Michael DeRosa, Bridgehampton High School athletic director, dies at 42

Bridgehampton athletic director Mike DeRosa. Credit: Dyana DeRosa

By Matt Lindsaymatt.lindsay@newsday.com @mattlinds19Updated July 14, 2026 3:59 pm

Michael DeRosa was the heart and soul of Bridgehampton High School athletics.

DeRosa, affectionately known as Bubba, spent eight years at the school, where he served as the athletic director, a physical education and health teacher, assistant varsity baseball coach and dean of students.

DeRosa died on Friday at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Westhampton after battling Glioblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer, for more than a year, his family said. He was 42.

“It’s impossible to imagine a world without my brother,” Chris DeRosa said. “He was everyone’s friend. He cared about lifting people up, being a good role model to kids, working with them to be their best selves, and everywhere he went, everybody just loved him. It’s a massive hole in all of our hearts.”

In 2021, DeRosa revived Bridgehampton’s baseball program, which had been dormant for 43 years. He served as an assistant coach under Lou Liberatore, who is also a teacher at Bridgehampton.

DeRosa established the school’s first JV girls basketball team in 2025, which will grow into a varsity team this coming winter season. He also led the charge in creating Bridgehampton’s first varsity boys soccer team last fall.

“It’s almost like he had this gravitational pull with kids,” Liberatore said. “I don’t know he got so much done. Kids were in his office every period . . . He accomplished more in eight years as an athletic director than many accomplish in their entire careers. He transformed athletics at Bridgehampton. He created so many incredible opportunities for our students that will leave a lasting legacy on the district.”

“His energy was infectious and he was always positive, always smiling, always laughing,” Bridgehampton principal Michael Cox said. “That’s a big reason why kids wanted to be around him. Everyone brings their own situation to the table, but Mike had a way of re-steering them and guiding them. He believed in you even if you didn’t believe in yourself.”

DeRosa was diagnosed with Glioblastoma on March 27, 2025, after a medical episode during his gym class. He recovered well from surgeries to remove the tumor last April after pushing through more than six hours of occupational, physical and speech therapy each day. His wife, Dyana, said he suffered a seizure in September. After a few more seizures in December, it was discovered in January that the tumor had regrown.

“He fought so hard and he always had a smile on his face,” Dyana DeRosa said. “He was just such an amazing person, husband and dad. He was such a great teacher. Everything he did, he put his entire heart into. He had such a great relationship with everyone. Anyone who met him loved him right away.”

DeRosa was born on March 15, 1984, and grew up in Hampton Bays, where he played baseball, basketball, football and soccer. A star baseball player, DeRosa pitched a complete game to lead Hampton Bays’ varsity baseball team to a county title in 2001 after pitching three innings the day prior.

Former Hampton Bays baseball coach Pete Meehan said he met DeRosa when he was a third-grader in summer baseball and basketball camps. DeRosa and Meehan remained close even after he graduated from Hampton Bays in 2002.

“As a third-grader, he was a kid full of energy,” Meehan said. “It just never left him. He loved working with kids, probably because he still was one inside. He got as much joy coaching Bridgehampton baseball the last few years as he did when he was a third-grader in our camps.”

DeRosa played baseball at Salisbury University for a semester before transferring to SUNY Oneonta, where he played rugby. He graduated from Oneonta in 2007 and earned his master’s degree at Hofstra University in 2009. He spent a few years coaching youth camps and middle school sports at Hampton Bays before becoming a phys ed teacher at the East New York Middle School of Excellence in Brooklyn in 2012.

DeRosa interviewed at Bridgehampton in 2017 for a phys ed and health teaching position, and was offered those jobs as well as the school’s athletic director position by outgoing AD Mike Miller.

Bridgehampton often shares athletic programs with other neighboring school districts. Cox said that DeRosa was everywhere, almost as if “he had multiple doppelgangers.” If there was one Bridgehampton athlete on a combined team, he would be at the game to show support.

DeRosa married Dyana on June 4, 2022. The couple welcomed their daughter Mia a few months before his initial diagnosis. When he was recovering from surgeries, he always lit up when he saw his daughter.

“As much as he cared about sports and the community, there was nothing he loved more than being Dyana’s husband and Mia’s dad,” Chris DeRosa said.

DeRosa picked up cornhole as a hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic. He brought it into his gym classes because it was perfect for social distancing. He began playing cornhole competitively and became one of the best players in the state.

Even with a paralyzed right arm as he recovered from last spring’s surgeries, DeRosa played in cornhole tournaments with his left hand and still won several matches.

An avid Knicks fan, DeRosa enjoyed watching their postseason run to the NBA championship.

“We’ve been Knicks fans our whole lives,” Chris DeRosa said. “We didn’t miss a game this postseason. It was an amazing run and to be able to share that with my brother was amazing.”

DeRosa is survived by his wife, Dyana DeRosa; their daughter Mia; his parents, Ralph and Denise; his brother Terrance and partner Thomas Hopwood; and his brother Chris DeRosa and wife Alejandra DeRosa.

Visitation will be held Tuesday from 4 to 8 p.m. at R.J. O’Shea’s Funeral Home in Hampton Bays. A funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Rosalie’s Church in Hampton Bays and will be followed by a lantern release at 6 p.m. at Ponquogue Beach.