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George Albano column - Norwalk a breeding ground for coaches
Posted on 03/04/2010
They were three kids who grew up together in Norwalk. Three kids who shared a hometown, a wonderfully close friendship, and a passion for the game of basketball.
Today, 23 years after they graduated from Norwalk High School in 1987, Scott Nails, Anthony Hill and Gary Peterson all live in different towns, but their friendship is closer and stronger than ever, and the love they have for their favorite sport has never been greater.
Only now that passion doesn't come out as players, but rather as coaches.
In fact, all three are head coaches of their own high school varsity basketball teams, each of which they led to the state tournament this season.
Nails just completed his first season as the head coach of the Foran High School girls basketball team in Milford. Peterson has been directing the girls team at Darien High for the past two years. And Hill still isn't done with his rookie season as the head boys basketball coach at Wilbur Cross in New Haven.
Now in their early 40s, they all took different paths to their current destinations with several stops along the way. But they all ended up in the same place: In the first seat on their respective benches.
And it all began right here in Norwalk.
"I've know Gary since we were in kindergarten at Honeyhill School," Nails said the other day. "And we both met Anthony in middle school at West Rocks and the three of us have been friends ever since. We've known each other, lived close to each other, and graduated from the same class at Norwalk High."
"I came along somewhere around sixth grade," Hill added. "Since West Rocks the three of us have been best of friends. It carried through high school, and even as we all got older and had families and careers, we stayed in touch."
That bond, however, is never stronger than during the winter months.
"Growing up we all had the same passion for basketball," Hill said. "During the season each of us tap into each other. I'll call Scotty and ask him, what do you think, or Gary will call me. We support each other and we've been able to help each other out through the years."
"We're from the old school," Peterson said with a laugh. "We played a lot together and I think all of us have the same beliefs about how to play the game. We definitely believe there's a certain way to play, a certain desire and level you have to play at. That's the way we played and I think that passion is still there in our coaching."
Perhaps never more so than this season when all three made it to the postseason.
"You have three Norwalk guys, all three of them coaches, all three of them over .500, all three of them made it to the state tournament, and all three of them with fairly successful coaching careers," Hill pointed out. "We've had a friendship of 30 years and not many people are blessed to have what we have had."
It's certainly not surprising that the seeds to their coaching careers were planted when all of them were players. Nails and Hill both played basketball their first three years at NHS when legendary coach Ray Barry was running the program.
Peterson never played while in high school.
"Gary didn't play in high school, but when we played at the park or down the beach, he always played with us," Nails said. "He was a real good player, too. He understands the game and I think that's why he made a good coach. He was able to teach the game to others."
Hill agreed.
"He always had a great mind and was always thinking, even on the playground," he said. "Gary was always more cerebral when it came to basketball. He definitely knows the game."
"I played a lot. I just never played in high school," Peterson said. "I just never went out, but I think I certainly would've made the team had I come out."
When they were seniors, Nails and Hill didn't play, either.
"I also played football at Norwalk and I wanted to try to play football in college," Nails explained. "So I spent the winter my senior year getting ready to play college football. And Anthony and Gary started coaching in the JBA (Junior Basketball Association). They were 17, 18 years-old when they started coaching."
"We were 18 coaching 14-year-olds," Hill noted.
Nails, meanwhile, went to Hobart College, but later gave up his dream of playing college football and joined his friends as a coach in the JBA. It turned out to be a great career move.
"I came in the middle of the season as an assistant," he said. "I was an assistant the next year, too, and then I got my own team."
While they were coaching, Nails and Hill also played basketball together at Norwalk State Technical College and in 1991 helped the Wolverines win the Connecticut Small Conference championship.
But even at that point they both knew they wanted to coach, and continued to do so with a few AAU teams in the area.
"I actually coached a lot of kids in Norwalk," Nails said. "Keith Sellers, Zach Wrentz, Idris Price, all those guys."
Nails was starting to build a pretty good reputation when one day he received an unexpected call from Mike Garrity, the former boys basketball coach at Wilton High School.
"He said I want you to be my assistant coach," Nails said.
So he did that for three years before returning to his alma mater where he served as an assistant on the Norwalk High boys team for four years.
Hill, meanwhile, landed his first high school job at Wright Tech in Stamford, where he was the JV coach for one season, and then spent the next two seasons as an assistant with the boys team at St. Joseph's under Vito Montelli, another legendary coach.
In 2005-06, the head coaching position with the Notre Dame of Fairfield girls basketball team opened and both Hill and Nails applied for the job.
"Anthony and I were the last two candidates for the Notre Dame girls job," Nails said. "It came down to the two of us."
"We both offered each other the assistant coach job," Hill said. "I said if you get it I'll be your assistant and if I get it you come be my assistant."
"Anthony got the job and I was going to be his assistant," Nails added. "But then I got a call from Weston."
The Weston High School girls basketball team was also looking for a head coach and Nails ended up getting that job.
Meanwhile, Peterson was busy launching his own coaching career, starting at Wilton High School where the late Jerry Simmons, a Norwalk resident and the Warriors' head boys coach at the time, recruited him to be on his staff.
"I coached against Jerry in the JBA. I actually beat him for the championship one year," Peterson recalled. "He called me up one day and asked if I was interested in being his assistant and JV coach at Wilton."
Peterson did that for three years, and when Nails got the Weston job, Hill had to look for someone else to be his assistant at Notre Dame. He quickly called his other good friend.
"Anthony and I coached together two years at Notre Dame," Peterson said. "I was the assistant varsity coach."
Then in 2007-08, Hill returned to boys basketball as the head coach at Berlin High School.
"I wanted the challenge of coaching boys," he said.
That was the same season Peterson went to Darien High School as an assistant with the girls basketball team, and before the season was over he became the interim head coach. He had the interim tag removed last year.
Also last year, Nails left Weston to become the new head girls coach at Foran while Hill left Berlin to take over as head coach of the Wilbur Cross boys team.
Finally, after all the moving around and paying their dues, the three former Norwalkers were all head coaches of their own programs at the same time.
"We all put in many years and a lot of time in the offseason to get to this point," Peterson said.
Nails led Foran to a 9-11 mark last year as the Lions qualified for both the Southern Connecticut Conference and Class M state tournaments. This season, Foran went 10-10 before losing in the first round of the state tourney Tuesday night.
Darien struggled through a 3-17 campaign last season in Peterson's first year, but went 11-9 this season, just missing the FCIAC playoffs by one win.
"We put in a whole new offense this year and we turned it around," Peterson said after an eight-point loss to a 15-5 New Canaan team in the first round of the Class L state tournament Monday night.
Hill's season at Wilbur Cross is still not over yet. After going 10-10 in his first season last year, Hill led the Governors to a 14-6 regular-season mark this year, including a huge win over city rival Hillhouse (18-2).
In fact, Cross won nine of its last 10 games and will host RHAM in a first-round Class L state tournament game on Monday night.
"I feel Wilbur Cross is one of the top high school programs in the state and I'm very fortunate to be the coach there," Hill said of the Governors' 14 state titles. "There's quite a legacy there with Bob Saulsbury, who coached there 22 years, and then Jim Reynolds for 14 years.
"I'm grateful that when the job opened up and I applied, the powers-that-be gave me a look and took a chance on me."
And even though Nails' and Peterson's seasons are over, they're still not done with basketball. Instead they're busy helping Hill prepare for the state tournament.
"We're both going to games helping Anthony scout teams," Nails said.
Now that's passion. Better yet, that's friendship.
"All of us still hang out together, even during basketball season," Nails said. "A lot of times after games on Friday night Gary and I meet up for dinner to talk about our games. Anthony's team is either playing in New Haven or away, but we'll call him up to see how he did."
Sometimes they even meet up in Norwalk.
"Scotty and I went to the McMahon-Norwalk game a couple of weeks ago and hung out together," Hill said. "And Gary and I just recently got together, too."
Then there was the time all three of them ended up in the same gym, back when Nails coached at Weston and Hill and Peterson were at Notre Dame.
"They beat me pretty good," Nails laughed. "Not just once, but two years in a row. They were loaded."
"Yeah, but Scotty had a real young team and he was cultivating a real good program," Hill added. "We knew if we stayed at Notre Dame any longer he would eventually get us."
Indeed, the freshmen on Nails' first team are now seniors and have won 14 games so far, including their first-round state tourney game.
But as successful as all three have been, Hill says it all traces back to Norwalk.
"A lot of our influence was obviously Ray Barry," he said. "We learned how to run a team and how to run a program watching him. I've coached with and against a lot of great coaches and learned from all of them. But for me, it all started with Ray Barry.
"Another big influence was John Newton. He encouraged Gary and I to coach in the JBA when we were seniors in high school and he taught us a lot. He still calls me and tells me he follows my games at Cross in the paper. Mr. Newton is someone we all have a lot of respect for."
"A lot of people in Norwalk helped us along the way," said Nails, who's still has ties to NHS as part of the school's security staff. "This is where it all began for us."
Hill also tried to come back home, applying for both the Norwalk and Brien McMahon boys basketball head coaching jobs when they were open a few years ago.
"It didn't work out, but I'm in a tremendous place and I'm very happy," he said. "I tell everyone the only way I would ever leave Wilbur Cross is to coach Norwalk High or Brien McMahon. I even tell my players I still bleed green and white. I wear red now, but I'm still a Norwalk High School guy."
That same can be said about his good friends and fellow coaches Scott Nails and Gary Peterson.
"We're three kids out of the streets of Norwalk," Hill concluded. "We all coach in different towns, but we still represent Norwalk wherever we go."
George Albano column - NHS retires Diaz' jersey
Posted on 02/18/2010
It didn't matter that the Norwalk High School girls basketball team was a decided underdog going into Wednesday night's game against city rival Brien McMahon.
Oh, sure, the slumping Lady Bears were only 6-13 with losses in six of their last seven games while the red-hot Senators were 12-7 and winners of eight of their last nine games.
And, yes, Norwalk was out of the running for a state tournament berth while McMahon is headed for the FCIAC and state playoffs.
