My home town of Sutton lost a great coach, man, and friend this past weekend. Steve Romasco, long time coach of the Sammies basketball team and staple in the small community we grew up in, died unexpectedly last night of a stroke at age 57. He will be sadly missed.
In addition to having Mr Romasco has a social studies teacher, and basketball coach (at camp…not school…I am 5′8″ for christ sakes) I will always remember riding to the Patriots training camp down at Bryant college in the back of his big grey station wagon to go meet Tony Eason, Doug Flutie, Raymond Berry and other Patriot “greats” when I was about 12 years old . He could fit about 10 of us in the back of that car and he did. And we loved it. And so did he.
By Rich Garven TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
rgarven@telegram.comWORCESTER- The Central Massachusetts athletic community lost one of its most respected members yesterday with the death of Stephen Romasco, coach of Sutton High School’s boys varsity basketball team.
Romasco, 57, was a fixture on the Sutton bench for 30 seasons, amassing 435 wins, six Clark University Tournament titles, and three Central Massachusetts championships. He also taught social studies at the school, retiring in November after 34 years as an educator.
“He was just a gifted man,” Sutton athletic director Dan Delongchamp said. “He is almost an icon in our community, but never bigger than the kids and that was the best part.”
Romasco’s death was startling, coming about 22 hours after he complained to assistant coach Joe Lapere of a headache midway through the Sammies’ 65-40 win over Bartlett High School Sunday night in the opening round of the 66th annual Clark Tournament.
Romasco was coherent when he left Kneller Athletic Center and was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center. A series of tests, including a CT scan, revealed Romasco had suffered a “massive cerebral hemorrhage,” his son, Chris, said yesterday afternoon.
The cause of the hemorrhage was unknown, but Romasco was removed from life support at an undetermined time yesterday and died a few minutes after 6 p.m.
A small group of family members and friends kept watch through the ordeal, including Romasco’s wife of 30 years, Kathleen; his son, Chris, 24; and his daughter, Catherine, 20. The family lost not only a husband and a father, but a friend as well.
“My dad was my best friend ever,” Chris Romasco said. “He was my sister’s best friend. He was my mother’s best friend. He was my brother’s best friend. I can’t accentuate him being a family man without saying how much he was our best friend.”
The Romascos’ middle child, Alex, died unexpectedly July 30 at the family’s Sutton home at the age of 22. He was buried a few days later on his parents’ wedding anniversary.
Chris and Catherine Romasco stopped by the school early last night and briefly met with the Sutton players before returning to the hospital to rejoin their family.
“They went to convey their father’s expectations that they would continue to compete and play through this,” said David E. Roach, a longtime family friend, “that they would represent the school the way he wanted them to.”
Top-seeded Sutton is scheduled to play Bromfield at 7:45 p.m. tomorrow in a Clark Tournament Small Schools semifinal. The game will go on.
“The kids are going to do what Stephen would want them to do,” Delongchamp said. “They’ll play, they’ll compete, and they’ll make the best of the situation.”
Andy Niedzwiecki played for Romasco from 1991 to 1995 and is considered among the finest players to don the green and white. He went on to attend Assumption College, from which Romasco graduated in 1969, and followed his mentor into the teaching and coaching professions at Auburn High School.
“Other than my parents, he’s been the most important person in my life,” a tearful Niedzwiecki said. “Especially going into teaching and coaching, I’ve looked up to him. I loved what he did, and I wanted to do the same thing.”
Romasco was raised in Whitinsville and attended Northbridge High School, graduating in 1965. However, he made his home - and a name for himself - in Sutton.
“It was Steve’s program,” Nipmuc Regional High School coach Jim Grant said. “He’s the one who drew the philosophy up there. Sutton is known for its soccer and basketball, and Steve should get all the credit for what they’ve done in basketball.”
Grant, who has been at Nipmuc since 1975, likely coached more games against Romasco than anyone else. He always walked away from those Dual Valley Conference meetings - many of them memorable - with a deep appreciation for his coaching adversary.
“Steve’s teams played great defense,” Grant said slowly, choking on the words. “He had a great philosophy, especially when the 3-point shot came in. He put an emphasis on the 3-point shot, but he also worked on theinside game. His teams were always well disciplined, and he always had a great plan.”
Grant graduated from Assumption with Romasco and has often mentioned that neither played basketball for the Greyhounds. Grant was on the baseball team, Romasco was on the golf team.
Ironically, Romasco didn’t play varsity basketball in high school. The powerhouse teams Northbridge fielded in the mid-1960s deterred him from trying out, recalled then-coach John Doldoorian Sr. None of that kept Romasco from developing into a Hall of Fame-caliber
coach, father and husband.“He’s such a great kid … the whole family is just such good people,” Doldoorian said
Romasco loved animals as much as he loved basketball.
On Wednesday night, he and his wife delivered seven German shepherd puppies in the basement of their west Sutton farmhouse. The first dog was born at 11:30 p.m., the last one just after 8:30 a.m. Thursday. At 7:30 that night, Romasco coached Sutton to a share of the Dual Valley Conference championship with a win over Blackstone-Millville Regional.
“I didn’t get much sleep,” Romasco said before practice Friday. “Thank goodness the team played well and that I didn’t have to do a lot of coaching.”
The Romascos bought the adult German shepherd last year. The family has always bred dogs, but not in years.
Stephen Romasco fostered a winning atmosphere at Sutton that permeated through the Central Massachusetts athletic community. He will be missed.
Telegram & Gazette staff members Dave Nordman and Jennifer Toland
contributed to this report.
February 24th, 2005 at 11:39 am
More Here…
And Here…
February 24th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Thank you very much, Andrew for posting this tribute to Steve Romasco. I attended Sutton High in the late 70’s and had Mr. Romasco for Social Studies. He was a great teacher & a great man. Although I now live in Southern California, I was devastated to hear the news that Mr. Romasco had died. I feel really bad for his wife & kids. He will be missed very, very much.
Thanks again, Andrew, for posting this information.
March 5th, 2005 at 10:57 am
Another great article here from Dan Shaughnessy
March 11th, 2005 at 6:08 pm
Impressive web site you have here. I don’t know how the hell I found it but I’m very impressed.
Your old coach - well, not that old!
December 25th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Fuck you ken. mr. ramasco was the shit. he was my mentor, and was like a father to me. i hope you eat shit.
December 26th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Eric, I think you misunderstood Ken’s comment. The coach comment he made was in reference to him (ken) being my old coach, and had nothing to do with Mr. Romasco.