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Calcaterra Family

Men's Basketball

Calcaterra family enjoys storybook finish

Left, Joey Calcaterra played at UConn last season (photo courtesy of UConn Athletics). Right, Joey, in the middle, is holding the NCAA Championship trophy. From left, Frankie, Wendy, Rich and Nick Calcaterra.
March Madness took on a new dimension for Rich Calcaterra, '84, and his family this year. The former Rockhurst shooting guard traveled all over the country to watch his youngest son, Joey, play for the University of Connecticut in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

The dream of watching his son help cut down the nets at the Final Four in Houston, Texas became reality on the first Monday in April. The UConn Huskies capped an amazing run in the tournament with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State in the national championship game.

"It was a little surreal being in a football stadium in front of 73,000 people (in Houston)," said Rich, who lives just north of San Francisco in Novato, California with his wife Wendy. "I think when it was all over it was pure joy for all the hard work he has put into his career from third grade to now, it really was a storybook finish."

Joey Calcaterra, the youngest of three boys, capped his college career playing his final season for the Huskies in 2022-23 after playing four seasons at the University of San Diego. A 6-foot-3 shooting guard, Joey averaged 5.8 points per game and led the Big East Conference in three-point field goal shooting (44.6%). Joey is exploring playing professionally next year in the U.S. or internationally.

Rich only missed a couple of Joey's games at UConn last season. "Connecticut made for a lot of long trips from California," said Rich. "The Big East played games on Wednesday and Saturday, so I would fly in Tuesday, go to the game Wednesday, fly back home on Thursday, and then fly back out to the East Coast on Friday."

Joey's two older brothers also played college basketball. Frank played at California Lutheran University and Nick was a member of the San Francisco State University team. All three learned the game early on from their father.

"I worked with them individually at home," said Rich, who co-founded Enterprise Events Group, a corporate event management company in Northern California. "One of the great opportunities we were able to provide them was commuting them over to the Oakland side of the bay area where the competition was much better. This helped all of them develop as basketball players."

Basketball became a big part of Rich's life while growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. He played on back-to-back state championship basketball teams at DeSmet High School under head coach (and Rockhurst basketball alumnus) Rich Grawer, '65, in 1978 and '79.

Grawer was a member of Rockhurst's 1964 NAIA national championship team at Rockhurst and connected Rich Calcaterra with Rockhurst Coach Jerry Reynolds. Rockhurst was close to St. Louis and had the same Jesuit values Rich learned at DeSmet High.

"I was a shooting guard (from 1980-84 at Rockhurst)," Rich said. "I complimented a lot of the great talent that Coach Reynolds brought in. Coach just wanted me to be great in my role. Being surrounded by great players like Tim Kellerman, Dennis Luber, John Nantz and Mike Teahan, I didn't have to do it all."

Calcaterra heard from several of his former college teammates and Coach Reynolds during UConn's run to the national championship. He met up with Tim Kellerman in Omaha when UConn played at Creighton. Rich also enjoyed how special it was to connect with Mark Teahan, whose son Chris played on the 2022 national championship team at Kansas.

"Rockhurst is a tight community and the relationships I formed there are very special to me," added Rich.
 
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