Heck, it didn't even matter when the Bears quickly found themselves down 13-0 at the start and behind by as much as 15 points early in the second quarter.
No, despite all that, an inspired and determined Norwalk High girls basketball team still seemed destined to win its final game of the season.
That's because the Bears were playing six against five on Wednesday night. That's right, six players against five.
You see, they had Margaret Diaz out on the court with them.
Make no mistake. Norwalk's dramatic 52-45 comeback victory was also fueled by a 17-0 run in the second quarter and tenacious team defense from that second period on.
And the game-high 15 points Rottisha Lewis scored, the eight points apiece by Jessica and Katie Schmidt, the critical fourth-quarter baskets by Vanessa Harris, and the rebounding of Emma Oyomba all went a long way to make this win possible.
But you also had the sense that a part of Margaret Diaz was clad in green and white on this night. It almost felt as if she willed her former team to victory, even if none of the players on the floor were close to being born back when she ruled the city.
Diaz's spirit was certainly present in the crowd and at center court during halftime when many of her former teammates and coaches gathered to honor one of the greatest basketball players - male or female - the school and the city has ever produced.
Diaz passed away last month at the age of 47 in her native Trinidad and on Wednesday night her high school made sure her spirit will always remain alive by retiring her uniform No. 10, permanently displaying it in a glass-enclosed case on the wall in the Thomas Scarso Gymnasium. A plaque reminding everyone of Diaz's 1,046 career points and her selection as a two-time All-FCIAC and All-State player was also part of the case.
And her former teammates and coaches from 30 years ago - some who travelled from far away -were there to recognize Norwalk High School's first all-state player and 1,000-point scorer in girls basketball.
Even the players on this year's Norwalk and McMahon teams lined up on the court before heading to their respective locker rooms to witness the special ceremony as the past and present intertwined.
A few feet away, the former Lady Bears - now all in their 40s - who played with Diaz were introduced one by one.
"It's wonderful to see all the girls and, ironically, Margaret brought us together," Don Foust, the NHS coach when Diaz played from 1976-77 to 1978-79, said afterward. "It's a wonderful, wonderful walk down memory lane, not only being on the court and seeing the girls, but obviously all the fond memories.
"But the reality that Margaret is not here with us is something that's tough to swallow."
"It's bitter-sweet to think why we're all here," added Lois Wrinn Nelson, a starting forward on the 1979 NHS team that went 20-0 during the regular season, and who drove all the way from New Jersey to be there. "I can still see Margaret's smiling face."
"It's very bitter-sweet," agreed Steph Seymour, the captain and starting point guard on that FCIAC and state final team. "It's unbelievable to me she's passed away. I get to see to lot of people I haven't seen in a long time, but at the same time it's sad."
Seymour, who Foust dubbed "The General" three decades ago because of the preciseness with which she ran the offense, assisted many of Diaz's baskets.
"Margaret played in the middle and she had soft hands and a soft touch," Seymour said. "You knew if you passed it to her in the middle it was going in for two."
"I think she changed the game," said Nelson, who had the added thrill of being introduced by her brother, Jim Wrinn, the public address announcer at Norwalk High basketball games. "It was still early in women's basketball back then, but we had a big following and big crowds at all our games. Margaret really changed the game."
"You're talking about the beginning of girls basketball with Title IX and everything," Foust added. "The team we had set a standard with Margaret being the school's first all-stater and first 1,000-point scorer."
While Wrinn and Seymour were Diaz's teammates all three years she played at Norwalk, others felt fortunate to have played with her for even one season.
"I was so happy to be on the team with her when I was a freshman," Janine Delise Deering said. "I also played with her in all the summer basketball leagues before I got to high school and I learned so much from her.
"She made us all play basketball all year long because that's what she did," the starting point guard on the Bears' 1981 state title team added. "I was always dribbling a basketball when I wasn't playing. Margaret was the one who started everything rolling as far as Norwalk High basketball. She was so dynamic and she changed the face of the game in the late '70s. Before that, it was not even looked at as a sport."
Debbie Ross, a sophomore when Diaz was a senior, is also thankful for the one season they played together, and remained good friends with her after their high school days.
"We stayed in touch all through the years," said Ross, who co-captained the '81 state championship team. "We lost touch after she moved back to Trinidad a few years ago, but we were always pretty close.
"I haven't seen my teammates for so long and tonight brought back a lot of memories," Ross, who still works with the city's youth at the Carver Center, added. "It means a lot for all of us to be here honoring her."
Lynn Luczkowski, another teammate, was the first NHS female athlete to have her number retired when her No. 8 in softball was put in the trophy case. She was a junior when Diaz was a senior and was just happy to see her play.
"I can honestly say I saw Margaret play every game because I was sitting right on the bench," Luczkowski, the former pitching great who started in basketball the following season when the Bears again went 20-0, said with a laugh. "Margaret had an artistry on the court. She had real natural ability, but she also worked very hard.
"A lot of people think greatness just comes natural, that it's a given. But in her case it was earned through a lot of hard work."
Sky Livingston, Foust's longtime assistant coach, also spent only one season with Diaz at Norwalk, but has fond memories of her on another level.
"Her senior year was my first year," he said. "But I really got to know her when she became an assistant coach in college with Don and I. That's where I got to know her as a person and a competitor."
Foust and Livingston left Norwalk after the 1983 season to take over the women's basketball program at the University of Bridgeport, and a few seasons later Diaz joined the staff.
"She used to get on the floor with the players and show them a whole different standard," Livingston recalled. "She was out of college, but she'd be out on the floor beating college players. She was a fierce competitor."
But not everyone who came to honor Diaz Wednesday night had a basketball connection to her. Richard Loris showed up for a different reason.
"I coached her in cross country," the retired NHS teacher pointed out. "I met Margaret her junior year because I used to open the gym one night a week and she would always come to play basketball.
"She got to know me and then as a senior decided to come out for cross country because of me. With her basketball, she was only able to come to 11 practices, but still won the FCIAC championship. Who could do that with only 11 practices? Nobody!"
Diaz also ran outdoor track in the spring and won the FCIAC and state titles in the quarter-mile, setting a new state record her junior year.
But on Wednesday night, it was all about Margaret Diaz, the former Norwalk High School basketball player, who everyone came out to honor.
"It was just an honor to be at center court tonight and give honor to Margaret," Ross said. "That was a blessing."
Not only were former teammates and coaches there, but even several parents of former players who used to follow the team 30 years ago.
"It's wonderful to see the Norwalk High basketball family come together," Luczkowski said. "That's why tonight is such a great tribute to her."
"We were more than a team," Lois Wrinn Nelson said. "We used to say we were a family and we were."
All these years later, they still are. The only thing better would have been if Margaret Diaz herself was there to see her number retired.
"Personally, I think her number should have been retired a long time ago," Seymour said. "I know what it would've meant to Margaret."
"I think it was long overdue," Deering agreed. "I wish they had done it when she was still here."
In a way, though, Margaret Diaz was there, too, if only in spirit, helping her former team win another game.
Ex-NHS star conference player of week
Posted on 02/22/2010
FLORENCE, S.C.
Contributed report
Francis Marion University junior Shannon Singleton-Bates has been named the Peach Belt Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 15-21.
Singleton-Bates, a Norwalk native, averaged 19.5 points and six rebounds per game last week in a pair of wins.
For the week, she connected on 47 percent of her field goal attempts, including 43 percent from long range, and 80 percent of her free throws.
She also moved into 24th place on the Patriot career scoring list with 1,096 points.
Singleton-Bates is currently fifth in the PBC in scoring (15.8 ppg) and sixth in steals (2.0 spg) and has led the Patriots -- ranked 19th nationally in Division II -- to a 22-3 overall record and a 14-2 conference mark.
Singleton-Bates began her week by scoring 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting as FMU handed seventh-ranked Lander University its first conference loss of the season.
She also collected seven rebounds and three assists in the contest.
Singleton-Bates followed that up with 14 points and five rebounds during a 42-point Homecoming victory against Augusta State University.
Francis Marion will conclude its regular-season schedule with two road games this week at Flagler College on Wednesday and at Armstrong Atlantic State University on Saturday.
FMU will begin postseason play by playing host to a first-round Peach Belt Conference Tournament game on Tuesday, March 2, at 7 p.m.
Singleton-Bates is a product of Norwalk High School, where she was a two-time first-team All-State selection and a three-time All-FCIAC and All-Area pick, while scoring 1,324 career points from 2003-07.
Honor roll for 4 NHS teachers
Posted on 02/26/2010
NORWALK
By FRANCIS X. FAY JR.
Hour Senior Writer
Four former teachers in the Norwalk school system will be installed on the Norwalk High School Alumni Association Teacher Honor Roll at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 7, in St. Peter Lutheran Church Hall, 214 Newtown Ave.
The quartet includes Margaret Jarvis Holmes Durham, who taught a total of four decades in both the Winnipauk School and the Darien school system. A member of the NHS Class of 1926, she is now in her 102nd year and living in Sarasota, Fla., and will attend the ceremony.
Two members of the Class of 1944 are also being honored -- Eleanor Muro Hegedus of Crockett Street and the late Betty Ann Ritch Smith, formerly of Crest Road. Both devoted their four-decade careers to Rowayton Elementary School students, Hegedus to upper level grades and Smith to primary grades.
Frances Medley Middleton of Clarmore Drive, Class of 1951, directed her 40-year career to the education of Marvin School students. She is the widow of the popular Norwalk Police Officer Alfred "Slo" Middleton.
The annual Teacher Honor Roll program is one of four sponsored by the NHSAA and like two of the others requires no admission fee. Retired teacher Catherine Vigilante, Class of 1948, former chairman of the NHS foreign language department and a previous installee, is chairman of the selection committee.
To Iraq and back for Norwalk native
By David Hennessey, Dhennessey@bcnnew.com
Published: 02:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Gallery
Kathleen Roos, formerly of Norwalk, conducts an archeological survey at Ur and the Ziggurat in southern Iraq during her nine-month stay in Iraq last year. While there she established a strategic environmental plan for the first time since U.S. operations arrived in 2003. Photo: Contributed Photo / Norwalk Citizen
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It is morning in Camp Victory, one of the military compounds that comprises the Victory Base Complex situated on a crescent of land surrounding the Baghdad International Airport. It is home to thousands of Multi-National forces that have been stationed in Iraq, many of them for varying durations since spring of 2003.
