Former Rutland High School basketball standout (1,582 points) and three-sport star Jake Eaton was approved on Tuesday as the Rutland High School girls varsity basketball coach replacing Nate Bellomo.
Eaton won five boys basketball state championships while coaching 12 years at at Proctor High School.
He said it was not a hard decision when he first heard about the opening.
“Nate did a really good job with the program. It is in a really good spot,” Eaton said.
“Everything Jake touches turns to gold, Whether he’s snapping footballs, shooting jump shots or managing entire athletic departments, he approaches every new challenge with an addiction to winning,” said former Rutland High teammate Joe Caligiuri.
“Jake is already one of the winningest athletic directors in Vermont history. While some may say he started at third base at Proctor, the truth is that being a perennial winner requires more than talent — it requires a passion to improve every day, empathy to acknowledge the feelings that his decisions yield and courage to break the mold.
“His success patters spans 26 years at four different institutions. Each stop produced championships. That consistency eliminates luck as an explanation. Rutland High just hired a coach who turns potential into results.”
Two of those championships were Atlantic 10 football titles when he was a University of Maine record-setting quarterback. He was inducted into the University of Maine Hall of Fame in 2016.
He has also been inducted into the Vermont Principals’ Hall of Fame and Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.
“Jake will never be too old for me to say, ‘I’m proud of you,” Caligiuri said.
Eaton said coming to the post this late means that he did not have a summer with the team so he will need to catch up on his personnel.
“Not having any of the summer with the team is one of my biggest challenges,” Eaton said. “I’ll have a couple of open gyms before the first practice.”
That will give the program’s new coach an opportunity to size up the talent and the team’s strengths.
He has his own offensive and defensive concepts that he would like to deploy but he also realizes that they will be dictated by his personnel.
He said his years at Proctor have given him a solid foundation.
“I think getting through the seasons at Proctor really helped,” Eaton said.
He was known for making basketball fun when coaching the Phantoms.
When Dave Fredrickson was the Executive Director of the Vermont Basketball Coaches Association, he was extremely impressed with a clinic presentation by Eaton about the importance of making basketball fun for the players.
“At Proctor, the players could not wait to get to practice and didn’t want to leave,” Eaton said.
Now, coaching at the same school from which he graduated, adds to specialness of this new opportunity.
“I want it to be an exciting experience for the players and fans. I am hoping that translates,” Eaton said.
Curtis Tomlinson played for Eaton at Proctor and was on the floor or the improbable comeback against Sharon Academy when the Phantoms trailed by seven points with 39 seconds left and won.
“The girls will be lucky to have him,” said Tomlinson who now lives in Hudson, Massachusetts.
“Jake is a great coach that is able to connect with his players really well and is a calming presence in the huddle when things get sporadic.
“We were lucky to have him at Proctor for so many years.”
Rutland has won one outright state championship in girls basketball, beating Middlebury 36-26 in the 2005 title game.
Eaton’s Rutland High girls basketball debut is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 13 in Rutland’s Keefe Gym at 5 p.m.
