New BB Coach Takes First Loss in Stride

It was not the way new boys’ basketball coach Chris Burnham would have preferred to start his tenure at Branford High School, losing to Lyman Hall in the Hornets season opener 61 – 37. But a win came a week or so later.

Burnham succeeded Jake Palluzzi (pictured at right), who coached the Hornets for 29 years, winning 302 games at Branford; this was his first game at the helm. Prior to Branford, Palluzzi was the coach at North Branford for four years where he had 45 additional victories. He also serves as co-athletic director at Branford.

“I was disappointed,” said Burnham. ​“We had some good practices the past couple of weeks, and I thought we would play better than we did. Give credit to Lyman Hall though, they played pretty well.” Branford wasn’t sharp in the opener with a number of turnovers and missed shots. Here (left) is coach Chris Burnham and assistants Tom Webster and Alex Scalia lookng over the pregame warm-ups.

The Trojans outscored the Hornets in each quarter starting with a 19 – 7 lead after one. They built the lead to 15 at halftime going up 28 – 13. Here Damien Maniscalco keeps the pressure on a Lyman Hall player.

Palluzzi was at the game to show support for the new coach. ​“Chris is an experienced coach who’s been involved in coaching basketball for over 20 years. He’ll be fine,” said Palluzzi. Here Senior Zane Kmietek fires up a three pointer.

Burnham works as a sort manager at FedEx in Wallingford and lives in East Haven. He started coaching at Platt Technical High School in Milford in 1997, then moved to Westbrook before serving as an assistant, then interim head coach, at SCSU before returning to Platt Tech.

Branford had 11 players in the scoring column with sophomore Kevin Baxter leading the team with eight points followed by senior Michael White with six. Nine other players had four points or less. Here Senior Ethan Boileau gets fouled on his layup attempt.

Lyman Hall had three players in double digits, led by Kevin Ransom with 18; Shakespeare Rodriguez added 13, followed by Cameron Regan with 10.

Here Junior Jordan Donnelly looks to pass off to a teammate.

And here Kevin Baxter nails two of his eight points. His teammate Sam Roach scored four points.

In the second half the Trojan’s outscored the Hornets, 33 – 24, to cruise to the victory.

“I’m optimistic,” said Burnham. ​“We’ve got some talented and athletic players, and we’ll make some noise during the season. It’s early yet.” Here Coach Burnham talks to Dan Thomas during a timeout.

Since the opener the Hornets fell at Cheshire, 47 – 32, last Friday and at the North Haven Holiday Tournament to the host ​‘Indians’ 47 – 45 on Wednesday, before nailing their first win 56 – 50 over Platt High School of Meriden in the same tournament this Thursday. Here Dan Thomas brings down a rebound for the Hornets.

Coach Burnham’s home opener is today against Madison’s Daniel Hand High School. 
###