A thick veil of warmth has already begun to cloak the camp--later this afternoon, the thermometer's mercury will blow past the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark. Al-Faw Palace, an opulent, lavish structure commissioned by Saddam Hussein that now serves as headquarters for the Multi-National Corps, rises from the sand.
This was the scene chief environmental engineer and Norwalk native Dr. Kathleen Roos frequently awoke to in 2009.
She would wake up early, before 6 a.m., waiting for a battlespace update and assessment to occur, when Multi-National forces would receive briefing on the entire Iraqi theater.
Roos, a civil servant individual augmentee who spent most of last year stationed in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, assumed the daunting task of creating a strategic environmental plan for the first time since United States operations arrived in the country in 2003. The goal for the operation was straight-forward, but by no means simple to execute: Reduce the footprint Multi-National forces and the Iraqi people leave on the land. The task involved 16-hour days made more arduous by the unforgiving heat and threat of violence.
"People were getting shot at. Things were blowing up. And then I'd have to go up to someone and say, `You can't dump out the oil from your Humvee here.' It was difficult," Roos said in a phone interview with the Citizen Tuesday from her home in California. Her mom, Mary M. Morgan, still resides in Norwalk.
But through the challenge of the dangerous situations that presented themselves with frightening regularity, Roos persevered. Using expertise gained as a technical director for environmental training requirements for the Navy, she developed an environmental drawdown strategy that defined environmental closure criteria for more than 400 military base camps.
She also worked closely with the Iraq Ministry of Environment to develop short and long-term plans to implement a standardized environmental protection program.
"It was quite a challenge," she said.
"The climate. The terrain. Iraq is another world from here. It's not like you can just go in and build a waste water treatment plant or a hazardous materials plant."
With facilities in a war-torn country already inadequate, where do you put the garbage? And the plastic containers we in the United States would normally recycle? How do you deal with unusable synthetic materials like dead batteries?
"Their way of life can be a mess," Roos admitted, remembering how she found one Iraqi man dumping dirty oil into the ground because, "that's where it came from."
"Life was already very hard there," she said.
Where plumbing was insufficient or nonexistent, there were the fetid pools of human urine and rotting mounds of excrement with which Roos had to contend.
Travel between assessment sites was difficult, she remembered; a trip that would be a one-hour, 60-mile jaunt up Interstate 95 in Connecticut might take two to three weeks in Iraq, she said, with frequent security checks to scan for improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, a typical scenario.
"There's no where to go. You can't go shopping. You can't leave the base without security....Most of the public [in the United States] take what we have for granted."
Though her insertion into this high-pressure environment was voluntary -- she said she was enthusiastic to serve her country and be a "responsible steward" in Iraq -- Roos admitted it was difficult to fathom the size and scope of some of the problems.
"It gives a whole new meaning to what our military and fighters do," she said. "For people back here, it's very easy to judge....I guess I've learned about appreciating all we have. You walk into a store here, and you're inundated with stuff. They don't have any of that."
Despite the pitfalls and limited contact with family and friends, Roos' service in Iraq was one of those rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunities -- an opportunity highlighted by her survey of the Ur site and the famous Ur Ziggurat while working alongside Iraqi and U.S Department of State archaeologists. The team prepared the draft reports for the U.S. Embassy and State Dept. archeologists and participated in a ceremony where U.S. forces returned the site to the government of Iraq.
Ur is one of Iraq's most imposing ancient sites. It was the capital of the ancient civilization of Sumeria. The archeological survey will be used for future grants to stabilize and protect the site and as a basis for future investigations.
Roos was welcomed home by a Naval Facilities Engineering Command ceremony Jan. 20. And the Department of Defense presented Roos with the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism on Nov. 7, 2009.
The medal honors the contributions of the civilian workforce of the Department of Defense in direct support of the armed forces.
"I was overwhelmed. Civilians don't usually get medals. It was very moving. I didn't expect it. I had no idea," she said.
Roos was also named part of Norwalk High's Honor Wall in 2007.
With her work in the country complete for the time being, Roos believes a responsible, environmentally conscious drawdown in Iraq is not only feasible, but probable.
But, she said, "It doesn't happen overnight."
NHS vs. McMahon Basketball GameS |
February 17th NHS will be hosting McMahon for two Varsity games. At 6:00 p.m. the NHS girls varsity Lady Bears will play McMahon and at 8:00 p.m. the boy's varsity basketball team will play the Senators.
At the girl's game there will be a special ceremony held to retire Margaret Diaz's jersey. Diaz, who played at Norwalk High School in the late 1970s, was the first girls basketball player in city history to score 1,000 career points. Margaret Diaz recently passed away and NHS is taking this opportunity to honor her.
As reported in the Hour newspaper, "Diaz averaged a modest 11 points a game her sophomore year, finishing second on the team as she helped the Bears, a 5-10 team the previous season, go 12-7 and return to the state tournament in Foust's rookie season.
The following season, 1977-78, was a breakout year for Diaz as the junior center averaged a city-leading 19.3 points and was named first-team All-FCIAC and all-state while leading Norwalk to a school-record 18 wins. In fact, the 18-4 Lady Bears lost in the state semifinals 34-33 to eventual state champion Lee High School, which then beat Naugatuck by 16 for the state title.
Diaz followed that up with another big season her senior year, averaging 17.2 points and being named All-FCIAC and all-state for the second year in a row. She also led her team to a perfect 20-0 regular-season record, including a 15-0 mark in the FCIAC as the Bears captured the Western Division championship.
They won it in the second to last game when they edged defending champion Stamford 49-48, handing the Black Knights their first league loss in three years. Both teams came into that contest with identical 14-0 league records and the outcome wasn't decided until Diaz, her team down by one, sank a pair of clutch free throws with only seconds remaining.
"That was an unbelievable game," Foust said. "Both teams were undefeated and the place was packed. It was probably the highest attended high school girls game ever at that time."
And there was no doubt whose hands the ball would be in at the end." |
Trinity Catholic tops Norwalk; Walsh one win from No. 500
By Andy Hutchison, COrrespondent
Published: 10:53 p.m., Tuesday, February 2, 2010
NORWALK -- Trinity Catholic boys' basketball Coach Mike Walsh now stands one win from 500 in his career but, more important to Walsh is the fact his team just reached a .500 mark of its own.
The Crusaders held off Norwalk 70-66 Tuesday night, evening their record at 7-7 overall and 6-6 in the FCIAC.
The 29-year coach, who started back when the school was known as Stamford Catholic nearly three decades ago, moved within one victory of the 500-win plateau and, in doing so, moved a win closer to a berth in the FCIAC Tournament. Trinity is in a fight along with Norwalk (which fell to 6-7 and 6-5) as the teams battle with other FCIAC foes for one of the last tournament slots. Trinity ended a mini two-game losing skid and won its third straight game away from home.
"I think every game's important, but because we lost the last two games at home, to get the win on the road at Norwalk is big," Walsh said.
"It was a very important game. Every game is important in this conference but this game was really important," Norwalk's top-scorer, Evan Kelly said.
Leading 67-66 with half a minute remaining, Trinity opted not to try to protect a slim lead and, following a timeout, Aaron Spence went to the rim for a basket, making it a three-point differential. Norwalk's Jimmy Blount drove to the rim in an attempt to bring the host Bears back to within one, but the shot missed. Trinity's Remy Pinson was intentionally fouled and hit one of two shots with 13 seconds left to make it a two-possession game, 70-66. Kelly, who led all scorers with 32 points, missed on a 3-point try. Trinity grabbed to the loose ball and ran out the clock.
Trinity had built a 63-57 lead with three-plus minutes remaining before the Bears clawed back. Blount hit a pull-up jumper to trim the deficit to four and, following a blocked shot by Norwalk's Kwanzee Rice, Kelly got to the foul line for what started as a conventional two-shot opportunity but turned into a four-free throw chance following a technical foul on Trinity's CJ Calo. Afterward, Walsh wasn't sure what Calo did or said to initiate the call. Kelly sank two of the shots to bring the Bears to within two with 2:33 to play. Norwalk also got the ball and capitalized as Kelly banked home a shot to tie the score at 63-all with 2:23 left.
Trinity regained the lead before Kelly sank an off-balanced 3-pointer while trying to draw a foul, making it 66-65 Norwalk. Trinity came right back to take the lead.
Mike Seanturchio led Trinity with 17 points, including 9 on 3-pointers. Tyler Walston had 14, Pinson scored 13 and Spence and Calo both added in 11 for Trinity. Blunt had 12 points, Drew Sawyer scored seven and Rice had six for Norwalk, which pushed the pace with a fast-paced style of offense when it had the opportunity. Kelly was a force at the rim as well as outside, draining four 3-pointers and getting to the line for 12 foul shot attempts, converting eight.
The Bears led 22-16 after one quarter of play but Trinity outscored the hosts 21-8 in the second to take a 37-30 lead into the break. Norwalk got to within two before the start of the fourth in this back and forth contest.
"It was a great high school basketball game and we were fortunate to come out on top," Walsh said.
Norwalk Coach Bobby Trimboli believed his team would have come out on top had it done a better job rebounding. The coach said Trinity got far too many second-chance points.
"We didn't rebound the ball hard enough -- they just competed a little bit harder on the offensive glass," Trimboli said. "That hurts -- it's almost like giving up free points."
Aside from the rebounding struggles, Trimboli was pleased with his team's effort. "We pushed the ball. We wanted an up-tempo game tonight and we did that," he said.
"We've just got to rebound better -- that's why we're losing these heartbreakers," Kelly said.
This game featured a reunion of sorts between Trimboli and Walsh. Trimboli played under Walsh for one year, the 1998-99 season, at Trinity.
"I'm friends with him, I talk to him, but when it comes to game time, obviously I'm competitive," Trimboli said.
