There was an opening for an assistant coach on the Bridgewater State men’s basketball staff in the spring of 1997.
Peter Kelley, who had held that position with the Bears, had been hired to run the program at Framingham State, so Bridgewater State head coach Joe Farroba was on the lookout for a replacement.
The job wound up going to Mike Donovan, someone Farroba had played against while in high school on Cape Cod and had gotten to know even better while working at various coaching clinics.
They met for breakfast at My Sister & I in Bridgwater one April morning in ’97 for an interview to get the ball rolling on what turned into a long coaching collaboration.
Donovan spent 25 years alongside Farroba on the Bridgewater State bench, and after Farroba retired in 2022, he was with head coach Matt McLaughlin for his rookie season last winter.
Now, after 26 years as an integral part of Bears basketball, Donovan has retired as the program’s associate head coach following a successful stay at Bridgewater State.
The 69-year-old Donovan, who has dealt with numerous hip and foot ailments in recent years, has struggled after undergoing another foot operation last April. After taking part in a couple of practices this month, he decided against going through another season.
“I was fully planning on going through this year,” said Donovan. “I did a few practices but realized I could grind through another year on a knee roller. I would get through the year, but then I would spend next summer as I did this summer where I have done nothing from the April 28th surgery until now because of the foot surgery I had, the incision of which will not heal.
“The other piece was as I coached the first few practices, I realized these guys haven’t got the full version of me the last couple of years that they deserve. You just can’t do the job the right way. My way of coaching has been get out on the court and demonstrate and move guys around. I wasn’t able to do that.
“I need to get healthy so I can enjoy some time with my family. If I commit to it right now, I believe I’ll be in two shoes by December and walking like a normal person and maybe getting out and playing bad golf and lying about it like most of the guys my age.”
Donovan, a Falmouth High graduate, had played against Farroba, who played at Provincetown High, during the 1970s, and they would play summer basketball together.
After a career at Assumption College, Donovan was an assistant coach at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy from 1978-1983 and was the head coach at Falmouth High from 1983-87 before becoming a referee.
The opening at Bridgewater State in 1997 intrigued Donovan, so he sought to get back into coaching.
“I was over watching Mass. Maritime baseball up in the press box and Tommy Kelley from Framingham (the Rams athletic director) was there,” said Donovan. “He was watching his son play. When I was introduced to Tom, I said, ‘I heard you just hired Peter Kelley.’ I said, ‘I think I’ll give Joe a call tomorrow.'”
Farroba and Donovan made the NCAA Division 3 tournament seven times and had plenty of success in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference where the Bears were always near the top of the standings.
Farroba gives Donovan, who was on the Bridgewater State staff full time as an assistant equipment manager and home events manager from 2004-22, with a lot of credit for that success.
“He obviously was my right hand,” said Farroba, who was 402-365 in his career. “I can’t say enough about him. We were a team.
“He was another set of eyes. He had great rapport with the kids. As the head coach, sometimes you’ve got to be the bad cop. We could play off each other and he’d be the good cop. He was very good at it. I’d rip a kid and he’d put his hand on the kid’s shoulder and say, ‘Think about the message, not the way it was delivered.’
“He tolerated me. When he had a bone to pick, I took it as good criticism. It never got personal between both of us. He didn’t have a big ego.”
Farroba favored offense and Donovan leaned towards defense as a priority, so they were able to make the combination work.
“It was always funny,” said McLaughlin, a point guard for the Bears from 2007-10. “Whenever he had control of practices if Farroba was running late, we would do defense. As soon as Farroba came in, we would be doing offense. That was always the running joke with the players.”
McLaughlin has fond memories of being on the team for three years with Donovan as an assistant, then working alongside him for a year as an assistant to Farroba before taking over the program in 2022.
That first season as a head coach, McLaughlin guided Bridgewater State to an 18-8 record, and the experience of Donovan played a key role on the young staff. And he was a top-notch recruiter, a role that increased when he was on campus full time.
“Huge. Instrumental,” said the 36-year-old McLaughlin, whose team opens Nov. 8 at Anna Maria. “He knows everybody and anybody. Any time we’d come in with a new recruit or someone from some random high school, he knew the athletic director or he knew the coach or he knew someone’s uncle. Just his wisdom or his knowledge content was great.
“He was a huge consultant for me, someone I could call on the ride home after games. He was never a guy who always agreed. He pushed back on us. You’ve got a guy that’s 69 and he’s working with (young coaches) and that speaks volumes. It’s a huge credit and testament to him. His ability to adapt was awesome and hugely appreciated. We really liked when he pushed back on us. We needed that. He wasn’t afraid to do it. It’s what made us good.”
McLaughlin said that Donovan’s love for Bridgewater State would be in the spotlight whenever he gave recruits a tour of the campus and provide all the information he had about the school.
“He gives probably the best tours I’ve ever been on. It’s unbelievable,” said McLaughlin. “I go just to learn more from what he has to say. You go on a tour with him and you can really understand and appreciate his love for Bridgewater State University. He bleeds crimson, he really does.
“He’s like a historian when you go on those visits. His love and pride for the program is always beaming and you get to see how much of the school and the history of the school he knows. He cares.
“I was a student-athlete here, I’ve coached here for over a decade and I’m like, geez, I didn’t know this, I didn’t know that. He cares and it really shows, even when you just talk to him.”
Donovan’s top priority is to get the foot as healthy as possible, and he will relish all the Bridgewater State memories that were collected since 1997.
“I loved it, every second I did it,” he said. “It just kept getting better and better. We got some players, got the new building. It became an easy sell to sell Bridgewater basketball. It is a great bang for the buck educationally, as good a facility as there is in New England to play in and great blue collar kids. It grew on me over the years.
“I asked someone once, ‘When do you know when it’s time to stop coaching?’ They said, ‘You’ll just know.’ I’m at peace with it. I gave the place blood for 26 years. I’ll always do everything I can to promote Bridgewater. I love Bridgewater. But it’s time for the new guard to get it going.”
Donovan will be watching the Bears via the internet from Falmouth, but he has a goal to rejoin the team late in the season.
“I don’t know how many games I’ll get to,” he said, “but I told the guys I have a date circled. It’s 2-24-24. It’s a Saturday afternoon and my goal is to walk into the Tinsley Center and be allowed to climb up the ladder and cut a piece of the net (after the MASCAC title game). That’s what I left with the team.”
https://www.bsubears.com/sports/mbkb/2023-24/releases/Fenton_Donovan_Retirement
