LINCROFT – Vito Chiaravalloti, athletic director and head swim coach at Christian Brothers Academy, has been named to Coach & Athletic Director Magazine's 40 Under 40 List as a member of the Class of 2018.
“It was back in April when I got the phone call that I had been nominated and then actually received the honor,” Chiaravalloti said. “I’ve been a fan of the Coach & AD Magazine and website since I became the athletic director. They have great resources and to be honored by them was really humbling.”
Chiaravalloti is about to enter his 11th year back at CBA after graduating from the school in 1999 as a member of the baseball and swim teams. But if you told him 11 years ago this is where he would be today, he would not have believed you.
After graduating from CBA, Chiaravalloti earned a baseball scholarship from the University of Richmond, where he holds the program career record for home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, and total bases. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 15th round of the 2003 MLB Draft and played four season with the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles organizations, reaching Double-A. He played independent ball in in 2007 with the Road Warriors and 2008 with the Somerset Patriots, when he began to realize baseball was not his future.
“I had some success in the minor leagues but after that season with the Somerset Patriots, I was 27 years old and it was becoming apparent that making it to the major leagues was pretty much out of the question and that fall, I started interviewing for jobs in all different fields,” Chiaravalloti said.
“I never even considered education until one day, I got an email from the former Athletic Director John Przygocki, which was a blast email sent to all the swimming alums, saying our longtime coach who started the program in 1991 was retiring and they needed to find a coach in the next few weeks because the season was about to start. I decided to find out more information and that’s really what started it. I came back to coach the swim team that winter and I never intended to get into education ever in my life, or coaching, even after playing baseball. But once I started coaching swimming at CBA in the fall of 2008 and I made a genuine connection with the kids, they really inspired me and I found myself just loving coaching.”
Already entrenched back at CBA as the swimming coach and having earned his Bachelor’s in psychology at Richmond, Chiaravalloti found another opportunity to become a Psychology teacher after a teacher of over 20 years also left.
“I was on staff and had my degree in psychology, so I was able to teach that class,” Chiaravalloti said. “They approached me about teaching it and after thinking about it, I realized this is my path and where I’m supposed to be in my life. I feel like everything came together and I jumped at the opportunity to start teaching. I then went back to school and got my Masters in Educational Leadership at Seton Hall and that was kind of the beginning of my journey in education.”
Chiaravalloti also served as Director of Academy Relations while coaching, where he marketed the school to prospective students and families. When Przygocki retired after 41 years as the athletic director in the summer of 2014, Chiaravalloti felt it was a natural fit given his background. He’s been there ever since.
“I told everybody on our staff this is really a testament to the people we have here,” Chiaravalloti said. “Nobody does anything alone. We have an incredible support staff at CBA and I’m just blessed to be at my alma mater and to do something I love so much which is to be surrounded with great kids, great families and great sports.”
In his ten years as a coach, Chiaravalloti has led the swimming program to eight state championships. The program hadn’t won in 18 years before then. But perhaps the thing he is most proud of to this point is the introduction of the CBA Digital Network, which gives students, fans and parents access to all CBA athletic programs from anywhere. Chiaravalloti mentioned this was part of his vision when he took over as athletic director five years ago, to make CBA resemble a college athletics program, and what it has become today has exceed his high expectations.
“One of the things that we are most proud of at CBA right now is our digital presence, whether it be on social media, the website or live streaming games,” Chiaravalloti said. “When you think back five years ago, there was no high school sports websites. In college, there are very specific athletic branded websites for their sports teams and I wanted that same thing for CBA and that’s how we came up with LetsGoColts.com. I wanted our fans and parents to be able to get updated on scores and be able to sit in front of their Apple TV and watch a basketball game if they wanted to. I didn’t know how we were going to get there, and I’m really proud at the way we have now, and the majority of the praise should really go to Jason Lutz, our director of marketing and communications. If it wasn’t for Jason, I wouldn’t have been able to implement this vision.”
CBA also offers a class for its students to learn the nuances of running everything themselves. In just one year, Chiaravalloti is amazed at how much progress he and Lutz have made with their students to enable them to mainly do everything themselves.
“I think what I’m most proud of is how we’ve been able to get the students involved,” Chiaravalloti said. “Jason has been able to teach a course that meets a few times a week that help him with the production of the games and creating content. He gets to teach them how to broadcast a game, how to use a camera, production, digital and social media, and graphic design. It’s very cool because now we’re passing it along and we really want the students to take ownership of this, which they have.”
Just ten years ago, Chiaravalloti was playing first base for the Somerset Patriots, wondering where his future was going to be. Now, he is back at his alma mater leading one of the Shore Conference’s top athletic programs. He never envisioned it to happen this way, but he is glad that it did.
“I feel really blessed to be where I’m at every single day. I feel like it’s not really work,” Chiaravalloti said. “I’m doing what I love to do and it’s surreal to be honored in this way because I’m doing what I can for the students and the families here at CBA and for my alma mater. To be honored for something that I’m so passionate about, I couldn’t be more appreciative of Coach & AD Magazine for recognizing me and I want it to be known that I couldn’t have done it without my staff. We have the greatest coaches in the world here at CBA, the greatest families and students. We have a lot of support here and I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the last few years and I can’t wait to get this season started.”
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