Walsh added that he enjoys rooting for Trimboli in all but one of Norwalk's games, the exception, of course, coming Tuesday night. Walsh will go for his 500th win at Fairfield Ludlowe on Friday.
Shoemaker walks among a rare breed who have built careers as tradesmen
Posted on 02/06/2010
By John H. Palmer
Hour Correspondent
You could say Joe Ancona has spent a lot of time looking into the soles of Norwalkers.
No, that wasn't a typo, but maybe a bad attempt at humor.
He does, however, know a lot about the shoes Norwalkers wear.
For the past 41 years, Ancona has worked as a cobbler and owner of Economy Shoe Repair, located at 511 West Avenue. He has made a long career out of what is fast becoming a dying breed of tradesmen in the Norwalk area.
"Back then the business was booming," he said of the shoe repair business back in 1969 when he took over the shop from his father, David Ancona. "Now, everything has died -- the shoes are all disposable. You pay $100 and then throw it away because they can't be repaired."
The shoe repair business may not be as busy as it was back in the good ol' days, but anyone who has ever visited him knows he's the go-to guy in Norwalk to get a pair of shoes repaired. The 66-year-old Ancona will tell you all you need to know about shoes. Got a pair of tips that need to be fixed? He'll show you the grinder he uses to get them smooth and polished. He'll show you how to rip the heel off a pair of shoes with pliers and how to hammer a new one back on. And he'll show the best way to stitch back together a sole that has fallen off. He'll explain how in the older days, everything used to be done by hand -- now he'll show you the grinders, vices, and other machines he has in the back of his shop. He swears that a stitching machine bought by his father many years ago is still the only one of its kind in the state. Many of his customers are people who will pay up to $400 for a pair of shoes initially, and then make them last for years by maintaining them.
"If you're going to spend that kind of money, you might as well take care of them," he said. "The best part of my job is meeting and talking to people. I got nice, loyal customers, some of who have been coming since my father."
The semi-retired Ancona doesn't work as hard as he used to. His daily schedule runs from about 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. He says he loves to stay busy and without the job he doesn't know what he would do. His "office" is a 500-square-foot storefront on West Avenue that barely has enough room for one adult to squeeze through sideways. Step inside and instantly you smell the aroma of rubber and shoe polish, and the walls are adorned with shoelaces, shoehorns, and other supplies you might need.
He learned his trade by watching his father. Born on Nov. 30, 1944, Ancona's family lived on Fairview Avenue near Norwalk Hospital and right down the road from his father's shop that he opened in 1929. Back in those days, Norwalk had up to 20 different shoe repair shops (today there are only 2). Ancona didn't stray far from there, and in fact can't remember his life without referencing West Avenue. He attended St. Mary's Catholic School for elementary school, Ponus Ridge for junior high, and finally graduated Norwalk High School in 1964.
In 1965, Ancona left for a 3-year stint in the Army, where he served in the Dominican Republic, and later at Fort Lee in Virginia as a supply clerk in charge of making sure troops had uniforms and other things they needed. He came back to Norwalk in 1968, and in 1969 took over ownership of Economy Shoe Repair. He's been there ever since.
He was almost 30 when he met his future wife, Jan. He was out with some friends at a bar in Darien where they met, and 14 months later they were married.
"We used to talk for hours," he recalls. "In a week and a half, I knew I was in love."
He and his wife have two daughters, Kristin and Danielle, and they have lived on Clara Drive for 34 years.
Growing up the son of a tradesman in the 1940s, it was virtually guaranteed that a boy would learn his father's trade. After school, Ancona would run down the street to the shop, where he would go right to work. He started out sweeping the floors, and eventually he learned how to polish and pull heels. Later, his father let him "rip soles" and stitching.
"You started from the bottom, and everything was taught to me very slowly," he said. "In the old days, families who owned businesses -- the kids worked there. That's just the way it was. I went to school right here and I didn't graduate until I got it right."
Ancona is a man who speaks fondly of the good ol' days of Norwalk, when there were plenty of "Mom 'n' Pop" shops along West Avenue and he said that some of the bigger stores don't give the same service that you find at the smaller guys. Unfortunately, the future of his business is up in the air. As the city plans the Waypointe redevelopment of West Avenue, his tiny little shop will be caught in the crosshairs of the wrecking ball, whenever that day comes. The building his shop is in has already been sold to developers, and it will be one day soon demolished to make way for trendy shops and residential spaces.
"It sucks," he said. "When they kick me out, that's when it will happen (his retirement). Where will I go? Am I going to retire for a few years while they're building?"
He can remember when a hard day's work meant being at the shop from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. -- a habit he picked up from his father. As he got older, he said the quality of shoes declined and many shoes he now calls "throwaways," shoes that cost under $100 and most people don't bother getting repaired. It's not worth it, he says, for people to get a $40 pair of shoes repaired for $55.
As a result, to make ends meet he has found it necessary to look for new ways to make a profit. In addition to his shoe repair services, he sells work shoes and many different shoe supplies including insoles and polishes. He even sells and makes copies of keys. As he gets older, he has cut his hours.
"I just needed a place to go and talk to people," he said. "That's what killed my dad - he stopped working and two years later he was dead."
In his spare time, Ancona said he likes to work in his yard and to go shopping - he spends his time looking for good bargains.
"I get stuff practically for nothing," he said. "My kids like to laugh at me, but I'll spend literally hours at the table looking for coupons. I guess you could call that a hobby."
Eleanor Devine McMahon
Eleanor Devine McMahon of East Norwalk died at home Jan. 22. A longtime Norwalk resident, McMahon was born in Norwalk on April 6, 1924 to the late Eugene James and Helena Collins Devine. She graduated from Norwalk High School in 1941 and the College of St. Elizabeth in 1945 with a bachelors of arts in economics. Prior to her marriage to the late Attorney William Henry McMahon, III, who passed away in 1994, McMahon was employed by the Norwalk Town Clerk's Office.
McMahon is survived by her four sons; William Henry McMahon, IV of Framingham, Mass., Eugene James McMahon, and his wife Victoria of Barrington, R.I., Paul Burke McMahon and his wife Michelle of Acton, Mass. and Kevin Devine McMahon and his wife Mary Ellen of Southport.
She was the loving grandmother to eight grandchildren; Gloria McMahon, Grace McMahon, Mercedes McMahon, Wills McMahon, Rosemary McMahon, William McMahon, II, Jonathan McMahon and Liam McMahon.
In addition, McMahon is survived by her brother, William J. Devine of East Norwalk and three sisters; James C. Driscoll, Jr (Claire) of Southbury, Frank A. Mackinson, Jr (Alice) of Bound Brook, N.J. and Elaine D. Mullen of Norwalk. She was predeceased by her brother, Eugene J. Devine, Jr. She also leaves numerous nieces, nephews and cousins to cherish her memory.
McMahon was a longtime member and officer of the Fairfield Prep Bellarmine Guild and she was a founding member of the Fairfield County Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. In addition, she was a longtime member of the Shorehaven Golf Club where she played golf with the "Nine Hole Group" and enjoyed playing bridge with friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to St. Thomas the Apostle Church 203 East Avenue East Norwalk, CT 06855 or the Carroll Center for the Blind 770 Centre Street Newton, MA 02458.
The Hour 01/22/2010, Page B01
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City sports community loses legend
By MATTHEW DORAN
Hour Staff Writer
The city of Norwalk lost a great ambassador for local sports on Wednesday night with the passing of Tom Corbo, a fixture on the youth scene who helped mold the Cranbury Baseball League and the Norwalk Biddy Basketball League into the successful outfits they are today.
Corbo, a lifelong Norwalk resident and a 1950 Norwalk High School graduate, was 78. The Korean War veteran was also a coach for a number of years in the Norwalk Senior Babe Ruth League and served as an officer of the league for several years.
He was one of the founders of the Kinlock Memorial youth baseball tournament, an event that has been a late-summer staple on the local scene for some three decades.
C o r b o , who had a p r o f o u n d i n f l u e n c e on a countless number of Norwalk’s youth during his lifetime, was associated w i t h Cranbury Baseball for 45 years.
That included many years as a coach and the last 30 years as the league’s treasurer. Corbo also served as the president of the Cranbury League for a number of years.
Corbo, who retired as an official with the Cranbury League two years ago, was also an active member of the Laurel Athletic Club in Norwalk. Corbo was also heavily involved with the Norwalk Old Timers, serving as president in 2003 and 2004. Corbo, who worked in banking, was also treasurer for the Old Timers for over 30 years.
Corbo also had a huge impact on the Norwalk Biddy Basketball League, serving as a coach and league administrator along with the late Mario Salamone for almost 50 years. Corbo was the first person to coach Calvin Murphy, who went on to enjoy a Hall of Fame career at Niagara University and in the NBA.
Corbo was also involved in Norwalk’s Senior Babe Ruth program, serving as treasurer of that league for a number of years as well. He managed a team sponsored by The Hour in 1979.
Corbo was so well-liked and so well-respected within the
community, the city named a season-ending youth baseball tournament after him.
The Tom Corbo Tournament, for players aged 9 and 10 to determine the city champion in that age group. The Corbo tourney is run in conjunction with the Kinlock, which is for 11-12-year-old players Corbo also has a baseball field named after him in the Cranbury League, the Tom Corbo/ Larry Anastasia Field.
"I always called him the Mayor," said Bob Longmuir, a longtime friend and colleague of Corbo's who retired as president of the Cranbury Baseball League in December. "Anywhere I'd go with Tom, everyone we'd meet said they had played baseball or basketball for Tom." A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Philip Church, 1 Father Conlon Place, Norwalk. Burial will follow in St. John Cemetery. Friends may call from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at Magner Funeral Home, 12 Mott Ave., Norwalk. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 5 Brookside Drive, Wallingford 06492- 1800 or to the American Cancer Society, 333 7th Ave., 17th floor, New York, N.Y. 10001.
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Thomas Everett Finnegan
Thomas Everett Finnegan, 85, of Norwalk, died Dec. 14, at Southport Manor. He was the husband of Rita Connors Finnegan for the past 56 years. Born in Norwalk on May 20, 1924, Finnegan was the son of the late Thomas J. and Anna Everett Finnegan. He was a graduate of Norwalk High School and a veteran of W.W.II, serving with the U.S. Army in London.
