Rebecca Binder
GNAC Specialist
Don’t be fooled by his unassuming personality: Jason Luisi, a 2002 graduate of Suffolk University and the current assistant women’s basketball coach at Emmanuel College, knows how to make an impact. After solidifying a record-setting collegiate basketball career, the Hyde Park native went on to coach and teach in local schools, before returning to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. Now, he paces the sidelines for the perennial powerhouse Saints, as they look to claim a fifth-straight conference championship and a bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament.
Or, to hear Luisi modestly summarize it, “I kind of got thrown into what I do, but it’s all worked out for me. I’ve learned from some great coaches along the way, and I have a job that I love.”
Luisi, a Boston native, didn’t have to think too long before deciding to go to college at Suffolk. “I loved the idea of going to school in downtown Boston,” he said. “I chose Suffolk because I knew that Suffolk would give me some great academic opportunities, and because I knew I could fit in well with the basketball program.”
Luisi was right on both counts. The business management major made immediate waves with the Rams, and was the team’s starting shooting guard and leading scorer for four years. Along the way, he compiled a laundry list of honors: his 1,869 career points place him second on Suffolk’s all-time scoring list; he was a two-time first team all-conference selection; he holds the Rams’ all-time free throw percentage crown; and his senior year, Luisi led the nation in free throw percentage. The Rams got to the ECAC Tournament Luisi’s junior year, and to the NCAA Championship Tournament his senior year after winning the GNAC’s tourney bid.
“It felt good to know that my class was helping to rebuild a program, and that we were taking it to a new level,” Luisi said. “I got to watch my coach, Dennis McCue, plan and engineer all that. I had a lot of respect for him, and I realized that I wanted to go into coaching myself.”
Luisi took a job as a special education math teacher at Boston’s Dorchester High School after college, and soon got the chance to build a program himself. “I got the varsity girls’ job at Dorchester High,” he says, “and it was an eye-opener.” Luisi found himself dealing with a fractured program and unfamiliar circumstances. “It was tough to get enough girls to play,” he said, “and I had to navigate any number of external issues, like academic eligibility and other demands that the girls had on their time.” Luisi found himself faced with a new situation: because he didn’t have the depth chart to sit unmotivated players, some of Luisi’s more talented players took their starting jobs for granted, showing up to practice only rarely.
“I had to make a decision,” Luis said. “It was really tough, but I made a point of starting the girls who showed up every day, even if they didn’t have the same level of talent as some of their less committed teammates. I wanted to show the girls that dedication and hard work resulted in good things, and that they pay off.”
“I thought then, and I’m still sure,” Luisi continued, “that playing the girls that took the team and their commitments seriously would be best for the long-term health of the program, and that it would probably be best for them also, as they got older and took that lesson away. I was trying to establish a program and a structure for these girls, which a lot of them had never really had before – I wanted to show them the right way to do things, and I think sacrificing a few wins here and there is a more than fair tradeoff.”
Suffolk head coach Dennis McCue, who headed up Dorchester High School’s math department at the time, noticed the steady improvement in Luisi’s program, and asked him to come on to assist at the Suffolk program. Luisi returned to the Rams sideline in 2005, in time to watch the first-year students he played with return as seniors. “I noticed how much they matured,” Luisi said. “That was so valuable, to see it from the other side, and to be able to collaborate with Coach McCue.” Following a year with the Rams, Luisi returned to the Dorchester High School sidelines, before crossing paths with Emmanuel College head women’s basketball coach Andy Yosinoff.
Luisi, who wanted to combine his love of sports with his newfound love of teaching, applied for a job as an adapted physical education teacher. Yosinoff, who was retiring from an adapted physical education position, put in a good word for Luisi, and Luisi returned the favor by joining the Saints staff.
“Emmanuel has an excellent program,” Luisi said, summarizing the women’s basketball team that, last year, went 22-6 and notched its tenth-straight 20-win season. “The first year I was there, we went to the Sweet Sixteen. We’re lucky to have a great ability to recruit – we have a great history, a beautiful campus in the heart of Boston, and a stunning new facility.” Luisi credits Yosinoff with the program’s success: “Andy’s taught me how to build a great program,” he said. “And, he legitimately cares about his players as students. He asks them how classes are going, and he crafts an environment that gives the players every opportunity to succeed academically and athletically.”
Luisi’s also given his own students every opportunity to succeed academically and athletically. “I kind of got thrown into teaching,” he admits, “but I love it.” As an adapted physical education teacher, Luisi teaches physical education to students with physical and mental handicaps. “Those kids are good kids,” he says. “I go to pull them out of class to take them to gym, and they’re so happy to see me, and so excited that they get to go to gym. I know I’m helping these kids out: they get to have fun, and they learn how to be active.”
Luisi looks forward to his fifth year on the Saints sideline, and also to completing his masters degree in special education in the next few months. “I have to think,” he will tell you, “that the Emmanuel women get much more out of the basketball program than wins.” And, Luisi himself? It sounds like he’s gotten much more than wins out of basketball, also. He’s gotten the chance to learn how to lead, to learn how to teach through athletics, and to learn how to have an impact. “How many people out there wake up in the mornings and can’t wait to get to work?” Luisi asked. “I see myself doing this for a while.”