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Bulkley Stepping Down as Greenwich Boys Lacrosse Coach

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The Greenwich High School boys lacrosse team takes to the turf during a recent game with Scott Bulkley as head coach. (Avery Belicka photo)
The Greenwich High School boys lacrosse team takes to the turf during a recent game with Scott Bulkley as head coach. (Avery Belicka photo)

It’s as simple as family first for Scott Bulkley.

With the position of head boys lacrosse coach for Newtown High School opened and the ability to be around his family a lot more, taking the position was an opportunity the former Greenwich High School head coach couldn’t say no to.

“It was a hard decision for me,” said Bulkley, who lives in Newtown with his wife and two children. “I put my heart and soul into this program at Greenwich and I loved the kids on the team. I loved being the coach at Greenwich High School. But in my heart, this was the right thing to do. I get to be around my family a lot more and hopefully will have the chance to coach my boy.”

Bulkley took over the Greenwich program in 2010 and has transformed the team to one of the elite lacrosse programs in the area.

In a short amount of time, Bulkley took over the Cardinals and turned them into a perennial power. In his six seasons, Bulkley won close to 90 games. They are now known for its deep playoff runs in both the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, as well as at the state tournament. Bulkley has turned Big Red into an FCIAC champion his first season with the team, as well as a CIAC champion as well back in 2014.

For Bulkley, winning both the conference and state titles with Big Red was something that he will never forget.

“It’s a tie,” Bulkley said. “Those will always be some of my fondest memories. I was so happy, not for me, but for the kids on the team. Both groups of kids on those teams were wonderful kids. I started those kids as freshmen and sophomores and they were such a great group to be around. They were hard working kids that card about the program and about each other. They also gave back to the community.”

It’s a safe bet to say that Bulkley’s time as a Cardinal was a highlight for him, both personally and professionally.

“There were great people all around me,” Bulkley said. “The kids were amazing, the coaches were great and the parents were unbelievable. I worked with for an athletic director in Gus Lindine who is second to none. He gave me my first head coaching position and had faith in me. He was always my best supporter and when you work with someone that you really appreciate like that, you can do great things.”

And Bulkley didn’t hide his feelings about the Newtown High position from Lindine.

“In the end I asked for his guidance and his feedback on it,” Bulkley said. “He was able to shed some light on it by telling me his experience with his kids and how important it was to be near them. He knows that it’s really tough for me to walk away from Greenwich, the kids and the wonderful program here. However, coming home and looking in my kid’s faces and telling them that I am going to be home more was something I’ll never forget.”

With the hiring, Newtown High School fills its vacant lacrosse position and at the same time gets a proven winner.

“We are very excited to welcome Scott as our new boys lacrosse coach,” Newtown High School Athletic Director Gregg Simon said. “He brings a tremendous amount of experience as a player and coach to our program.”

While coaching at Greenwich High School was a dream come true for Bulkley, there were several aspects that made things quite challenging. The long commute home from practice was tiring. Even worse was the time away from his family.

Bulkley said that during the high school lacrosse season, he was rarely around his family and that was starting to really effect the head coach.

“My wife, my son and my daughter all turned to me and said that they really wanted me to be the coach at Newtown,” Bulkley said. “During the lacrosse season, I never have dinner with them because I don’t get home until late. They were all telling me they wanted me home and wanted me to have dinner with them. They all wanted me there all the time instead of part of the year and then never seeing me during lacrosse season. So that is why the Newtown job was something I couldn’t pass up.”

Throughout the FCIAC, as well as the state, there are coaches that get the honor of coaching a varsity program while their son or daughter is on the squad. Bulkley has seen coaches plenty of coaches not coach their child, but was really noticing the other coaches that were able to coach their pride and joy.

“I always envied the guys who could spend those extra moments with their kids,” Bulkley said. “It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. My son, when he heard the Newtown job was opening, actually asked me to be the coach there. He asked when it was going to be his time to coach him and that really hit home.”

Although the address where Bulkley will be coaching has changed, the attitude and determination will certainly remain the same.

“I expect the same from my kids in Newtown as I did when I was coaching Greenwich,” Bulkley said. “I want to do the best job that I can to get Newtown as competitive as possible. It’s going to take a little bit, but I know there’s a lot of really good kids in Newtown and there are really good families there. They just have to put in the time and hard work, just like the kids in Greenwich did. I am hoping to have the similar success here as I did in Greenwich in the same time period. My wife wants me to take it a little easier, but I don’t think that’s in my personality.”

Greenwich Sentinel reporter Evan Triantafilidis contributed to this article.

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