of Colonial Tree, to see about cutting one down in the backyard and we received a call back from a fellow who has worked with Tom, who says Tom is on vacation and slowing down towards a retirement.  We then left a message for Tom to call us when he returns.

With this, it reminded me that the likeness of the soldier on the Revolutionary War Monument on Memorial Boulevard is that of Tom. That’ll be a cool trivia question down the road.

Contact Bob Montgomery at BobMontgomeryNews@BristolEdition.org or by calling 860-583-5132.

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