Coach Dave Leary’s game plan: fostering talent and teamwork at Revere

By Dom Nicastro

Embarking on his eighth season with Revere High School and a 25-year coaching career, Dave Leary opens up about his coaching journey and the aspirations for the upcoming season in an interview with the Revere Advocate.

Leary’s team dropped its opener, 59-41, against Lynn Classical. “We fell behind big early but never quit,” Leary said. Junior Guard Ethan Day had 24 points for the Patriots in the loss.

With a strong turnout of 58 athletes at tryouts, resulting in a robust program of 39 players across varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams, Leary looks forward to harnessing the mix of experience and fresh talent.

Leary started as a freshman coach at St. Domenic Savio High School, where he was a three-year varsity player, from 1999-2005. He then went on to become an assistant coach and the JV coach at Malden High School from 2005-2014. In 2014, he was hired as head varsity coach at Lynn Voc/Tech High School, where he remained for two seasons before he was hired in Revere in 2016.

“The past seven years has been a great experience for me, the staff and most importantly the athletes,” Leary said. “We really try to create a family atmosphere, and there is no better feeling than to see our alumni come back to visit the team, and we can see the success they are having in college or the workforce. That is probably the main reason our staff keeps coming back every year.”

Revere this season will have 11 on varsity, 14 on junior varsity and 14 on the freshman team.

The team last year finished 11-11. It qualified for the MIAA Division 2 State Tournament and won its first-round game at Plymouth South High School. The Patriots were eliminated in the next round to Nashoba Regional High School.

This winter, the strengths of this year’s team are hard to define this early on in the season, according to Leary. “But,” he added, “we have a good mix of experienced upperclassmen and talented underclassmen. They are all very focused and hardworking and are always willing to be coached hard.”

The areas it needs to improve on mostly? Building better chemistry and an understanding on the offensive side of the floor. “Each player will have a role and once they learn their roles individually, we will improve as a team,” Leary said.

The captains this year are both seniors and four-year players in the program: Andrew Leone and Luke Ellis. “Andrew Leone is an excellent student that leads by example both on and off the court,” Leary said. “He listens to all of his teammates and communicates well with them. Andrew is a versatile player that can score from inside and outside and definitely plays bigger than he is on the floor. Luke Ellis has a great personality and sense of humor. His teammates definitely appreciate his ability to keep them loose and relaxed, but they also follow him when it’s time to be serious and get to work. Andrew and Luke were a big part of the reason we had a successful season last year, and we hope their experience can help guide us this year, especially early on, to lead our less-experienced underclassmen.”

Junior guards Ethan Day and Josh Mercado were also key contributors on last year’s team and should be expected to increase their roles this year on both ends of the floor. Juniors Avi Lung, Erick Mayorga and Sami Mghizou will also be asked to take on increased roles.

Senior big men Amir Yemani and Ryan El Babor should give Revere toughness, shot-blocking and rebounding off the bench, while senior guard Domenic Belmonte is a very good 3-point shooter. Sophomore swing man Sean Burnett is long and athletic and can also shoot from behind the arc.

Revere junior varsity coach John Leone is pretty much the team’s offensive coordinator and is “always coming up with new ways to help us create offense when we struggle,” Leary said. “Coach Leone was a great player at RHS (Class of 1990), is a fierce competitor and is very hard on his players to get the best out of them, so they are ready to play at the varsity level when the time comes.”

Freshman coach Bob Sullivan is very knowledgeable, according to Leary. He has been coaching at the high school level for over 30 years, was a 1,000-point scorer at Dom Savio and won a state championship there in 1982. “Coach Sullivan sees the game very well,” Leary said, “and we rely on him to help us make in-game adjustments.”

As for team goals, they are the same every year. “We would like to win the GBL, we would like to win our holiday tournament, we would like to qualify for the state tournament, and we would like to advance further than last season,” Leary said. “The GBL Conference will be tough this year as it always is. Lynn English and Everett are traditionally always top in the league, but Lynn Classical, Malden, Medford, Somerville and Chelsea will all be much improved, as they were young teams last season.”