WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, when he’s not involved in any of a multitude of Labor-related situations that occur daily in his life, Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF) President Peter DeJesus, Jr. (wearing a mask with his arms outstretched) can be found on the bench - or jumping up from it to make a point or to challenge a referee’s call, while serving as Assistant Coach to the Buffalo State College Bengals’ Women’s Basketball Team.  Head Coach Marybeth Nugent tells WNYLaborToday.com: “I know ‘he has a lot of duties’ (involving the Labor Movement), ‘but this is a happy place for him.’  ‘He’s passionate’ (about coaching and the game of basketball).  ‘And he’s a great role model - also a father figure to the girls.’”     (Photos Courtesy of Buffalo State College Athletics)

(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – With so much going on across the area’s Labor Movement these days - from being smack dab in the epicenter of Union Organizing at Starbucks in Buffalo to being involved in a high-profile fight for better wages and increased Staff at a Niagara County nursing home, Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation President (WNYALF) Peter DeJesus, Jr. finds himself extremely busy running and overseeing a 140,000-plus Union Organization - and that’s not even taking into consideration his responsibilities as an Organizer and Political Coordinator at 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers East.

So, it was very interesting for WNYLaborToday.com to learn during a recent conversation with WNYALF President Emeritus Richard Lipsitz (who I share a common interest and love of college basketball), especially during this time of the NCAA Post-Season Tournament, that DeJesus was quite an athlete himself growing up and who keeps himself busy with sports with a large family of his own - on top of all that’s currently going on in his Union life.

But in addition to all that, DeJesus can also be found in the late Fall and during the Winter months sitting down and jumping up from the bench of Buffalo State College’s Women’s Basketball Team, where he serves as an Assistant Coach to Head Coach Marybeth Nugent.

Talk about March Madness!

DeJesus - an admitted “lunch pail/Blue Collar guy,” just finished his fourth year as Assistant Coach of the Bengals’ Women’s Team.

He tells WNYLaborToday.com that he tries to impart a “Blue Collar” work ethic while coaching: “I’ve ‘done that plenty of times and taken (what he has learned in the Labor Movement) and transfer that to their everyday lives.’”

While Head Coach Marybeth Nugent admitted to Your On-Line Labor Newspaper that she really doesn’t know much about DeJesus’ role in the Western New York Labor Community, she said: “I know ‘he has a lot of duties (in his everyday professional life).”

DeJesus, who’s in his early 40s, was elected as President in March 2021 to oversee the WNYALF and its 140 affiliated Local Unions that combine to represent 145,000 Workers in the Public and Private Sectors and the Building Trades.

“This ‘is a happy place for him (at Buffalo State).’  ‘He’s passionate’ (about coaching and the game of basketball).  ‘And, he’s a great role model - also a father figure to the girls,’” Nugent said.

Nugent recalls “hitting it off” with DeJesus when she too served as an Assistant Coach under former Coach Kevin Clifford, who left to coach Division II Roberts Wesleyan just prior to the 2018-2029 season.

“I met Peter on a recruiting trip and ‘we hit it off,’” she said.

On the court and in practice, Nugent said DeJesus is “definitely a father figure” and with her being female, “it balances our needs very well.”

“When I ‘get on’ a player, Peter ‘will pull her aside and pull her up’ - ‘but he always has my back,’” Nugent said.  “He’s ‘very good for me.’  ‘He’s a good sounding board.’”

What both Nugent - a native of Springville, New York who played her college ball at Daemen College where she holds the record for single game assists and single-game three-point percentage, and DeJesus are also both proud of is how diverse the Buffalo State Women’s Team is compared to other Women’s teams they compete against in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC).

“It ‘has become a topic of conversation,’” the Bengals Women’s Coach told WNYLaborToday.com.  “We ‘play so many White’ teams.  ‘I love it that we have African Americans, two Native Americans and a Puerto Rican player, as well as Peter,’ who is Puerto Rican.  ‘It’s so cool so see it all come together.’”

Said DeJesus: “To me the diversity ‘is so important’ on our team.”

Asked if things will change in the SUNYAC in the years to come, both Nugent and DeJesus agreed: “It ‘will’ change.”

The Bengals’ Women Team just finished the season with a won-loss record of 14-11 and unfortunately lost a first round SUNYAC playoff game against Oneonta. 

“I ‘couldn’t do this without my wife’ (Annette),” said DeJesus, a former standout athlete at Grover Cleveland High School in Buffalo where he excelled at baseball (as a pitcher and as an outfielder), in soccer, football and basketball - as a sixth man whose interest grew in the “x’s and o’s” drawn up by legendary City Schools Coach Art Serotte, a member of the Great Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

“I was ‘intrigued’ (by the strategy),” he said.  “I was sixth guy off the bench ‘so I always sat next to the coach.’  He would ask me: ‘What do you think?’ (About the plays he was calling and would call during a game).”

Over the years, DeJesus would and continues to coach AAU Basketball Teams, including young girls’ teams, and has made time for his own children, who are also standouts in a variety of sports, playing in a variety of leagues and tournaments - just like their Dad was.

“We’re ‘just a sports family,’” he said matter-of-factly.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For more on WNYALF President DeJesus, read Your On-Line Labor Newspaper’s March 2021 Labor News Report, Headline: New Leadership At The Western New York AFL-CIO Labor Federation: ‘Lunch Pail Guy,’ 1199 SEIU’s Peter DeJesus, Jr., To Head Regional Labor Organization Whose 140 Affiliates Combine To Represent 145,000 Public & Private Sector Workers At www.wnylabortoday.com/news/2021/03/15/buffalo-and-western-new-york-labor-news/new-leadership-at-the-western-new-york-afl-cio-labor-federation-lunch-pail-guy-1199-seiu-s-peter-dejesus-jr.-to-head-regional-labor-organization-whose-140-affiliates-combine-to-represent-145-000-public-private-sector-workers/