Peekskill’s Frank Bucci might be in his first year as a head varsity football coach, but he brings a wealth of gridiron experience to the position.
Bucci learned early on what a top-notch high-school program was all about when he played wide receiver at Iona Prep, graduating in 1993.
In college, Bucci played wide receiver and tight end for a respectable Division II program at Pace University. He was a four-year starter and two-year captain at the Pleasantville campus.
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“Coming from a place where we won at Iona Prep, it was a culture shock to go to a team that was 0-10 my freshman year,” Bucci said. “There were 11 of us who started on that team and we improved from 0-10, to 2-8, to 6-4 before going 7-3 my senior year. There I learned what it meant to start a program from the ground up.”
Bucci now finds himself in a similar situation at Peekskill, coaching a Red Devil squad whose last winning season was in 2000 when Coach Kenny Haskins led the team to a 5-3 campaign.
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Bucci, who played three years of minor-league football as a wide receiver after college, got the coaching bug and spent a year as a varsity assistant coach at Westlake in 2003 before becoming the junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant coach at Pleasantville from 2004-2009. He was part of a Panther program that won league championships the last three years he was an assistant there.
After taking a year off from coaching, Bucci now realizes he has a challenge ahead of him at Peekskill. He said his main goal is trying to change the culture of the program and bring back its pride.
“I’ve been doing YouTube videos (season and player highlights), filling the locker room with pictures from various teams over the past 25 years, [and] created the Facebook page for announcements, videos and photos from the past and present,” Bucci said. “I’ve also had trendy Peekskill football shirts designed to help in raising money for new uniforms this year.”
“Sometimes when you need change, you may have to do it from the outside in.”
Peekskill, which started preseason practice Friday, will play its first game at home against Byram Hills at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 10.
