Bucaro started playing lacrosse when he was just 4. From the time he could barely cradle until his eighth-grade season, his father was his coach. Rich Bucaro, a financial advisor at Wells Fargo, played lacrosse at Cortland and coached Patriot Elite’s PAL and travel teams. When his son got to high school, Rich hung up his whistle to follow Dan’s rise as a nationally touted prospect at Ward Melville.
Bucaro led Ward Melville to a New York State Class A championship as a sophomore in 2013. He scored three goals in a 16-4 win over West Genesee, cementing the Patriots’ undefeated season and first state championship in 13 years. Shortly after that 56-goal, 30-assist campaign, Bucaro verbally committed to Georgetown, denying offers from Duke, Harvard, Cornell, Virginia, Princeton and Brown.
But Bucaro’s first two years at Georgetown were disappointing. The Hoyas went 2-12 in the 2016 season and 4-10 in 2017. That’s why it stung so badly when he tore his ACL in 2018 as a junior. Georgetown had started the season 6-0 and would finish without Bucaro on a five-game winning streak that included a victory over Denver in the Big East championship game. The Hoyas advanced to the NCAA tournament, where they had Johns Hopkins on the ropes before falling 10-9 in overtime.
“We have a chance to actually make it to the finals and win it,” Bucaro said. “We had one of the best teams out there and I got hurt. It was just so upsetting. I'd love to be out there.”
Bucaro still remembers the play that ended his season. He extended his right knee the wrong way while trying to stop short and avoid getting decked by a Villanova defender. He evaded the hit, but not before his knee popped and then got laid flat anyway. Days later, the MRI confirmed what Bucaro feared most: his ACL was torn.
Bucaro was less concerned with the relatively routine surgery and more with how he could help Georgetown while sidelined. He started to stretch his teammates, fill up water bottles, watch film and give advice on plays or moves to try.
“He became player, coach, manager, student trainer all into one,” Hoyas trainer Erin Pettinger said.
Whenever Rich asked Dan about his “bad knee,” his son always replied, “I don’t have a bad knee.” To prove it, Bucaro won Georgetown’s run test the season after his ACL surgery.
“Dan looks up to Rich,” Mary Bucaro said. “If he ever has trouble in lacrosse, he asks Rich for help. Rich has always helped him.”
When Bucaro was younger, his dad advised him to practice 15 minutes per day to slowly but surely get better. Mary said Bucaro always insisted on doing more than that. He may have become a beast on the field, but few knew his gentle side or who he was in his school’s lunchroom.
During his senior year at Ward Melville, Bucaro left his friends and normal lunch spot to sit with a student who was eating alone every day.
“The only reason we even found out he did this was because the dean of the school called our parents and told them,” said Clare Bucaro, Dan’s older sister. “He doesn’t do anything for show.”
Seaman could see Bucaro was more than just a scoring machine.
“There are three things we look at when we decide on what players we want to draft,” Seaman said. “No. 1 is family background.”