After the war he was a painter and worked at the South Norwalk Post Office for many years. He was an avid reader and a devoted family man who loved spending time with his grandchildren.
Helen Martha Borst
Helen Martha Borst, 78, of East Norwalk, died Dec. 11, in Norwalk Hospital.
Born in Norwalk, March 19, 1931, daughter of the late Stephen and Helen Warga Valentik, she was a lifelong city resident. A 1948 graduate of Norwalk High School, Borst was trained as a secretary and had been employed by Remington -- Rand Corp., the Hat Corporation of America; she was secretary to the Norwalk building Inspector, and both Norwalk Fire Chief and Fire Marshall. She retired in 1987.
4 former teachers to be honored
Posted on 01/15/2010
NORWALK
By FRANCIS X. FAY JR.
Hour Senior Writer
Four former teachers in the Norwalk school system will be installed on the Norwalk High School Alumni Association Teacher Honor Roll at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 7, in St. Peter Lutheran Church Hall at 214 Newtown Ave.
The quartet includes Margaret Jarvis Holmes Durham, who taught a total of four decades in both the Winnipauk School and the Darien school system. A member of the NHS Class of 1926, she is now in her 102nd year and living in Sarasota, Fla., with relatively good health.
Two members of the Class of 1944 are also being honored -- Eleanor Muro Hegedus of Crockett Street and the late Betty Ann Ritch Smith, formerly of Crest Road. Both devoted their four- decade careers to Rowayton school students, Hegedus to upper level grades and Smith to primary grades.
Frances Medley Middleton of Clarmore Drive, Class of 1951, directed her 40-year career to the education of Marvin School students. She is the widow of the popular Norwalk Police Officer Alfred "Slo" Middleton.
The annual Teacher Honor Roll program is one of four sponsored by the NHSAA and like two of the others requires no admission. The other programs are the annual summer picnic at Cranbury Park in July and a Christmas party in the Community Room of City Hall. The fourth event is the Wall of Honor dinner the first Sunday of October for which attendance requires purchase of the dinners.
Retired NHS foreign language chairman Catherine Vigilante, Class of 1948, a previous installee, is chairman of the selection committee.
George Albano column: Margaret Diaz left this world much too soon
Posted on 01/14/2010
Don Foust, the former Norwalk High School girls basketball coach, says Margaret Diaz, perhaps the best player he ever coached, had one special gift that no other player had.
It wasn't her amazing jumping ability for someone 5-foot-8, or the lightning-quick speed she possessed. It wasn't the tremendous court sense she had which allowed her to post up opponents down low or drive right around them to the basket.
And it wasn't even her tenaciousness on defense or explosiveness on offense which separated her from the rest of the field.
No, Margaret Diaz had something else going for her.
"She had one special gift," Foust recalled. "Her father was a custodian at Norwalk and he could open the gym for her anytime she wanted to play, which was all the time. She couldn't get enough of the game."
Make no mistake. The city of Norwalk has always been home to an array of fantastic female basketball players, even before Title IX. The list reads like a who's who in local hardcourt royalty.
But long before there was a Lisa Etienne and a Shannon Singletary-Bates, before there was a Cathy Dash and an Ayanna Brown, and even before there was a Rita Williams, there was Margaret Diaz.
Diaz, who played at Norwalk High School in the late 1970s, was the first girls basketball player in city history to score 1,000 career points. A dozen players have reached that milestone since Diaz accomplished the feat in 1979, but she will always be remembered as the first.
And 30 years later, Diaz was still involved with the game she loved, coaching children in her native Trinidad and loving it.
Which only made it harder to comprehend last week when the shocking news of her passing at age 47 reached the States. According to newspaper reports from the island of St. Kitts, Diaz's body was discovered in her home in Penal, where investigators believed she had been "dead for about five days."
An initial autopsy was deemed inconclusive and further testing will be done to determine the cause of death. Her brother reported she looked to be in good health just a couple of weeks earlier, and he and another brother believe their sister was murdered, which would make this sad story even sadder.
Whatever the cause, the basketball fraternity in Norwalk and Trinidad is mourning the loss of a wonderful player and friend who everyone loved and admired.
"I couldn't believe it when I heard the news," Foust said with a sadness in his voice. "Debbie Ross Williams, another one of my former players, let me know and she had heard from Cherise (Mickle, another former player). A lot of the players on those teams back then are still all connected and the word traveled fast.
"But I guess I still can't believe it."
Foust always felt a special closeness to Diaz. He took over as head coach of the NHS girls basketball team in the 1976-77 season, the same time Diaz joined the program. With Foust in charge and Diaz taking charge on the court, they transformed the Bears into a perennial FCIAC and state power.
Even more amazing was that Diaz, who moved to the U.S. when she was 10, started playing basketball later than most girls.
"I think she started playing in high school if I remember correctly," Foust said. "When I took over as coach she was a sophomore and I think maybe she had played a year before then.
"But once she started played she couldn't get enough of the game. She was always looking for more competition and ended up playing against boys. In those days that was something that was not done."
"She beat most of them in pickup games, too," Janine Delise Deering, one of her former NHS teammates, pointed out.
Diaz averaged a modest 11 points a game her sophomore year, finishing second on the team as she helped the Bears, a 5-10 team the previous season, go 12-7 and return to the state tournament in Foust's rookie season.
The following season, 1977-78, was a breakout year for Diaz as the junior center averaged a city-leading 19.3 points and was named first-team All-FCIAC and all-state while leading Norwalk to a school-record 18 wins. In fact, the 18-4 Lady Bears lost in the state semifinals 34-33 to eventual state champion Lee High School, which then beat Naugatuck by 16 for the state title.
Diaz followed that up with another big season her senior year, averaging 17.2 points and being named All-FCIAC and all-state for the second year in a row. She also led her team to a perfect 20-0 regular-season record, including a 15-0 mark in the FCIAC as the Bears captured the Western Division championship.
They won it in the second to last game when they edged defending champion Stamford 49-48, handing the Black Knights their first league loss in three years. Both teams came into that contest with identical 14-0 league records and the outcome wasn't decided until Diaz, her team down by one, sank a pair of clutch free throws with only seconds remaining.
"That was an unbelievable game," Foust said. "Both teams were undefeated and the place was packed. It was probably the highest attended high school girls game ever at that time."
And there was no doubt whose hands the ball would be in at the end.
"We always got her the ball in crunch situations," Deering, a freshman that season, noted. "She could have scored 40 point a game if we didn't have such a great group of players surrounding her."
Diaz was not only unselfish with the ball, constantly finding open teammates, but Norwalk was so good there were numerous games she barely played half the game because Foust would graciously pull his starters.
But the bigger the game and the tougher the opponent, the better Diaz played. She finished with 27 points in the huge win over Stamford, who would come back and beat Norwalk in a rematch in the FCIAC finals.
The Bears bounced back from that tough loss, however, to beat defending state champion Lee 53-49 in overtime in the first round of the state tournament as Diaz erupted for a career-high 34 points.
Then there was the night of Feb. 28, 1979, when Norwalk routed Torrington 81-33 in the state quarterfinals at Brookfield High School and Diaz threw in 18 points, none more memorable than the layup she converted with 1:31 left in the third quarter to become the first player in city history to score 1,000 career points.
I was privileged enough to cover that game almost 31 years ago and still remember it well.
"I'm really honored about getting the 1,000 points," she said afterward. "I was nervous coming into the game, but I was just trying not to think about it that much and play my regular game. Winning was the most important thing ... I'm just glad it's over."
A few nights later Diaz would score 24 points and grab 23 rebounds as the Bears beat Westhill 56-41 in the state semifinals to advance to their first state championship game. And although they would lose a 63-55 heartbreaker to No. 1 and unbeaten Conard, Diaz would score 19 points in her final high school game to finish with 1,046 career points.
But her basketball career was just getting started. Diaz would go on to play collegiately at Division II Mount St. Mary's in Maryland. It was former Norwalk High School boys basketball coach Don Quinn, a Mount St. Mary's alum, who introduced her to fellow alum Fred Carter, the former NBA all-star and the women's basketball coach at the school at the time.
"I drove Margaret to Philadelphia, to the Spectrum, to meet Fred Carter for the first time," Quinn recounted Thursday morning. "Of course, you couldn't do that today under the NCAA restrictions. But I knew Fred from when he played at Mount St. Mary's and I introduced him to Margaret in the parking lot at the Spectrum."
From that first meeting, Carter eventually offered Diaz a basketball scholarship and she played for him as a freshman and sophomore, helping the team go 18-9 and 23-11. Carter took another coaching job the following season, but Diaz returned and led the team in scoring for a second straight year while sparking Mount St, Mary's to a 24-5 record and a berth in the 1982 Division II Final Four in Springfield, where they finished third in the nation.
Diaz played only three seasons at Mount St. Mary's, but is still the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,952 points. Her 22.2 career average is also first all-time, while her 288 steals rank third. She also has five of the top 10 single-game point totals in school history, including a 41-point effort that ranks fourth.
After her junior year, Diaz transferred to Cheyney State where she played for Hall of Fame coach Vivian Stringer, now the head coach at Rutgers.
Diaz would eventually get into coaching herself and it was Foust who gave his former player her first job when he was the head coach of the University of Bridgeport women's basketball team and brought her on as an assistant. Under Foust's mentoring, Diaz became the head women's basketball coach at Sacred Heart University a year later.
"I'll never forget that because she beat me," Foust said with a laugh. "I guess that's not so bad, the student coming back to beat the teacher.
"But I still think of her as that little high school girl who played basketball for me, not as my assistant at UB."
That's how most local basketball fans probably remember her, although playing basketball was only part of her athletic resume. At Norwalk High she was also an FCIAC and state champion quarter-miler, setting a state record in the 440-yard run her junior year."
"The amazing thing is she never even practiced," Foust said. "She was just a natural athlete who could go out there and beat everyone."
"She also ran cross country in the fall and won the FCIAC in that one year," Quinn added.
