About the Author

Biographical Sketch of Gus Alfieri

Dr. Alfieri has spent a lifetime in education, sports as well as the business world, and possesses a well-rounded background. He grew up in New York and received athletic scholarships to St. Francis Prep and St. John’s University where he starred in Division I basketball for Hall-of-Fame coaches Joe Lapchick and Lou Carnesecca.

He taught high school social studies and coached state championship basketball teams at St. Anthony’s High School on Long Island. During one period his teams won 49 games in a row and two state championships.

Along with a career in education, he has successfully directed one the premier teaching basketball camps in America. The All-American Basketball Camp has been in existence on Long Island for more than thirty years, and has been directed, and operated by Gus Alfieri and his wife Janet.

Besides his bachelor’s degree from St. John’s, Gus has two masters degrees and a Ph. D. in American Cultural History where his dissertation was on the literary marketplace and the revival of the career of writer Thomas Beer. He presently teaches in Stony Brook University’s graduate school.

He spent eight years researching LAPCHICK, which he considers an intimate history of basketball through a biography of his coach, Joe Lapchick. Top Easthampton literary agent Philip Spitzer represents him. He also writes a column for Long Island's Ultimate Athlete magazine, is a motivational speaker, a sports clinician, and offers instructional sports seminars.

After his scholastic team won the first New York State basketball AAA Championship, in 1979, and had been on public television all over New York State and Canada, Gus had the idea for a high school “Game of the Week,” which he promoted, organized, procured sponsors, and got off the ground. He did the color on the games with New York Knickerbocker announcer Al Trautwig.

In 2001, he was elected as a trustee to the Smithtown Library Board. Gus’s strength is his ability to motivate.

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