1) Can you tell me about the rivalry between Chaminade and St. Anthony’s from the perspective of the athletic director?
Buckley: I think it’s great. It’s great to have rivalries in any sport. The St. Anthony’s Chaminade rivalry goes back a number of years now. For a long time, we were just a small school, but we kept growing. As the years went by, we kept getting a little larger and a little larger. In 1984, we went from a school that had 800 boys to a school with 2,000. That’d be a thousand boys and a thousand girls, so things changed. The rivalry probably started getting in around 1970, and it’s continued since then.
2) I read online that Sports Illustrated named your athletic programs the best in the state of New York. Do you think you could elaborate on that?
Buckley: We were contacted by Sports Illustrated. They had heard about our athletic program and asked us to come up with a list of statistics that we had done over the past 10 years. It was the most dominant athletic program in New York State for the past 10 years, that’s all sports. It was a great honor and we thank Sports Illustrated for thinking of us.
3) Going back to the rivalry, how much does this kind of rivalry mean to the players and the coaches?
Buckley: We have rivalries with Chaminade, but we have rivalries with a lot of other teams also. What happens is, I believe, competition spurs competition. When I coached cross country, there were a couple of years there where St. Anthony’s and Chaminade were ranked in the top five in New York State and ranked nationally. Every time we lined up, the performances were just brought to another level. We just had a lacrosse game the other day with Chaminade and it was probably one of the finest games I’ve seen in a long, long time. Chaminade won by one, it was exciting, it was well-played, it was clean and not dirty, and it was clearly a game that both teams appreciated playing it because at the end, the kids knew that they had a good contest from both schools.
4) I was talking to some people at the game. They were saying that in this rivalry, in lacrosse at least, there are really no heavy favorites. When people say that there are no clear heavy favorites and it’s a hard-fought game, what does this say about this rivalry?
Buckley: It says that the kids respect one another an awful lot. It says that it brings out the best in everybody. They study one another, they know one another’s plays, they know what we’re all doing, and there are no secrets. We started lacrosse about 30 years ago and for the last twenty some odd years, it’s been St. Anthony’s and Chaminade in the finals. We tend to bring out the best in everybody. The kids work hard. They know one another off of the property, they grew up together, they went to the same grammar schools, and so many of the kids go on to the same colleges. They’ll be on college teams together and a lot of the guys work together in the years down the line. It’s just an exciting opportunity.
5) On the preparation for this kind of rivalry, is it any different than preparing for all the other teams? If so, what’s the preparation like in this case?
Buckley: I guess it all depends on the sport, like if we’re focusing in on lacrosse. This has been going on for some time now. It’s been going on since we started about 30 years ago and in the last 20 years. On any given year, one team may be better, but generally speaking they’re fairly equal. The preparation goes on years before. The kids look forward to the games and circle certain dates. Again, it’s not just St. Anthony’s and Chaminade. I know that’s what your purpose is and what you’re focusing on, but there are other contests and other sports up and down the line where there are different rivalries that we have.
6) In your years as an athletic director, what are some of those games in football and in lacrosse that jump out at you as more memorable?
Buckley: For me personally, the most memorable game was when my son was a senior and he was a starting goalie on the team and we won the championship. It was great, exciting, and it was right before graduation. That one really sticks out. We played a game one time, probably about two years after that. I’ll estimate it around 1996. It had gone into either seven or eight overtimes. In fact, as a result of that game, the national rules were changed as to how many overtimes you could do. I would say those two games really stand out in my head.
7) You talk about the respect between everyone involved in those two schools. It’s safe to say that there is no bad blood or any hard feelings between the team. Can you agree on that?
Buckley: Oh yeah, I don’t see that at all. I see it as both schools, as schools in our league, seeing all rivalries as good and healthy rivalries. There is a mutual respect there. You really don’t see any nonsense out there. There are not any fights that go on and that kind of stuff. Every once in a while there may be a penalty flag thrown, but the kid spends his minute on the sideline or gets taken out by a coach, settles down and gets back out there to continue play. All the teams in our league play very, very hard and they have a lot of respect for one another.
8) Going back to the memorable game, what year was your son a senior?
Buckley: 1994.
9) With alumni like your son and Coach Wieczorek and his brothers, how does an alumnus look at this rivalry?
Buckley: I think it brings up when they are playing. I know when we played Chaminade the other day, my son wanted to know right away what had happened. The head coach at Chaminade’s son played lacrosse at St. Anthony’s. He wanted to know what happened. And I think what happens is it just burns the fuels from when they were on the field playing against one another. So whether a guy who played just recently graduated or they graduated 30 years ago, it brings back memories in their eyes as to what great experiences they had.
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