Diaz lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years before returning to Trinidad, and even in her 40s she was still playing basketball as recently as a few years ago. She last played for the Unit Trust Maloney Pistols, helping them win the national women's club championship in 2003.
"She was great. Her personality was one with a difference," Unit Trust Maloney coach Jackson Charles told The Sun newspaper of St. Kitt. "She was a very instrumental player, and she has set standards for other female players to follow."
More recently, Diaz was coaching children on the island and her last club, the Mirak Stars, played in the 2008-09 Stag Super Ten Basketball tournament.
"When she moved back to the islands, we used to write back and forth," Quinn said. "I was working with Mount St. Mary's trying to get her in the school's hall of fame."
"The Connecticut Basketball Hall of Fame was trying to get a hold of her, too," Foust added. "She was certainly someone who loved the game."
Margaret Diaz always had a special gift when it came to basketball, and it wasn't just her father opening up the gym for her.
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She was also an incredibly nice person. She was kind to everyone. I still can see that smile.
Posted by: Angela Tosti Flynn | Jan 15, 2010
She was pure class, and she made Norwalk proud, and also gave us some of the greatest basketball games played for the city.
Posted by: Bobby Beres | Jan 15, 2010
She was a true competitor, did not like to lose but if she did, she handled it with class. I remeber many pick up games played with and against her. As well as running track. what an athlete and a person!!!! God rest her soul.
Posted by: Kurt Jacob | Jan 15, 2010
Margaret was my cousin and will be missed dearly. She has joined her mother Violet Diaz and her dad Francis Diaz in heaven. R.I.P. Diaz family.
Posted by: I.Baker | 21 hours, 59 minutes ago
Carrying on a baking tradition in Norwalk
Posted on 12/12/2009
NORWALK
By JOHN H. PALMER
Hour Correspondent
It's been said that if you go to a job you love every day, then life is a piece of cake.
For Brian Muro, it's more like a whole sheet of cake. And loaves of bread. And plates of cookies. You get the picture.
For more than 50 years, Muro and his family have been tempting the tastebuds of Norwalkers who have walked through the doors of the Original New York Bakery, 52 Main Street. Anyone who has set foot in the bakery is hit with the scents of baked goods -- and transported back to a time when the friendly neighborhood baker was found, well, in every neighborhood.
"This place is like the bar Cheers," Muro said. "I get here at 4:30 a.m. and there's a group of guys waiting for me. We have coffee and they help me turn potatoes on the grill."
It's no surprise that Muro has made some friends along the way -- some of whom spend three hours at the bakery lingering over breakfast, a cup of coffee and some good company. He's drawn quite the clientele -- holiday crooner Jose Feliciano and New York Mets great Gary Carter have been known to stop in.
At 36 years old, Muro's a laid back guy and looks nothing like the stereotypical baker with the old face and paunch from tasting everything he makes. He's a young, athletic looking guy and a Yankees fan. A native Norwalker, he grew up in the Cranbury area and went to Wolfpit School and Nathan Hale before graduating from Norwalk High in 1991. He didn't go far.
He married Trina Tucci, a nutrition specialist at Norwalk Hospital and daughter of Norwalk High football coach Pete Tucci. He pulls double duty as the bakery's accountant. Together, Brian and Trina have two children, 6-year-old Briana and 3-year-old Dominic and they still live in the Wolfpit area.
Spend some time talking with him and you find a smiling, friendly man who loves what he does. Despite being what many call one of Norwalk's finest bakers, he still has managed to lose 35 pounds.
If there's anything that makes him a stereotypical baker, it's the white apron he wears. That and the white flour that covers his clothes. The daily dusting is unavoidable in a trade that has him mixing dough in bowls the size of troughs and helping bake upwards of 12,000 rolls, 150 cakes, and countless trays of cookies and pastries every week. The bakery has a small storefront, but like an iceberg there's more than meets the eye. A full-scale work area in the back has full-sized mixers, ovens the size of cars, and freezers with pre-made cakes, pastries, and bread dough waiting to be cooked to order.
The job can be tedious, with long hours spent in a hot bakery, and during the busy holidays downtime can be nonexistent. Still, he said he wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's like when you're a kid and you get an EZ Bake Oven, I like to see it all come together," he said. "I opted for it and I love it. On the plus side, by being my own boss I don't have to sit behind a cubicle."
His day is by no means typical -- his mornings start at 4 a.m. and once the doors to the bakery open at 6 the morning rush is on. He'll get any early morning baking done to care of any rush orders, help man the breakfast rush before a short break gives him time to prepare for the lunch crowd. Most days he's gone by 3 p.m., but then it's off to daddy duty.
Muro and his brothers, Keith and Kenny, grew up watching their family hard at work in the bakery and have had lots of time to decide that this was the line of work they wanted to get into.
The Original New York Bakery, as it's called, got its start way back in the early 1950s, when Muro's grandfather Max Katz, opened up the bakery across the street from its current location on Main Street. He had come to Norwalk from The Bronx and wanted to open his own place.
The Great Flood of 1955 took most of downtown Norwalk and the bakery with it, and Katz reopened a year later in the current location at 52 Main St. Back then, before the days of the supermarket bakery, the shop was double the size and churned out at least twice the product.
His father, Dominic Muro, took over in the 1970s and turned it into a full-service bakery, employing around 50 people and supplying baked goods to clients such as Norwalk Public Schools and Stew Leonard's. As little boys, Muro said he would spend countless hours in the bakery with his brothers, helping fill the mixing machines and watching bakers do their thing. It was a busy time, and some days would stretch as long as 20 hours.
"My old man never took a vacation and was never home for the holidays," recalls Muro. "I can remember being a kid and my dad did all the doughnuts for the schools. We would be here at night glazing. I'm talking about thousands of doughnuts."
The 1980s saw the advent of the supermarket and the eventual in-store bakery, a byproduct of the consumer demand for convenience, and the need for the neighborhood baker began to wane. The bakery began to downsize, and finally in 1991, their father decided to sell the business because of declining health and a bad economy.
1991 was also the year Brian Muro graduated from Norwalk High School, and went off to college at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. He spent two years there, where he says he spent more time playing baseball than in class, and he decided he had enough of school.
It was a pivotal decision for him. While he was in school, the bakery had been sold off and for the next four years it spent time in a sort of limbo with two different owners, including one who Muro called a "con man" who stole thousands of dollars of baking equipment and left the building a shambles.
At the same time, his father was working part-time at Devore's Bakery in Fairfield and still owned the building in Norwalk. Brian, who was working as a landscaper in the summer and trying to figure out what he wanted to do professionally, was asked by Devore's to help them around the holidays. He baked a mean Hungarian bread, he said, and they wanted him to do it. The rest is history. Brian was offered a full-time job with Devore's, and he became a baker.
"At the time there was nothing else going on and I didn't want to go back to school," he said.
He convinced his father to go back into business, and in 1995 the three brothers and their father reopened the Original New York Bakery, with the brothers taking more of a managerial role.
They've managed to keep the small-bakery feel, keeping many of the old recipes for such favorites as Italian bread, rye bread, and what Muro calls the "best hard rolls you'll find." At the same time, tough economic times have required Muro to be creative about the services to add. Today, the bakery sells wholesale baked goods to many area restaurants and stores such as Giovanni's in Darien and the Village Market in Wilton. In addition, a full deli and catering service was added some years ago.
The faltering economy over the last years took a toll on Muro, as he found the cost of doing business to be difficult. He said a rise in the cost of commodities forced prices of milk, eggs, and flour to skyrocket. A 50-pound bag of flour went from $10 to $40 in a matter of two months, and the bakery goes through about 150 bags of that flour in a week. He said he could have raised the cost of his baked goods, but a 10-cent increase on a roll would not have done much for the bottom line.
"I could have gone into construction because I love working outside," he said. "In hindsight I'm glad I didn't because as bad as it got it wasn't as bad as the building industry. I love what I do despite the hours and the scheduling."
Members of the Rowayton Volunteer Fire Department honored
Posted on 11/25/2009
NORWALK
By FRANCIS X. FAY JR.
Hour Staff Writer
Several members of the Rowayton Volunteer Fire Department were recognized for merit at the 107th annual dinner of the Rowayton Hose Company. The department has devoted more than 1,100 service hours to the community so far this year.
Darren Humphries, a bond salesman and native of South Africa living on Wilson Point, joined the volunteers less than two years ago and was named "Rookie-of-the-Year."
Jason Sequiero, a four-year member and graduate of Norwalk High School in 1985 who is an accountant for Jet Blue, was named "Firefighter-of-the-Year."
The annual award that has been presented by Chief Edwin Carlson in recent years to a member who demonstrates creativity and initiative went to his son, Andrew, a 15-year member. The chief also recognized Tom Murray, a 38-year member and nearby resident, with a special citation for responding to daytime alarms for many of those years.
Lt. Dan Oak, another four-year member living near the firehouse, was given the award for "Best Attendance at Alarms," while Jake Raymond, Rookie-of-the-Year in 2008, earned the "Best Attendance at Drills" citation. The Norwalk Community College student is the grandson of the late hose company president, Frank Raymond, and the son of current president Jack Raymond.
It was announced that Donald Kiggins, who did not attend, is the longest living member of the organization, having joined the company 69 years ago and continued to renew his membership ever since. Former company president Douglas Morrison, a member 65 years, also did not attend, although he has been active until recently. Robert T. "Doc" Dowling, a member for 60 years, was also absent. Joseph Kilbourn, a former five-year president and a member for more than 55 years, did attend as the senior member.
Chief Engineer Douglas Morrison Jr. occupies the same position in the department handled by his father at one point before becoming hose company president.
Sixth Taxing District Commissioners Michael Barbis and Tammy Langalis attended, the latter providing a joke in the tradition established by the first female to attend the dinner. Commissioner Grace W. Lichtenstein (1983-95), an experienced thespian, always drew a raucus reaction with her risque stories.
The hose company is the corporation that owns the firehouse and raises money in an annual fund drive for various activities and equipment. The fire department comprises the active membership which operates the fire fighting equipment paid for by the taxpayers.
