Longtime Catholic school educator starts girls summer basketball league in Webster

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

When John Kottori realized that his daughter and other girls in Webster had no opportunity to play organized basketball in town, he bounced into action.

“I said, ‘Something’s got to be done,’” he said. “I wasn’t going to sit back and say, ‘Well, that’s just the way things are.’ I’m just not built that way.”

Bartlett High hasn’t had varsity, junior varsity or freshmen girls basketball for the past two years because of a lack of interest. The Webster summer parks basketball league started long ago by former Bartlett coach and athletic director Don Cushing no longer exists.

Mr. Kottori’s daughter, Jehna, 14, will enter the eighth grade this fall. She played on the Webster Middle School team last winter and for two AAU teams last spring, one of which her father coached, but she was one of those who needed a place to play this summer.

So Mr. Kottori, 56, organized the Central Mass. Athletic Club (CMAC) Hawks AAU Girls Summer Basketball League at St. Joseph School that ran from the end of June through Aug. 11.

Mr. Kottori is in his second year at St. Joseph School where he is a teacher, guidance counselor and newly appointed athletic director. Previously, he spent 22 years teaching at Our Lady of the Angels School in Worcester as an educator and administrator.

The league had teams in two age divisions. Girls entering grades four through six played on Monday nights and those entering grades seven through nine played on Sunday nights.

The league began with four teams in each age division, but the older division grew to six teams. In addition to Webster, the teams included girls from Worcester, Sutton and Millbury, and from as far away as Chelsea, and Thompson and Killingly, Conn.

A total of 97 girls took part in the league. About two-thirds of them played in the older division.

“Much bigger than I thought it would be,” Mr. Kottori said.

Ryan Brown, who Mr. Kottori coached in AAU years ago, brought enough players to fill three teams in the summer program. Mr. Brown scored 1,000 points at Holy Name High and was recently named head men’s basketball coach at Quinsigamond Community College. He runs an AAU team called GHOSH, which stands for Go Hard Or Stay Home.

Mr. Cushing’s daughter, Tricia Espinosa, entered a team, and her daughter, Teagan, played on it.

Mr. Cushing also has a soft spot in his heart for St. Joseph School, having served as principal at St. Joseph from 2007-2015. So he was pleased to see that Mr. Kottori formed a summer league there.

“He has a vision and he has the determination, but he’s always had the determination in his life,” Mr. Cushing said, “and this is just another tentacle of it. He’s on a mission to help girls basketball become renewed.”

Mr. Kottori coached in the league, but not his daughter’s team. He coached a team in the younger division with the most Webster girls.

“So I see a little spark that could really ignite something special in that group,” Mr. Kottori said. “They come out and compete, play hard and show camaraderie - everything that I grew up in Webster seeing in Webster kids.”

The league didn’t keep standings, but the Webster teams won their share of games.

The younger group heard from such guest speakers as Worcester State women’s basketball coach Karen Tessmer, UMass-Boston deputy athletic director Stephanie Dollar, a Webster native, and Shepherd Hill Regional girls’ basketball coach Maura Hackenson, Mr. Cushing’s daughter. Mrs. Hackenson’s daughter, Ryleigh, played in the league.

St. Joseph principal Beth Boudreau granted permission for the league to play its games at the school’s gymnasium.

“She saw the diminished opportunities, especially on the girls’ side, and said yes without hesitation,” Mr. Kottori said. “A couple of nights, she came and watched. So full support. She understands community.”

The summer league provided St. Joseph School with some beneficial exposure. Some parents of players in the summer league expressed interest in the school.

Mr. Cushing, 82, fondly remembers the glory days of Bartlett girls’ basketball in the 1990s.
“Three years in a row we went to the state semifinals,” he said, “and it’s dwindled that much so now we don’t even have any. So John has picked up the torch and he’s doing it for free and he’s doing it passionately.”

Mr. Kottori’s Catholic religion played a big role in his decision to help out.

“Every part of whether I’m teaching in a Catholic school,” he said, “or coaching in a non-Catholic environment, it always drives me.”

Mr. Kottori hopes to grow the summer league even bigger next year. Basketball has always been important to him.

When he attended Bartlett High, Mr. Kottori kept the boys basketball team stats for Mr. Cushing. Later, he served as junior varsity coach under Mr. Cushing and taught at the school.

“He’s been a true mentor to me,” Mr. Kottori said, “in every aspect, a second father to me.”
While attending Springfield College, Mr. Kottori coached football, baseball and basketball at Springfield Cathedral High.

Mr. Kottori went on to serve as the New England director for AAU for 15 years until 2019 and he coached the Central Mass. AAU boys. He was also head coach at the former St. Mary’s High School in Worcester for boys and girls and the head boys basketball coach at Tourtellotte High in Thompson, Conn.

Mr. Kottori is a parishioner of St. Louis Parish in Webster and he attended the former St. Louis School which merged with St. Anne School in 2016 to form All Saints Academy.

Mr. Kottori was brought up Romanian Orthodox, but when his daughter was born 14 years ago, she was baptized Catholic and he decided to practice Catholicism too, the faith of his wife, Jessica, who passed  away three years ago.

The league was free for Webster Public School students and cost $25 for non-Webster Public School students with AAU memberships and $45 for non-Webster Public School students without AAU memberships.

Mr. Kottori said AAU basketball has become an expensive sport and he realizes that not everyone can afford to pay the required fees. So he does what he can to help cover those costs because he believes playing sports is a far better alternative to youths playing on their phones.

Mr. Kottori was disappointed that, other than his daughter, only two other girls from Webster took part in the older division, but he was pleased that seven Webster girls played in the younger division. There’s hope for the future.

“We’re building, as we call it in our Catholic faith, a community,” he said.