Jack Purificato
Brockport CSD Teacher/Coach - Section V Boys Basketball Chair
Jack Purificato graduated from Troy Catholic Central in 1969. He attended Hudson Valley Community College before transferring and graduating from SUNY Brockport in 1973. He received his Masters from University of Oklahoma in 1982.
Jack taught in the Brockport Central School District from September 1973 – June 2006 with the exception of 1981-1982 at the University of Oklahoma while engaged in his masters. While in his time at Brockport he mainly coached basketball. That said he also coached at various times: Modified Boys Basketball-(Brock), JV Girls Basketball (Brock), Varsity Girls Basketball (Brock), JV Boys Basketball (Arcadia), Varsity Boys Basketball (Spencerport); JV Boys Soccer (Brock), Varsity Boys Soccer (Brock), T&F (Brock), and JV Baseball (Brock). Jack was also an assistant basketball coach at SUNY Brockport.
Jack joined the Section V Boys Basketball Committee in 1985. His role was to greet the teams and make any corrections to the rosters of the teams playing--he had to provide 40 rosters per game and make additions and deletions by hand. In 1989 he was given the role of court supervisor – all going on inside the arena was his responsibility including: teams, refs, score table personnel, halftime coordination, end of game procedures and anything else that needed to be taken care of.
In 1999, after the sudden passing of Doug Westcott, Jack assumed the role of the Section V Boys Basketball Chairperson position. These were great times in Basketball as attendance soared. Section V had great teams and the basketball committee started to include sponsorships in this sport. The sponsors paid for all our awards, banquets--excess money went to Section V.
Jack saw the sport really grow during these times as classifications were created to give more recognition to schools, fans and teams. Some personal highlights for Jack included: 1. The only sports sellout of the new Blue Cross Arena –McQuaid vs Niagara Falls.; 2. Continuing the number 1seeded banquets allowing all who wanted to attend, especially parents; 3. Seeing player awards increased – hats, wrist bands, knit hats, duffle bags, souvenir basketballs and more – all provided by sponsors.; 4. In 2000 the committee created the Section V Boys and Girls Basketball Hall of Fame to honor great players, coaches, asst. coaches, sponsors, and more. Again it is a sponsored event.
And, 5. Jack took great pride in handing awards to winners as well as losers--to athletes from all over the Section--from all different environments.
Jack indicated that his biggest highlight was working with great people on the basketball committee. In the beginning years he did nothing without checking with Ted Woods. One of the biggest compliments he ever received was from Ted, was that Ted had noticed that the tournaments were bigger and better, as he looked up at the crowds. In Jack’s last 10 years as the chair. he rarely made any decisions without first checking with Ed Stores Sr.. Then Kathy Hoyt became the Section V Executive Director and the basketball sectionals never skipped a beat.
Lastly Jack wanted to recognize the Basketball Committee itself. This group of volunteers dedicated so much time and effort and he is so proud to call them friends.
Outside of his 2 children John and Aidan, being the Basketball Chair was the highlight of his life and the most rewarding. He is still so proud of the efforts of all those involved in making the games a great lifelong memory for kids.
The boys basketball committee’s motto was: “making a memory – for kids, schools and parents”.