Longtime athletic director awarded Director of the Year

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

WORCESTER - St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School boys basketball coach Jason Chavoor wasn’t surprised that he found out that Jim Manzello was honored as Athletic Director of the Year for District 2 by the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Athletic Directors Association.

“Jimmy’s never going to brag about himself in any way,” Mr. Chavoor said. “I’m sure he probably doesn’t even want you to write this article.”

Mr. Manzello was a bit reluctant at first to have an article written about his award, but he agreed because he knew it would be good for St. Paul’s.

“Any time you win an award like this, it’s good to come from your peers, other ADs,” he said, “but I mean this from the bottom of my heart, if you saw what any AD does at any school, they all deserve an award.”

Mr. Manzello, 63, received his award on March 27 at the MSSADA conference in Hyannis. Athletic directors from the state’s other eight districts also received awards. District 2 is composed of St. Paul’s, St. Bernard High School and Notre Dame Academy, along with members of the Colonial Athletic League, the Inter-High League, the Southern Worcester County League and the Dual Valley Conference.

In 2021, the MSSADA presented Mr. Manzello with the District 2 Award of Merit.

Mr. Manzello began attending Holy Name High School in 1977 and he never really left. After graduating from Holy Name, he coached freshmen football at the school while he attended Worcester State University. After graduating from WSU in 1986, he returned to Holy Name full-time to teach history and he coached football and boys cross-country.

In 1989, he became athletic director and he has remained in that role since Holy Name and St. Peter-Marian merged in 2020 to form St. Paul’s in the Holy Name building.

“I thought I’d do it for like five years and I’m still here,” Mr. Manzello said.

St. Paul has about 370 students in grades seven through 12. Holy Name also had a small enrollment, and Mr. Manzello took pride in the fact that the school played Division 1 sports, nevertheless.

St. Paul still belongs to Division 1 in baseball and softball but will drop to a lower division next year. The St. Paul softball team reached the quarterfinals of the Division 1 tournament last year. St. Paul’s has teams in 19 sports this school year.

Not all high school athletic directors line the athletic fields, but Manzello has since 1988. Ray Cosenza, current athletic director at St. Bernard’s High School and former AD at Fitchburg High, said he and Mr. Manzello kid each other about who does a better job of lining the fields.

“But I cheated, I needed a robot to beat him in that department,” Mr. Cosenza said, referring to a Turf Tank Robotic Painter.

Mr. Manzello also used to mow the athletic fields and he did such a good job he was asked to mow the grass around the school as well. He finally stopped doing that three years ago when he turned 60.

Mr. Manzello said the keys to being a successful high school athletic director are time management and organization. He thanked his wife, Timary, for putting up with him working long days, nights and weekends. He missed a home hockey game this year to take her to dinner for her birthday. He did, however, go to the game to make sure the teams and referees showed up, but he left before the game began at the Worcester Ice Center.

As far as he can remember that is the only home game in any sport he missed during his 36 years as AD at Holy Name and St. Paul’s.

Mr. Manzello feels at home at St. Paul’s. It’s true that he could make more money working in a public school, but he doesn’t care.

“I’ll never leave this place,” he said.

He likes the school’s sense of community. He enjoys the morning announcements and end-of-day announcements both ending with a prayer. He appreciates that a picture of the pope or a crucifix hangs in each room.

“In my office, there’s a cross,” he said. “Whenever you get bad news, I stop and say a prayer.”

Mr. Manzello attended St. Stephen Elementary School before Holy Name. He’s a parishioner at St. John Parish in Worcester.

Mr. Manzello tries to be patient and understanding with the school’s young student-athletes.
“I always say this,” he said, “and it’s worked out good for me all these years, ‘What would Jesus do?’”

“He puts everything in the right perspective,” Mr. Chavoor said. “He understands what’s important and what’s not important and he tries to stress that to parents [and] students.”
“Jim is faithful to the Catholic tradition at St. Paul’s,” said former St. Peter-Marian athletic director Rich Riley, “and is a Christian role model.”

Mr. Cosenza said Mr. Manzello was most deserving of the award.

“His positive, energetic personality is contagious,” Mr. Cosenza said, “and he’s a pleasure to work with. Jim does whatever it takes to provide a positive experience for every single one of his student athletes. He’s passionate about his job and no one does it better.”

Pete Jones, athletic director at the Advanced Math & Science Academy in Marlborough, was AD at St. Peter-Marian from 2012-2015 when Mr. Manzello was AD at Holy Name. The two schools were heated rivals, but the two ADs formed a great relationship.

“Jimmy has the ability to do this job at a high level,” Mr. Jones said, “and none of us ever have a shortage of work to do, but he always took the time to talk and meet and mentor me when I was at SPM. Always affable, easy to talk to and willing to have a laugh.”

Dave Shea has worked with Mr. Manzello as Worcester Public Schools athletic director, and he attended Holy Name when Mr. Manzello taught and coached there.

“I’ve known him for a long time,” Mr. Shea said, “and I value his leadership qualities, his work ethic and the way he approaches his job. He puts his student athletes’ needs first and foremost.”  

When Holy Name and St. Peter-Marian merged, so did the athletic teams. So only half as many coaches were needed. Mr. Manzello had to decide which Holy Name and which St. Peter-Marian coaches would coach at St. Paul’s. He divided the coaching jobs pretty much evenly between the two schools that merged.

“Hardest thing I ever did,” he said. “A lot of people I hired (at Holy Name), I had to let them know, ‘I’ve got to let you go,’ and they were good coaches.”

The Manzellos have two daughters, Samantha, and Breanna. Both graduated from Holy Name. Neither played sports, but they enjoyed attending the games and hanging out in their father’s office. Samantha married Sam Dahrooge, a St. Peter-Marian graduate, and she gave birth to Mr. Manzello’s first grandchild, Theodore, three months ago.

Mr. Riley won the District E Athletic Director of the Year Award for the 2010-2011 school year when he was AD at St. Peter-Marian. Mr. Riley was on hand to see Mr. Manzello receive his award.

“For somebody to be a high school athletic director for more than 30 years,” Mr. Riley said, “that’s a feather in his cap. He’s so gifted in areas associated with being an athletic director, whether it’s scheduling, purchasing of equipment, maintenance of the fields, his relationship with the student-athletes, his relationship with the school, they’re all outstanding.”