The Village School of Naples looking to take next step with athletic programs

When Matt Bucknell took over as athletic director at The Village School of Naples, he saw more than a growing program. He saw untapped potential.

Now, with new hires, talks of upgrading facilities, and a renewed emphasis on competitiveness, Bucknell is setting the stage for the high school’s athletics to make a serious leap forward. Bucknell hopes to take the Knights to the next level with his official start date as athletic director on July 1.

More: Which Southwest Florida high school has a new AD and is exploring adding football?

"The support is fantastic," Bucknell said. "Everything seems to be a really smooth and easy transition. The previous athletic director (Andrew Miranti), and I have worked together for the last four years and have a great relationship. That transition is going really, really smoothly. Things are looking really good for next year."

Bucknell previously served as athletic director at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic in Naples. Before that, he led the athletics program at Royal Palm Academy, where he also served as President of the Sunshine Athletic Conference locally. Bucknell also worked as the athletic coordinator at Mason Classical, where he grew the program from scratch.

Tapping local expert for help

Joining Bucknell to help build the athletic program is Collier County staple Billy Sparacio, who served previously as First Baptist's founding athletic director and football coach. Sparacio, who built First Baptist's athletic program from scratch starting in 2007, has been hired in a consulting role, providing input on how to grow the Knights' program.

After his resignation earlier this year after nearly two decades at FBA, Sparacio started True Victory Consulting, which provides assessments of athletic departments and mentoring programs, among other things.

Sparacio is the second football coach they've consulted in the last three years, with legendary ex-Naples coach Bill Kramer being the first. Kramer's expertise was more centered around starting a football program, while Sparacio's advice is more widespread, especially having led an athletic department with state runner-up finishes in volleyball (2017), boys track and field (2021), girls track and field (2021), and boys wrestling (2022), along with Final Four appearances in boys basketball (2019, 2022, 2025), volleyball (2018, 2020, 2024), and girls basketball (2021).

"There's just great energy, and they seem to be very, very excited about the possibilities of total school development," Sparacio said. "They've already proven themselves as a very good academic school. They've been around for a long time. Their push and their focus on growing their athletic program is not just words. They're matching it with hiring somebody like Matt, who's working really well with Andrew Miranti.

"People seem to be wanting to help each other be successful, for the school. It's not, well athletics wants to go here and the academics wants to go there. I just get a vibe and a feel that everybody's really working together to try and make The Village School a better place for high school in general. Buildings don't do that, people do that."

Growing Knights Athletics

The Village School, affiliated with the North Naples Church on Goodlette Road, started in 2000 as a Christian Pre-K and has steadily grown, opening the upper school in 2017 to run from Pre-K to 12th grade.

The school made a push to grow its high school athletics in basketball in 2022 by hiring Nick Tsikitas as the boys coach and Vicki Thomas-Ambrose as the girls coach. Tsikitas went 27-33 in three seasons, while Thomas-Ambrose was only able to field a team in her first season, going 7-3 before taking the head coaching job at Aubrey Rogers last season, finishing 21-7.

Earlier this year, the school hired Culmer St. Jean to lead the boys basketball program, and Temez Torian Ruise to lead the girls program. St. Jean has had experience coaching in the public school system locally, working at Lely in various roles, including as the Trojans' head football coach from 2013-15 along with serving as an assistant in various capacities.

Ruise most recently served as varsity head basketball coach at Royal Palm Academy. Prior, he was the athletic director overseeing all athletic programs. Ruise also coached basketball at Seacrest, Community School of Naples, and Lake City High School.

The school added a track around its field with stadium lights as part of a $3.2-million renovation and expansion capital project in 2021. It also spent $1.8 million to install new sod on its field, which is used for soccer and lacrosse. Lacrosse started last year with former Bishop Verot coach Tony Ventiquattro leading the effort. The Knights went 6-5 in his first season this spring.

"There has been a huge increase in quality coaches coming through in the last couple of years," Bucknell said. "You've got Piotr Nowak coming in for soccer, who's an ex-MLS coach, an ex-international player for Poland who's building the soccer program from third grade all the way up. There's going to be huge results happening there in the next few years. We've also got the Ventiquattros in lacrosse. They're a huge name in lacrosse, especialy coming from Bishop Verot where they were top 20 in the state (at one point).

"So there is a huge opportunity happening there, and that's all within the last year."

Is football on the way at The Village School?

While a football program isn't solidified yet, things could be in the works. The school previously had a middle school program in the mid-2010s, but has never fielded a high school team. There's a chance that with the foundation being laid with a middle and upper school, and enrollment set to increase by nearly 20 students in the upper school this fall, football could be on the table later this decade.

"Right now, it's in the feasibility stage," Bucknell said. "Trying to make sure if and when we do this, it's done 100 percent the correct way, so we don't have another incident where it happened and then fell off the radar and didn't happen. So, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen right. It's not something that's going to pop up overnight.

"It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of effort, and that's something we're all 100 percent behind and trying to make that happen. Again, if we're going to do it, we're going to do it right."

The Village School of Naples varsity programs

These are the high school sports the Knights fielded during the 2024-25 high school season.

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cross Country
• Golf
• Lacrosse
• Soccer
• Swimming
• Tennis
• Track and Field
• Volleyball

Follow Sports Reporter Alex Martin on X: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Village School hires Billy Sparacio as athletic department consultant