Basketball
Favorite athlete: Michael Jordan
Favorite team: 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing high school basketball with all of my teammates.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Whenever they have to stop the game and wipe the sweat when I dive on the ground or take a charge.
Music on iPod: Kanye West, Drake, Mac Miller
Future plans: Play college basketball
Words to live by: ‘Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.’
One goal before turning 30: Have a career and a good job
One thing people don’t know about me: I hiked up to the summit of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire when I was 13 years old.
It's not uncommon for Hatboro-Horsham senior Bobby Bruno to be the first member of the boys’ basketball team in the gym.
But it's not just his teammates that the 6-6 forward beats to the foul line. He also beats the sunrise.
"In the fall, he'll come in at 6:45 before school and shoot foul shots just because he wanted to get better," said H-H coach Dennis Steinly. "He's one of the hardest workers we've ever had. He's relentless in his work ethic, and just doesn't quit."
The opportunity to quit presented itself in eighth grade, when Bruno was cut from his middle school team. But rather than walking away from the game he loved, Bruno used the snub as motivation.
"I was made player-manager," he said with a laugh. "I was not in shape at all. I was one of those big, chubby eighth graders. But I think it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me because I found an AAU coach, worked with him and he really got me back into shape. Coming into ninth grade I was a whole different person and through the years, you wouldn’t even recognize me from eighth grade.
"I kind of felt the need to prove myself. Because I was tall, everybody would ask, 'You don't play on the basketball team?' So I did want to prove to them I could do it. And my love for basketball has been the driving force behind it. It's my whole life."
That drive and desire to improve and succeed has been a crucial factor in the development of his game, but it will also be a key aspect to his senior season on the hardwood, where he was elected a captain of the Hatters' squad.
"Bobby is very intense," Steinly said. "When he's working, he is focused and he is relentless. He is willing to do whatever he needs to do, and it rubs off on the other players. They see what they need to do. They see that he's worked hard to get where he is, so the other guys can look in the mirror, and they have to judge themselves based on his role model."
For his part, Bruno is ready and willing to do whatever needs to be done to help lead a Hatter squad that is young but has experience.
"Our team is pretty young this year, so I have to lead not only with words but with actions," he said. "I do kind of feel that pressure but I'm ready to handle it. I feel like I need to be that guy, but our young guys have a lot of talent, guys like Zack (Quattro) and Mike (Brown). I trust those guys to know what they're doing, they have high basketball IQs. I really trust them out there."
While Bruno doesn't necessarily see himself as a point-scorer, he's certainly come a long way with his ability to put the ball in the net. In addition to working on improving both his offense and defense in the paint, Bruno has worked on developing his jump shot, adding a new wrinkle to the Hatter offense.
"Bobby's outside shot has really come a long way," Steinly said. "You wouldn’t expect it, but he's got a soft touch, and he's one of the best foul shooters on the team, too. Teams tend to back off with him, and if they do that, he'll hit that 15-foot jumper."
"I used to be one of those big guys who just sat in the post all the time, but I feel like I'm able to step out a little bit more and take that 10-, 12-foot jump shot and my coach has really trusted me to give me the green light to shoot that," Bruno said.
Bruno has also become a force in the paint. And, as Steinly will attest, it's taken some work to get Bruno into the proper mindset for a guy who battles for rebounds and blocks out the opposition.
"Bobby's such a nice person we had to bring that aggressive instinct out where he would get tough with the ball and use his size to his advantage," Steinly said. "He really does use his body well inside, shielding defenders, getting the ball and clogging up the middle. He has become much more assertive in the paint for us."
Bruno, an Honor Roll student who is currently taking four Honors courses, is also working hard in the community … and using basketball to do so. Bruno and fellow Hatter Paul Haggerty recently organized and ran the Coach O 3-on-33 Tournament -- in memory of former Hatters' coach Walt "Ozzie" Ostrowski -- for their graduation projects.
A project that had been discussed before, Steinly said Bruno and Haggerty took the idea and ran with it. The majority of the tournament took place last Saturday, but the championship games will be played at halftime of the Dec. 23 games in the high school squad's Coach O Classic.
"It was for kids from sixth to ninth grade, to honor Coach O," Bruno said. "So we set that up, got some gym time and (four) of us plus Coach S put it in action. We had 14 or 16 teams sign up. We got donations, Pat Carroll came back and gave a little speech to the kids. It was a good time, it was really successful."
Though Bruno never had the opportunity to play for the legendary Hatters' coach, "Ozzie" did leave an impression on him when he was younger.
"I went to some of the clinics in the summer when he would run them," Bruno said. "And I went to a bunch of Hatters' games as a kid. I remember he was an intense guy, loved to win, and his teams were some of the best-coached teams I've ever seen play. He had his guys ready to go all the time, and held them to such high expectations."
"At this point, the kids coming through now were in elementary school when (Ostrowski) was coaching," Steinly said. "The further we get along the fewer kids in the program have had any experience with him. So it's important for us who knew him well to keep that name alive and to keep that legacy going."
It's a legacy of working hard and never giving up … a legacy that Bruno is most certainly helping to maintain. And it's one that he will take with him to college, where he is planning on continuing to play basketball. He's narrowing down his choices, just as he's narrowing down his plans on pursuing a degree either in business, finance or marketing.
Wherever he ends up, and whatever his future on the basketball courts hold, Bruno's coach knows that he has the proper attitude and worth ethic to be successful in any future venture.
"Bobby is just a super kid off the court --he's very nice, very personable," Steinly said. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I just wish him the best. You hope things work out for kids like that because they've earned it and they deserve for good things to happen."
For now, however, Bruno is focused on doing his part to help Hatboro-Horsham turn around its recent fortunes and help a team that has struggled through several losing seasons once again become the power it was when he was youngster watching those Ostrowski-coached squads achieve unprecedented greatness.
"This being my senior season, I would want us to win the Continental League, win a couple District One games and qualify for the state playoffs," Bruno said. "I think we have the talent to do it, it's just a matter of going out there and believing in ourselves. We want to bring the winning culture back to Hatboro-Horsham."
