Bob Boudeman, 68, Will Be Missed

PENDLETON — The local football community is mourning the death of a local coaching icon — a man whose life unselfishly revolved around making others the best that they could be.

Bob Boudeman, a dedicated, enthusiastic football mentor even in recent years despite failing health, a beloved assistant coach who helped turn the Starpoint grid program into one of the most respected in the area, has died.

He was 68.

Word of Boudeman’s death hit the Starpoint High School team hard on Friday. Fellow Spartans assistant coach Tim Racey called members of the team out of class and into a room at 2 p.m. and announced the news.

“They were devastated. We’re stunned. For some of them, they were together with him for four years,” Racey said. Racey is Starpoint’s defensive coordinator and Boudeman was offensive coordinator for head coach Al Cavagnaro’s team.

“I told the kids that he lived and died for the three hours he got to spend with them on a daily basis,” Racey said.

“He lived and breathed football. And when he wasn’t coaching, he was watching film — trying to get better, trying to get an edge.

“In the coming days, you’re going to see 40 years worth of kids come out to pay their respects to him,” Racey said.

“He had some great one-liners and used them as a way of getting through to the kids. He’ll be sadly missed.”

Starpoint’s all-time leading rusher senior Brandon Bratek spoke on behalf of the entire team when he said, “He was a big part of our team. Everyone loved him.

“We knew he was sick. We didn’t how long he’d be with us, but we knew it would be our last season with him as seniors so we tried to make it special for him,” Bratek said.

“He was a big part of our team. Before every game and at practice he gave the best speeches.”

Starpoint senior quarterback Joe Scibilia added, “It was a bad day today. He coached me since I was a sophomore and taught me so much. This year he was concentrating on having me call more audibles, trying me to read defenses better.”

“He was the greatest offensive coordinator. ‘You reap what you sell’ or ‘The harder you work, the more it pays off.’ Those are things he said that we’ll remember,” Scibilia added.

Cavagnaro brought Boudeman in as a volunteer assistant five years ago. Since then, as former Starpoint football player and Niagara Gazette sports writer Nate Beutel said in a story earlier this week on Boudeman and Racey, “the once dormant program has won a pair of consolation Bowl championships and asserted itself as an annual contender in Class A North.”

Cavagnaro said he’s lost a close friend and someone who can’t be replaced.

“My son, put it best when he told his friend, ‘My dad’s best friend passed away.’ ” Cavagnaro said.

“He wasn’t as much as a great coach to me. He was my best friend.”

Boudeman’s legacy of putting everyone else ahead of him was evident immediately. Plans to postpone Monday’s annual Starpoint Football Banquet at the Ship’n Shore Restaurant were squashed by Boudeman’s family, who insist that coach Boudeman would never have wanted that.

“That’s the kind of guy he was. It was never ever about him. It was always about the kids,” Cavagnaro said.

Boudeman’s destiny with mentoring kids began in the Lockport Little Loop Football program in the early 1960s. He later coached semipro football and was the varsity football coach at Newfane High School, with assistants that included Paul Mulvey.

“Bob knew more about teaching football than anybody I’ve ever been associated with my whole life,” said Mulvey, who played football at DeSales High School, where he later assistant coached under the late Les Dugan. Mulvey also played football at Division II Liberty.

“He was football 24-7. He could watch a tape over and over again and he knew how to communicate the things he learned to his players. And he didn’t teach football, but life lessons,” Mulvey said.

“To me, it was just like talking to my father — that’s how dear I felt to him.

“He was teaching high school kids how to audible and there are kids who play two or three levels above that who never get it,” Mulvey said.

“And he would communicate this in a way that younger kids can understand — that’s how special he was. And it wasn’t just ‘rah, rah’ with him. He’d tell his team at halftime, ‘Okay, here’s the adjustments we’re going to make. He was a master at it.”

Calling hours at Prudden & Kandt Funeral Home are 7-9 p.m. on Monday; and 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. on Tuesday. A funeral mass is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Mary’s R. C. Church.

In a thoughtful gesture, Starpoint High School Principal Gil Licata has chartered a bus for Spartans football players, allowing them to attend the funeral mass.