‘Integrity’: Jim Brogioli, coach, teacher, mentor, community pillar

Jim Brogioli skied until he was 83 years old.

He and a few former teachers he was close with would sometimes rent a house in New Hampshire a few times to ski for a week.

Wareham High School Principal Scott Palladino said that the one time he joined them, he struggled to keep up. Brogioli and the others kept going down the mountain without stopping for a break until lunchtime. “I went with him once and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “I was not prepared for that.”

But he wasn’t just physically active into his later years; he remained involved in the community, scouting for the high school basketball team that he led for decades.

Brogioli, who passed away at 95 years old on Sept. 7, wore many hats in Wareham and touched many people’s lives. He coached basketball and cross country at Wareham High, served as a deputy harbormaster, ran the Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Wareham and was involved in St. Patrick’s Church. He did all of this both during and after his time as a high school English and Latin teacher. Wareham Week spoke with people in his life to learn more about what he meant to the town and what he gave back to it.

Born in 1931, Brogioli grew up in Dorchester and ran track and field at the College of the Holy Cross, graduating in 1953. He aimed to join the priesthood, attending St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, but left after learning it wasn’t his calling. He later became a first lieutenant in the Marines.

His faith still influenced every part of his life, said his son, Kevin Brogioli. “I think it was just kind of in his DNA. He learned service and loyalty in the Marines, but also when he was a seminarian." He said his father learned to live “a life for others, and that then spilled out into his community.”

Jim Brogioli taught English and Latin at Wareham High School for 29 years. Some of his children, including Kevin, took his class. They never knew how to refer to him, though. “All the time we had him in school, I don’t know if we ever called him anything. We wouldn’t want to say Dad in class, and we wouldn’t say Mr. Brogioli,” Kevin said.

In his 25 years coaching basketball, Jim Brogioli won 404 games, a Wareham High School record that likely won’t be matched for a long time. This propelled him to a spot in the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001.

He instilled a winning culture in his players by working them hard. “He was demanding and stern when he needed to be. He knew who he could push and who he had to tone it down with. He was all about winning,” said Onset entrepreneur and former assistant basketball coach Larry Senna, who played under Brogioli in the 1980s.

“You knew exactly what he was thinking and it came in a loving way,” said Joel Watters, a basketball referee who played under Brogioli. “He knew exactly what buttons to push to get you to where you needed to be. But it was a kind, gentle, loving manner.”

Palladino said that Jim Brogioli was responsible for Wareham High’s later successes under Kevin Brogioli and current coach Steven Faniel. “I think it all goes back to Jim Brogioli. He started this thing back in the ‘70s,” Palladino said.

Jim Brogioli also coached cross country, and would make his basketball players run for the team if they didn’t play another fall sport. Palladino said this helped field the largest cross country teams the school ever had.

Senna described Jim Brogioli as a father figure in his life. “He spoke to me with wisdom … he made me feel like he knew what I was going through and gave me advice about anything,” he said.

His coaching talents extended past bonding with his players and students. Harbormaster Garry Buckminster saw his ability to work through adversity on the water. Together, they rescued three children without lifejackets who had fallen off a boat. Jim Brogioli drove the boat, while Buckminster dove into the water. “He knew what it was like to be under pressure,” Buckminster said.

Buckminster only worked with Jim Brogioli for a few years in the Harbormaster’s Office, but saw how he mentored many of the younger harbormasters in his time there.

Being a mentor was not new for him. Peter Balzarini became a teacher in 1972 when Jim Brogioli was the head of the English department. Then a veteran teacher, Brogioli took the new teachers under his wing and “showed us the right way to do things,” Balzarini said.

Balzarini and Brogioli became close friends during their time teaching at Wareham High, and became much closer during their skiing trips in New Hampshire. Living together for a week, Balzarini said he saw how Brogioli carried himself with that genuine, caring spirit in private.

After getting cut from his college basketball team, Kevin said his father sent him a heartfelt letter that he still holds onto. The first line read, “While I’m not one for maudlin discourse, I just want you to know that the proudest moments I ever had were you playing for me on the basketball court.”

Jim Brogioli had seven children with his late wife Louise Brogioli, and Kevin said that his family was his “primary focus.”

But he said his father still had enough love to go around to all of Wareham.

The community returned that love. Wareham High School renamed its basketball court the Jim Brogioli Court. Palladino said that it was like being next to a celebrity when he watched games with him. 

But even though he watched his team play on a court named in his honor, Jim Brogioli never let it get to his head. “It was just a sense of pride to him,” Palladino said.