“I have so many favorite games I have coached, but one that I really am proud of is last year when the team qualified for the sectional semi-final, and Drew Siudzinski made a 3-point shot at the buzzer,” said boys varsity basketball coach and math teacher Brian Bobinski.
“That win meant that team set the school record for wins in a season (21) and was the first team in school history to reach a sectional final,” added Bobinski, who started coaching at Notre Dame Academy in 2001-2002, initially as an assistant coach.
At Thomas More High School in southern Milwaukee Bobinski played basketball, baseball and golf and then continued to play sports through his college days at Carthage.
“Sports is what I have done since I was a little kid because I came from an athletic family of five little brothers and sisters,” he said, “and I would go with my father when he coached grade school teams.”
Before he knew it, coaching became a passion, something he really loved.
Nevertheless, how he ended up coaching at NDA was something of a “God moment.”
Bobinski had graduated college with a degree in math, computer science and business administration. He had already picked a job in the business world but had a “last-second decision to get his teaching certificate.”
“I was supposed to do my student teaching in the fall. My wife-to-be put my resume online, and I was contacted by Ken Flaten,” said the math teacher.
“We need a golf coach,” said Flaten.
“And that was how it all started here in 2001,” explained Bobinski.
Twenty-five years later he is literally coaching all year round and has earned the title of “NDA’s winningest coach.”
The most challenging aspect of coaching both boys and girls golf as well as boys basketball is “balancing academics and coaching.”
In addition to NDA teams, there is the “big-time commitment organizationally” to the Future Tritons program of eight different teams beginning with second-graders.
But what about the current season and team?
“We had a slow start with so many also playing football, but we’re in second place in conference behind DePere,” said Bobinski. “We’re playing a lot of kids. We have a deep group.”