Wedding Hwang and Newhouse
Posted on 11/01/2009
Helena Marjorie Hwang of Washington, D.C. and David Locke Newhouse of Washington, D.C. were united in marriage at 11:30 a.,. Oct. 17 at View on the Hudson in Piermont, N.Y. by professor T. James Kodera. The bride was given in marriage by her parents.
Rei and Deanna Hwang of Norwalk are the parents of the bride. Joseph and Margaret Newhouse of Weston, Mass., are the parents of the groom.
Kathryn Amano was the Matron of honor. Victoria Pellaton, Tina Kapadia and Lia Newhouse were the bridesmaids. Beniya Catienza and Abigail Stewart were the flower girls.
Eric Newhouse was the best man. Michael K. Hwang, Brian Vogt and Paul Cichello were the groomsmen. Laker Newhouse was the ring bearer.
A reception was held at The View on the Hudson. A honeymoon trip was taken to South Africa
The bride graduated Norwalk High School in 1997. She received a bachelor's degree in 2001 from Wellesley College and a master's degree from London School of Economics in 2003. She is a poverty reduction consultant with World Bank.
The groom graduated from Weston High School. He received a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1995 and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2002. He is a labor market economist with World Bank.
The couple resides in Washington, D.C.
George Albano column Calvin Jordan left his mark on Norwalk
Posted on 10/29/2009
I always liked to kid Calvin Jordan whenever I saw him that he was only the second-most famous athlete to come out of Norwalk named Calvin.
And he would just nod his head in agreement before flashing that unassuming smile of his back at me.
Even he knew there would always be only one Calvin Murphy, whose journey took him from the playgrounds of Norwalk to the NBA and eventually the Basketball Hall of Fame.
But make no mistake. There were times back in the mid-1970s when Calvin Jordan was just as dominant on the football field as No. 23 used to be on the high school hardwood.
Like the time he carried the ball an amazing 42 times for Brien McMahon in 1975 and rushed for 215 yards against Greenwich. Or later that same season when he scored three touchdowns to lead the Senators to a dramatic win over Danbury in their final regular-season game and the school's first Western Division title. He "only" carried the ball 29 times that afternoon for 180 yards and caught three passes to finish with 236 total yards.
Yes, there were times when Calvin Jordan, just like the other Calvin from Norwalk, was simply unstoppable.
But last Friday, Jordan, for one of the few times, was finally stopped, falling short against an opponent even he couldn't run through as a stroke claimed his life at the age of 52.
"He had high blood pressure and sugar, and he also had some heart problems," Kern Jordan, his younger brother and a former football standout himself, explained. "He had been to the hospital the day before because he was complaining he was dizzy and didn't feel right. The doctors are now saying he probably had a minor stroke that they didn't detect."
Less than 24 hours later, he was back in the hospital after suffering a major stroke. Shortly after the family made the difficult decision to take him off a respirator, he was gone.
"We just trust God and we strongly believe that he's in a better place now," Kern Jordan said.
Before he got there, however, Calvin Jordan certainly left an indelible mark on this city's sports history. And he did it on both sides of town, too. First at Norwalk High School, where as a junior he led the football team in scoring with six touchdowns.
He transferred to McMahon as a senior and won the FCIAC scoring championship, finishing with 14 touchdowns and a trio of conversion runs for 90 total points, the third best single season in city history, while his 138 career points was second all time.
Jordan also set a new school rushing record in his only season on Highland Avenue with 1,306 yards, gaining over 100 yards seven times and scoring in eight of the Senators' 11 contests.
He led McMahon to its first FCIAC championship game, and almost singlehandedly kept the Norwalkers in the game against unbeaten Staples with 98 yards rushing and his team's only TD. Tied 7-7 at halftime, Staples finally pulled away in the second half to win 21-7 and complete a perfect 10-0 season to claim the 1975 state championship (which was determined by a poll. The CIAC playoff system began the following year).
"That game turned around on two holding penalties in the third quarter," said Jack Casagrande, McMahon's head coach back then. "Staples had a great defense that year, but they had trouble stopping Calvin in that game."
So did everyone else that season. Jordan was listed as 5-11 and 185 pounds, but what I remember most covering his games were those enormous Herschel Walker-like thighs that made him the powerful, punishing runner he was and made anyone who was able to tackle him pay for it.
"He was a split end when he was over at Norwalk High," Casagrande recalled. "But when he came over here he fit right in as my two-back. He was a great power runner."
But football wasn't the only sport Jordan excelled in. As a junior, he averaged 19 points a game for the NHS basketball team and was named MVP of the annual Williard Williams Christmas Tournament even though the Bears finished third.
Then the following year, he was a starting guard and averaged double figures for a McMahon team that went 21-3 and reached the state semifinals.
"He was just a great athlete," Casagrande said. "He could've played any sport."
With those powerful legs, I can only imagine how good a lacrosse player he would have been had the city schools offered that sport then. Calvin would have definitely had a stick in his hand, wrecking havoc on both sides of the 50.
"My husband had all our boys in just about everything," said Cutie Mae Jordan, who lost her husband, Calvin Sr., just this past June, less than five months before her first child joined him. "I can't remember everything, but Calvin started in Little League and came up through."
The best times, she admitted, were the high school years.
"I was at everything. I didn't miss anything," she proudly boasted. "I went to all his basketball games and football games. I'd be in the grandstand and listened to people saying 'Give Calvin the ball. Give the ball to Jordan.' They didn't know I was his mother and I would just sit there cracking up.
"Then when they gave Calvin the ball and he scored, I'd jump up and yell 'That's my son. Go, Baby, go!' I used to be a cheerleader in high school so I cheered for him all the time."
And there didn't seem to be a sport Jordan wasn't good at. Even bowling.
"My husband and I bowled in our church league and our team came in second," the Jordan matriarch noted. "But Calvin's team came in first. He was good in everything."
Casagrande agreed.
"I always said the three greatest athletes I ever saw was Oscar Robertson, who I saw play when I was in college at Notre Dame, then Jerry Fishman when he played at Norwalk, and a few years later Calvin Murphy," the Hall of Fame coach said. "Then you have athletes like Idris Price and Calvin Jordan who were right on the next level."
Jordan's transfer from Norwalk High to McMahon was not only significant in 1975, but in many ways may have altered the football history in this city. While Calvin only played for the Senators one season, his three brothers -- Carnell, Kern and Steve -- all followed and made an impact on the BMHS football program.
And each one was a little smaller than his predecessor. Carnell, a 5-10, 185-pound senior in 1977, was born exactly three years after Calvin and was also a bruising, power runner as well as a standout guard on the basketball team. He finished third in the FCIAC with 10 TDs and rushed for 871 yards.
Kern was only 5-6 and 143 pounds as a senior running back in 1979, but he would break his brother Calvin's school rushing record with 1,451 yards on 255 carries, while scoring 19 touchdowns and 132 total points, another record. And his 152 career points broke Fishman's all-time city scoring record of 144.
Stevie Jordan, at 5-5, 145 pounds, was even smaller than Kern, but also had a nose for the end zone, leading the team in 1981 with six touchdowns.
"I remember Casagrande used to say, 'After Calvin, every Jordan I get now is shrinking,' " Kern, 48, recalled the other night with a laugh. "But Calvin paved the way for the rest of us. We all wanted to be like him.
"Calvin was a student of the game and he instilled a good work ethic in us. I remember when we were small and it snowed, he would go out and shovel all the snow away so he could shoot baskets. He was one of those guys who would do anything to get better. He loved the game and put in the time."
Kern, in fact, is convinced he wouldn't have broken the rushing record his senior year if not for the person who held the record.
"Calvin told me before the season, 'If you listen to me, you're gonna break my record.' I didn't even know what the record was, but I listened to him, I trained with him, running in the sand at the beach. He had an incredible training regiment.
"But that was Calvin," Kern added. "He was always motivating and encouraging kids. He didn't care if you were not as talented as the next guy. He wanted to bring out the best in you. He was a pillar, a builder, and he tried to make everyone better."
One of his early students was a 10-year-old from Norwalk named Silas Redd, now one of the best running backs in Connecticut who's headed to Penn State. But before anyone heard of him, he was running for the El Shaddai Track Club, which Jordan founded. Under his guidance, Redd qualified for the Junior Olympics in Omaha, Neb.
"Calvin was looking forward to going to Silas' games," Kern said. "Silas really looked up to Calvin and considered him family. He cried when he heard the news he had passed.
"He just loved kids. The last time I talked to him, last Thursday night, he was talking to my son, Christian, who's 14, and he was encouraging him. We were talking and laughing. Then when I got home, we got a phone call that he was rushed to the hospital. He passed the next morning."
But for a person who made a lot of noise on the football field, Calvin Jordan left this earth peacefully.
"My mother is a strong woman of God," Kern Jordan said. "She's based her life on a faith of God. She was holding Calvin and singing with him when he left. It was peaceful."
"We sang and read the scriptures," Cutie Mae Jordan said Thursday. "We had a beautiful service before he left us."
Like his Mom, Calvin, too, was a deeply religious person, especially later in life. He even became known to many as "The Bible Man."
"Calvin knew the Bible and he was always teaching it," his mother said. "When he got out of school he became a great reader. He studied ancient Greek and Hebrew and would share that knowledge with others."
There will be another beautiful service on Saturday at New Vision International Ministries in Bridgeport, Calvin's hometown the last few years.
But he will always be a big part of Norwalk sports lore, that's for sure.
Even if he was only the second most famous athlete to come out of this city named Calvin.
David Dizbrow Squires, 86
David Dizbrow Squires: lived in Norwalk and Westport. Contributed photoDavid Dizbrow Squires, known to many as “Diz,” passed away Oct. 8 in Phoenix, Ariz,, with his family nearby. He was 86.
Born at home in Norwalk on New Year’s Day 1923, he spent most of his life in Norwalk and Westport.
He graduated from Norwalk High in 1940, next attending UConn, where he swam on the swim team coached by his brother John, and, graduated with a B.A..
