If Bulkeley Boys' Soccer Coach Ed Zimmitte ever decides to
change careers, he might think about sending his resume to the
United Nations. In his five years at the school, Zimmitte said
he has coached youngsters from Romania, Colombia, Peru, Jamaica
and Vietnam, among other places. Recently, he added, there have
also been many kids coming to play for the team from Albania
and Bosnia.
While Zimmitte, who was born in Italy himself, said he has often
found it challenging to coach such diverse groups of players,
he has also found ways to eliminate any potential problems through
careful positioning and emphasizing team unity. "There are
no superstars on this team," he said, "it's the effort
of everybody that allows us to reach our goals."
So far Zimmitte's approach seems to be working. The team now
stands 3-1 after defeating Southington 5-0 last Thursday. The
Bulldogs also recently shut out cross-town rival Hartford Public
4-0.
The team is not only diverse culturally, but also in terms of
age as well.
Zimmitte said he has a very strong bench with many younger sophomore
and freshman players who "really know the game."
Zimmitte is also looking for strong performances from his upperclassmen
this year, including seniors David Gregorian (a native of Russia),
Alberto Mann (a native of Romania) and Chris Wedderburn (a native
of Jamaica) plus juniors Claudio Armani from Romania and Julio
Flores from Colombia.
In addition to notching a winning season and making the playoffs,
Zimmitte has set one more goal for his team to achieve: a sportsmanship
award. In his first season coaching for Bulkeley, the team won
the award and he hopes for that honor again this year. In order
to win the award a team must go through the entire season without
receiving any card violations, red or yellow...quite an achievement
indeed.
