Bufano wins coach of the year

“Obviously, I don’t go out to try to get coaching awards, but I’m definitely honored about being coach of the year in my first year as a high school coach,” Bufano said.

He took the reins of a young, fairly inexperienced team that graduated 10 seniors after going undefeated and winning the Division 2 title in 2019. The squad also lost one of its most experienced returnees to transfer before the season started. So the 2020 iteration of the Raiders relied on a bevy of freshman and sophomores to contribute.

Contribute they did. Bufano gives those players and their ability to step up some of the credit for his own award.

“They grew exponentially, a lot of them ended up on all-league,” Bufano said. He thinks the team’s ability to keep rolling and continue winning after losing so much experience from last season played into his award, too.

“No one expected us to do much,” Bufano said, but Stowe still went 8-1 in the regular season, going undefeated in a brutal Capital League schedule to claim the No. 2 seed in the Division 2 postseason before losing a squeaker to Lake Region in the opening round of the playoffs.

“To run the table in the Capital, to win the Capital, I thought it was just amazing,” Bufano said. Obviously, an early postseason loss ended Stowe’s run of eight-straight state championships and left the Raiders shy of their ultimate goal, but he thinks more titles are on the way with so many talented underclassmen.

“I’m definitely honored and humbled by the award,” Bufano said. “The experience I had with these guys, not just on the field,” but all the interactions with the families, “all of that was awesome.”