NEWS & EVENTS: SIA IN THE NEWS STORY DETAILS

Gus Alfieri, Renowned Basketball Coach and College Professor, Will Speak to Staten Island Academy Students on October 24 at 10 AM

Mr. Alfieri will discuss his new book Lapchik, a biography of the legendary basketball coach Joe Lapchik

October 18, 2006 – Gus Alfieri will address Staten Island Academy Upper School students on Tuesday, October 24 from 10 AM until 11 AM in the O.J. Buck Gymnasium. Mr. Alfieri will discuss his new book Lapchick, which focuses on the life of legendary basketball coach Joe Lapchick.

The book, more than a biography, focuses on the 50 most critical years (1915-1965) in the development of basketball. Through Mr. Lapchick’s experiences as a professional player in the 1920s and as an early NBA coach as well as a rising collegiate one, he always seemed to be at the center of basketball’s growth spurts and its most dramatic periods. Mr. Lapchick is a legendary figure in the history of basketball: as a member of the "Original Celtics" barnstorming team and a Hall of Fame inductee, as a coach of four national championship teams at St. John's University and as the first coach of the New York Knicks.

Mr. Alfieri, the author, played point guard under Mr. Lapchick for St. John's 1959 Championship team. In his book, he chronicles key moments in the history of basketball: early rule changes and the era of barnstorming teams, point shaving scandals in college basketball, the formation of the NBA and the integration of professional African-American players (including Sweetwater Clifton, the first African-American member of the Knicks, who played for Mr. Lapchick).

Mr. Alfieri has spent a lifetime in education, athletics as well as the business world. He grew up in New York and received athletic scholarships to St. Francis Prep and St. John’s University, where he starred in Division I basketball for Hall of Fame coaches Mr. Lapchick and Lou Carnesecca. H e taught high school social studies and coached state championship basketball teams at St. Anthony’s High School on Long Island. During one period Mr. Alfieri’s teams won 49 games in a row and two state championships.

A long with a career in education, he has successfully directed one of the premier teaching basketball camps in America. Mr. Alfieri and his wife, Janet, have operated the All-American Basketball Camp on Long Island for more than 30 years.

Staten Island Academy , located on a lush 12-acre campus, is a Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 college-preparatory day school with an average class size of 17. The Academy is composed of seven buildings, including a gymnasium and fitness center, theater and state-of-the-art computer facilities. Outdoors are two swimming pools, athletic fields, a playground and tennis courts. For more information about Staten Island Academy and its outstanding programs, visit www.statenislandacademy.org.

# # #

Press Contact: Liz Campbell, 718-303-7813, communication@statenislandacademy.org