By Michael Letendre
UNCASVILLE – At the end of the 2006-07 scholastic basketball season, Bristol Eastern coach Mike Giovinazzo had a battery of assistant coaches who he trusted implicitly.
And ‘Coach G’ wanted to keep that staff – including Bunty Ray and Tim Barrette – intact for a very long time.
Those were system guys, players that have suited up for Giovinazzo over multiple sports – and trusted leaders around his program.
But when Bristol Central coach Pete Wininger decided to call it a career, a very attractive job opened up.
And Barrette pounced on the opportunity.
“I was 23” years old when I took this job said Barrette. “But all I knew was I wanted my program to be a family. My family is all here in the stands [at the championship game from Mohegan Sun] because we’re all one.”
Wininger was coming off a 7-13 campaign as none of the boys basketball programs in town were headed for the state tournament that year.
It was an attractive job as DaQuan Brooks was going to be entering his senior season and Barrette knew what he could accomplish as the head coach of the BCHS program with players like that in the mix.
Barrette was a gritty player on Eastern’s football and baseball teams as well, and with his fiery demeaner, a transition to the head gig seemed like a logical move.
Coach Giovinazzo never looked forward to his matchups against Barrette on the hardwood (but Giovinazzo enjoyed beating up Ray along the way in baseball) and, like all good mentors must endure, the former Bristol Eastern standout took his lumps along the way.
Barrette dropped 10 of his first 13 games during his first campaign in 2007-08 but saw his squad reel off seven straight games to finish the regular season at 10-10.
From there, he won just 15 games from 2008-11 but off those struggles, Barrette’s imprint on the program began to shine through.
“We would lose a lot of close games,” said Barrette of his early days at BC. “We played teams that were much better than us but always held our own for three quarters. We just couldn’t finish.”
Starting in 2011, all of Barrette’s teams have been playoff participants as he’s posted a ledger of 158-84 (.653) since his last non-playoff team.
And his squads have been serious state tournament contenders over a number of those outstanding years.
“As a public school, you go through cycles,” said Barrette. “I’ve been on an up-swing for 12 or 13 years. We’ve been good.”
But until the last two seasons, the 2013-14 was the finest example of Barrette could do with a talented group as the squad went a sterling 20-5 and forced Class L runner-up Career Magnet to overtime in a semifinal war back on March 18 from New Britain high school.
The third ranked Rams ended up dropping a heartbreaking 66-61 decision in overtime as No. 2 Career ended up falling to No. 4 Windsor, 63-59, in the finals.
That was a tremendous group behind the likes of Jake Collins (14.6 points-per-game), Manny Severino (14.4 ppg), Mount Ida bound Joey DeFillippi (11.6 ppg), Landin Rutledge, Ty Hamel, L.J. Johnson, Kyle Pileski, and Devin Francis.
Then with the arrival of Donovan Clingan in the fall of 2018, the future multi-time All-State and Gatorade Player of the Year was a complete game-changer for Barrette.
And the combination of Damion Glasper, Steve Alseph, Carson Rivoira, and Victor Rosa were excellent representatives of the Central basketball program – on and off the court.
Those players went after everything, doing a ton of dirty work along the way, and that gritty group did their job to perfection, 24/7.
“We’ve been a good sports town for a long time,” said Barrette. “We have good athletes. But I also think Bristol is a hard-working town and they really flocked to this team. Yeah, we have Donovan who’s a superstar [but] we have guys around him that work hard, even some of subs that don’t play much. [It’s] unbelievable.”
That 2013-14 roster was a good one and Barrette never relented from what he learned along the way in building his program from there.
And when the 2021 campaign finally got off the ground, the Rams have never lost a game since.
“I knew if I stuck with the program” we could succeed said Barrette. “I’ve had teachers and tutors [like] Mike Giovinazzo and working up at UCONN. Coach G was my idol for a long time and he still is. He taught me the value of hard work and never being satisfied and because of that, I am the coach that I am today because of Mike Giovinazzo.”
RIM DUST…At one point in his career, Barrette was sitting on a .500 winning percentage all-time at Bristol Central (140-140). But forty-three straight victories later, Barrette is currently 183-140 for a slick .560 winning percentage…With those 183 victories, Barrette is the winningest boys basketball coach in school history.
