By Michael Letendre

Former Bristol Eastern boys basketball standout Tim Tycz feels left out within the pages of TBE.

And he probably felt the same when reading Lancers’ hoop stories from back in the day in that recently defunct Bristol weekly newspaper.

If Tycz reads TBE, and we all know he does, he’s observed stories about most of his family.

We’ve talked about the exploits of Tim’s sisters, Tricia and Traci, and there have been recent events about his nephew Jack Stavens and his niece Emma.

I’ve even mentioned, once or twice, that his brother-in-law, John Stavens, was at some of the same basketball games in 1993-94 when Rockville played Bristol Eastern in basketball (hey Mr. Stavens, how did those games go for you at Rockville?).

But what about Tim and the boys basketball exploits of his Lancers from in and around 1995?

And I’ve heard it from some of his teammates (guys with the last name like Gaudet, Kozlak or Dickau. Well, not Dickau) about how that 1995-96 boys squad at Eastern never gets enough credit.

I’m not sure how much credit that 1995-96 CCC South championship squad deserves because that group took its lumps before finally getting to the pay window.

Actually, it was nearly a year-and-a-half worth of lumps.

Tycz and company were all sophomores, with freshman David Giovinazzo tagging along, as the Lancers’ program in 1993-94 was ten seniors strong.

Usually, a sophomore or two can produce a little bit on the varsity level but that was not going to be the case for Eastern, 18-4 overall that year.

Coach Mike Giovinazzo had to do an incredible balancing act, trying to keep his senior core happy and the long time mentor did an amazing job with that crew.

And that meant that most of the reserve minutes went to seniors with precious little time for the JV counterparts.

There wasn’t any way for those youngsters to see significant floor time because even Eastern’s ninth and tenth men, Richard ‘Don’t call me Richard’ Block and David ‘Z-Man’ Zbikowski didn’t get to play in every game.

So in 1993-94, the JV core group of Jimmy Deschaine, Steve Gaudet, Shawn Paul, Keith Veins, Jon Kozlak, Giovinazzo, and Tycz played just over 100 combined minutes in varsity games that were long over and against other JV opponents.

Plus, coach Giovinazzo and that varsity crew had big plans that year.

Eastern ended the regular season as co-CCC South champs, the first time a Giovinazzo coached team ever earned that honor, and the squad made it to the second round of Class L state tournament play before falling to Danbury (Danbury went to the finals but lost to future NBA Marcus Camby and Hartford Public in a romp).

But one year later, the Lancers had only one senior, nice guy Brian Mello, and he was in the same boat as everyone else in terms of experience.

However, that team started the 1994-95 off at 3-0 – winning those contests by a combined ten points which was a sign of things to come the following season. 

But on December 29, 1994, Eastern played at the Third Annual Blue Devils Classic in Plainville and was leading the Blue Devils, 43-28, with one quarter left to play.

Deschaine was tasked in spearheading a box-and-one defense on Plainville sharpshooter Lance Lamboley.

But Lamboley went off and the Lancers turned the ball over several times to help Plainville outscore Eastern 26-7 in a shocking 54-50 loss (the summer before, Deschaine was pitching for the Bristol American Legion baseball team in the Northeast Regional, hit the New Jersey’s coach’s son, and nearly got his coach, Jim Ziogas, into a brawl).

It was the first of 16 losses that season with only a 47-38 win against New Britain on January 19, 1995 the highlight of a dreadful and dreary 4-16 campaign.

That group gained invaluable experience, Tycz canned 26 three-pointers, but when the 1995-96 season unfolded, it was a slow start to the year.

Would it be a repeat performance and another losing campaign?

After just seven games, it was difficult to tell.

The Lancers started the season at 1-3 before a wacky start to Eastern’s game versus non-conference opponent Vinal Tech, a contest where the JV team – including future Green Beret John Phelan – started the varsity game as Tycz and friends (that’s a great name for a sitcom on Netflix) began the contest watching from the bench.

Eventually, the locals moved to 2-3 with a 62-46 win over Vinal Tech.

However, the next two games were losses.

The locals were smoked, falling to Maloney (65-44) on January 5 while the following evening, at home against Bulkeley, Eastern fell to the Bulldogs by five (69-64) as the Lancers were 2-5 after seven games.

After that dastardly start, did Eastern ever recover to make it a competitive season?

Did Tycz hit more three three-pointers to help the Lancers win any additional games?

Did Gaudet ever lead the team in scoring that year? (spoiler alert, he did not)

Check back with TBE in a few days to read part two of this riveting and inspiring tale.