Off Field Support For WIHS Football

Bob Cestaro is a name that will never appear in a story about the West Islip High School varsity football team. He won't be found in the box score, or anywhere on the field.  Fans might be sitting next to him at a game and not even know it.  And they also might not know that he has as much to do with the West Islip football program as the players and coaches themselves. 

That's because Cestaro, president of the West Islip Touchdown Club and a West Islip High School alumnus, is the behind-the-scenes man for everything West Islip football. He has been working in conjunction with the team since 1991, when his son Robbie was in middle school.  

"Jack White was the president of the club at the time and he had known me from Our Lady of Lourdes Church where I was running a golf outing," Cestaro recalled. "He wanted me to get involved with him. I worked along as an assistant to Jack White, who left in 1996. Tony Coppo took over for him. When Tony left about four years ago I became president and have been ever since."

The club is responsible for all the money raising efforts for the football program.  He says the club organizes various fundraisers throughout the year that help fund many of the football needs, such as concessions, equipment and uniforms.  And no event is bigger than the annual golf outing every August.

"We recently held the golf outing on August 12," Cestaro said. "We had 138 golfers and raised approximately $15,000 from that, and three clubs — the Touchdown Club, the West Islip Lacrosse Booster Club and the West Islip Alumni Association — divide that money."

The club also ran a kickoff party the first Saturday in September. Local vendors donated items to raffle off and the club raised $2,000. In addtion, Cestaro's club is  responsible for printing the team journal, and running the concession stands at home games.

"I've been told by Cablevision and others that [our journal] is better than most college journals they've seen on Long Island," Cestaro said. "I'll be proofreading [this year's] and it will be ready for opening day at home on September 25."

In addition to equipment and uniforms,  a bulk of fundraiser money goes toward the club's biggest event of the year; the end of the season awards dinner. The dinner is held at Captain Bill's in Bay Shore every February.

"We invite the boys to come and that's paid for by the club," Cestaro said. "Their parents are invited to come at a reduced rate as well. We buy them leather sleeve jackets when they're juniors and they get a windbreaker jacket when they're graduating seniors. They get all kinds of awards, caricatures, you name it."

Cestaro works exclusively with head coach Steve Mileti and athletic director Tim Horan, along with other volunteers that wish to help the team.  Mileti says Cestaro doesn't receive the recognition he deserves.

"I can't say enough about Bob," Mileti said.  "He does so much behind the scenes work that nobody sees so the players of West Islip football players are taken care of.

"He has not had a son in the program in more than 10 years and he has been involved with club for 17 plus years. He truly loves West Islip football and he proves it year in and year out. He does not like to be recognized he just wants what is right for the players."

So what pushes Cestaro, a member of the West Islip High School Class of 1971, to run these events and raise money for the club year round?

"When the boys are young and still in school they say hello to you and such but they don't really realize what you're doing," Cestaro said. "But when they go away to college, come back, and they still see us there, they tell you how much it meant to them. It's things like that which carry me through the next year, when I just get a couple of kids that come up and say they appreciate what was done, that will carry me through it."