Dustin Botelho
Graduating class: 2000
Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2024
Hall of Fame Category: Athlete
His athletic resume could have been summed up in two words - “Gym Rat” - because that’s exactly what Dustin Botelho was. He was talented enough to play a variety of sports but it was basketball on which he was laser focused.
Dustin wanted to be the best he could be. And when the freshman connected on a long three point field goal for his first varsity points in a Jan. 10, 1997 victory over Seekonk, he was on his way to reaching his goal. Dustin played sparingly in that freshman season of 1996-1997, scoring just 38 points over seven games as the Blue Devils finished the year with a record of 9-13 and failed to qualify for the postseason tournament.
When graduation claimed a handful of players including high-scoring Kevin Hopkins and Adam Sousa, Botelho played his way into a leadership role as a sophomore by leading the Blue Devils in scoring (14 points-per-game) and into the postseason with a regular-season record of 11-11.
And the best was yet to come. On December 19, 1998, the 6-1 junior became a part of Fairhaven athletic history by scoring the first points in the school’s new high school gymnasium on a driving layup in route to a regular-season high 27 points in a 74-63 loss to Dartmouth. The disappointing loss may have detracted from his accomplishment, but it didn’t take Botelho’s focus off his ultimate goal of becoming the best that he could be.
Over the course of that 22-game regular season, the sweet-shooting junior scored in double figures 19 times, including 10 contests in which he scored 20-or-more to lead the team in scoring on the way to a 16-6 record and second consecutive trip to the postseason tournament.
With one season left in his high school career, Botelho was 22 games away from reaching his personal goal. He was clearly the leader of a senior dominated roster and went into that final season as the team’s “go-to” guy on offense. And, again, he didn’t disappoint.
Following a 16-point effort in a 76-51 rout of Mashpee in the home opener, Botelho’s team-leading 15 point-per-game average through 16 games had Fairhaven in cruise control with a 13-3 record. But as his team prepared to host GNB Voc-Tech in a Feb. 1, 2000 game, the spotlight was clearly on the 6’1” gunner who was just 13 points shy of becoming the ninth player in school history to score 1,000 points.
The milestone moment came with 13:27 left in the contest when Botelho stole the ball from under the Voc-Tech basket and scored on a layup. As the crowd erupted, the game was stopped and the senior was presented with the basketball. In his typical style, Botelho humbly accepted the ball and in a postgame interview was quoted as saying: “I’m more concerned with what we do as a team, not on how many points I score.
But there was a lot of talk about the 1,000 points before the game and I just wanted to get past that sort of stuff.” Fairhaven won the game, 71-56, behind Botelho’s 16 points and finished the regular season with a record of 18-4 to qualify for tournament play for the third consecutive postseason.
The team never did win a tournament game in Botelho’s four seasons but it certainly wasn’t the fault of the slick all-around player who reached his personal goal of becoming the best all-around player he could.
Dustin earned a degree in Criminal Justice and Political Science from Northeastern University and then began a career in campus policing.
He is currently working as a Lieutenant with the Brandeis University Police Department. Dustin resides in Rehoboth with his wife Erin and their two children: Courtney (14) and Ethan (11). He stays active in sports by coaching youth sports in Dighton-Rehoboth.