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Mostly Cloudy Frank DeCicco Sr., Nassau Herald Person of the Year 2010
Improving the lives of children through sports and support
A man who lost his father when he was 12, and has spent much of his adult life coaching and supporting the many children involved in the Inwood Buccaneers Athletic Club, is the Herald’s 2010 Person of the Year.
Frank DeCicco Sr., 69, a retired construction superintendent who has spent his entire life in the Five Towns, has been an integral part of the youth sports organization for 35 years, serving as its president three times, including for the past decade.
DeCicco grew up in Inwood and has lived in Lawrence for 44 years. He and his wife, the former Carol Virga, of Hewlett, were married in 1966. He has been known to buy many a child a hot dog to make up for the sting of a lost Buccaneers game, and to pay — anonymously — the registration fees for children whose families couldn’t afford them.
“Satisfaction,” DeCicco said, is what he gets out of helping children. “I’m happy to do it. It makes me feel better, too.”
A 1959 graduate of Lawrence High School who played football for the Golden Tornadoes, DeCicco had his athletic career derailed by a couple of broken bones. Otherwise, he is still going strong: He is known as “Motor” to his friends because, like the Energizer bunny, he just keeps going.
“Frank has committed himself to the youth of our community for over 30 years,” said Patty Vacchio, the Buccaneers’ vice president, “making each child and every child that passed through this organization feel as if they were his own child.”
Working in construction not only enabled DeCicco to have the time it takes to run such an operation, but allowed him to build the Buccaneers club, which was founded in 1956 and now has football and cheerleading programs in the fall, indoor soccer in the winter and basketball in the spring, along with several annual events and team parties. More than 300 children from nearly 400 families are involved. The league has a no-cut policy, and operates 10 months of the year.
Years ago DeCicco used his construction industry connections to get a concession stand built at one of the fields the league used. This football season, the Buccaneers used the new artificial-turf field at Lawrence High School.