His lifelong love of trains and railroading suited him well in the Army, where he served with the 728th Railway Battalion in the United States, France, Belgium, England and Germany, responsible for moving troops and supplies throughout Europe.
His passion for trains continued through his life where he spent his entire career working in Connectcut for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, Penn Central, Conrail, and Metro-North.
He traveled throughout the country exclusively by rail, from the early days of steam engines, through today’s modern rail service.
After having four children, the family moved to Greens Farms in 1968.
He was an active, lifelong member of the First Congregational Church of South Norwalk and West Norwalk Congregational Church, where he was awarded Deacon Emeritus.
He was a 50-plus year member with the Stamford Model Railroad Club, National Railway Historical Society, Connecticut Blood Bank, and his church choir.
He loved the Westport YMCA for swimming and aqua fitness as well as the Westport Senior Center for the food and friendships.
He was a lover of the great outdoors, the National Park System, and was an avid camper in his earlier years, having traveled to 48 of the 50 states.
He was predeceased by his daughter Jan, and his brother John. He is survived by his wife Kay of Augusta, Maine, son Scott and wife Vera and their boys Owen and Wyatt of Phoenix, son David and wife Arlene and her children Leah, Matt and Daniel of Westport, daughter Martha and husband Tom and their children Dan and Katy of Winsor, Maine.
The family held a service to celebrate the joy of his life in Arizona where he finally retired.
He will be remembered by his family and many friends for his constant smile and insatiable appetite.
Donations may be made in his name to the Westport Weston Family Y.
As noted in his Norwalk High School yearbook…we wish him a clear track ahead.
Posted 10/28 at 07:52 PM
Partners Cafe to receive Mike Errico Award from Norwalk Old Timers
Posted on 10/28/2009
- The Hour
Partners Café, one of the biggest supporters of Norwalk teams and sporting events for more than a quarter of a century, will receive the 2009 Mike Errico Award for special recognition from the Norwalk Old Timers Athletic Association at its 47th annual dinner next Wednesday at Continental Manor.
The popular sports restaurant and bar will be honored with this year's eight Old Timers Award winners, Bob Mendence, Rich MacDonald, Dan Santarella, Phil Tegano, Dan Letizia, Dick Packer, Don Quinn and Fred Petrini.
Partners Café, which recently celebrated its 26th year in business, became a presence in the local sports community soon after opening its doors on the corner of Cove and First streets Oct. 1, 1983.
"When we first opened, one of the first teams we sponsored was a hardball team in the Stamford Twilight League. They were the Partners Pirates," owner Tom Spinola said. "Then we sponsored a girls softball team, the Partners Café Girls, in the recreation league."
The Partners Café Girls won the city championship in 2002 and again in 2007 when they went undefeated.
For the last 25 years, the local establishment has also sponsored a men's softball team, which won another city title in 1994, while the Partners men's basketball team captured three 'A' League city championships in 1987, '88 and '90.
And in 1989, Partners Café claimed the city championship in touch football. In addition, Spinola has sponsored a number of youth league sports teams in the city.
But Partners' support of local sports goes beyond all the teams they sponsor.
"The latest thing we got involved in was with a bunch of sailors who have been coming in here for years," Spinola pointed out. "Four or five years ago they told me they were going to name the last regatta of the year the Partners Café Cup. They said they named it after us because they love coming in here every Sunday."
At one time, Partners sponsored a stock car and a golf tournament, with all the proceeds going to all the Little Leagues in town. The Norwalk Babe Spinola American Little League was named for his father, who spent nearly three decades as a coach and later president of the league. A youth baseball field at Veterans Park was also named after him in 2008.
"My father is one of my biggest idols. What he did for kids is unbelievable," Tommy Spinola said. "He loves sports, and still does."
Partners Café has also become a favorite gathering place for many of the players on its adult sports teams, especially after softball games at nearby Calf Pasture Beach. Even players from other teams congregate there after games.
Which is exactly what Tommy Spinola envisioned when he created Partners Café.
"We opened up here in 1983 and I just wanted it to be a family place, a Norwalk establishment with good food," he said. "I always wanted the place to be like 'Cheers,' a sports-oriented establishment."
Once known as the Triple Play Saloon, Spinola and his partner at the time bought the business on March 1, 1983, but didn't open until seven months later after renovating it and giving it a brand new look.
Now when you walk in, pictures of Norwalk sports teams and athletes spanning the past seven decades decorate the walls. From the 1949 Strawberry Hill football team to the 1952 Norwalk Little League World Series champions. From the 1966 state champion Norwalk High School basketball team with Calvin Murphy to the 2004 Norwalk Jaguars Pop Warner Football team which won the New England title.
There is a whole wall covered with photos of FCIAC and state championship teams from Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools, who Partners also supports. On another wall there are framed sports articles of noteworthy games and sports figures in town. On another wall are personalized autograph pictures of Willie Mays, Walt Frazier and Phil Rizzuto.
Spinola eventually assumed sole ownership of Partners Café in the early 1990s, but his wife and co-host, Debbie, became his new partner.
"My wife takes on a lot of the work, especially in the kitchen," he says. "We use a lot of her recipes."
In 26 years, Partners Café has evolved into an authentic sports bar and restaurant, one of the few around, and it will always be best known for its connection to Norwalk sports.
The Mike Errico award is named after the longtime local sportsman who was one of the organizers of the Norwalk Old Timers organization and its first vice president in 1963. He was selected as a 1979 Old Timers honoree and served as president in 1986 and '87.
In 1938, Errico helped organize the Spring Hill Tigers, which won four straight city championships from 1938-41, and he served as president since its inception. He also organized and became president of the Fairfield County Football League, was president of the Norwalk Twilight Baseball League, and was secretary of both the Rotary Football League and Norwalk Kiwanis Basketball League simultaneously.
A longtime member of the Norwalk Old Timers Executive Board, Errico still serves on the advisory board. Now residing in Virginia, he plans to attend next week's dinner to present the award named in his honor to Partner's Café.
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what happened to Milt Peckham? He was one of the original owners and played on so many teams that everybody on his teams filled the bar. Also, if they have a picture of Calvin Murphy and his 1966 Norwalk High State champs, let's remember that in 1966, Norwalk was class A. McMahon was the only school to beat them that year, 72-69, in the old Norwalk High Gym, which st no more than 440. McMahon played right up there to the end in the big time double A, only losing to Wilbur Cross and the fixit refs who loved the coach. Perhaps you can get a picture of that team and post it, with legend Marvin(Suitcase) Spencer, the all time scoring king, Kelly Myrick, who set world records in hurdles, Ron (Smooth) Watson, Larry (Poochie) Gist, Enoch (Stonehands) Williams, Ed (Mr. Slick) DeGrant, who had that corner shot that couldn't be stopped. Greatest McMahon B'ball team ever should be on the wall!
Posted by: Bruce Keck | Oct 29, 2009
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bring in the picture and i am sure it wouild be posted most of the pictures were brought in by customers as i am one of them
Posted by: a fan | Oct 29, 2009
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I have a question for Tommy (or anyone else who knows) What was Partners called before it was Partners. My husband and I have been trying to remember forever. Triple Play does not ring a bell...Hope you can help!
Posted by: anonymous | 17 hours, 21 minutes ago
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Petrini, Quinn among honorees at Old Timers dinner
Posted on 10/27/2009
Fred Petrini, a member of The Hour's first All-City baseball team in 1971 and later a longtime softball coach at Norwalk High School, and Don Quinn, another former NHS coach who in his first season guided the Bears to the 1972 FCIAC championship in boys basketball, will be among the eight 2009 honorees at the Norwalk Old Timers' 47th annual awards dinner Nov. 4 at Continental Manor.
Petrini and Quinn will be honored that night along with Bob Mendence, Rich MacDonald, Dan Santarella, Phil Tegano, Dick Packer and Dan Letizia.
Partners Café will also be recognized with the 2009 Mike Errico Award for its 26 years of continuous support of Norwalk sports.
Petrini came up through the local youth baseball leagues, winning a championship with Hilltop Garden in the Inter-national Little League, making the Norwalk PONY League all-star team, and then being named captain of the Norwalk Colt League all-star team that advanced to the Eastern Regional final.
A catcher his entire career, Petrini would go on to make the varsity baseball team at Central Catholic High School, and as a senior was voted to the 1971 All-Western Connecticut Conference first team.
That same year, he was also named to The Hour's inaugural All-City baseball team.
After graduation, Petrini went on to play in the Norwalk City League for the Blues, a team made up of mostly former CCHS Cavaliers.
But when the City League broke up in the early 1970s, and with no place for young adults to play baseball, Petrini switched to softball and embarked on another successful career. He even helped start the first team he played on, the "Nobodies," who competed in leagues in Norwalk and Wilton.
The team was eventually sponsored by Sportland and then the Laurels, which is where Petrini enjoyed his most success. The Laurels dominated the '80s, winning city championships in 1980, '82, '85 and '86, and then adding a fifth city crown in 1988 when Petrini and several other holdovers formed Cotaling's Auto Body.
It was also during this stretch, in a 1981 article in The Hour, that Petrini was selected as one of the "10 Best Softball Players" in the city of Norwalk according to a panel of local softball officials.
He also played in the Danbury Industrial League on Saturday nights with a team called Little Deli, which he helped lead to three undefeated seasons. In the late 1970s, when softball season was over, Petrini played in the Norwalk Recreation Adult Touch Football League for the Steamrollers.
A math teacher at West Rocks Middle School for 19 years, Petrini also started the Norwalk Middle School Touch Football League, which he operated for 18 years.
It was also during his tenure at West Rocks that Petrini's coaching career got its start. He coached the girls softball team there for four years, winning three city championships while losing only two games in four seasons.
He also coached girls basketball at West Rocks for one year and won another city title, while coaching feld hockey and boys soccer for one season each as well.
Many of the players Petrini coached went on to play at Norwalk High School and helped the Bears win four straight FCIAC championships from 1978-81, including an undefeated state title team in 1980.
When NHS head coach Ray Barry had an opening for an assistant coach in 1982, he asked Petrini to fill it. For the next 22 years, Barry and Petrini became one of the best coaching tandems in the state as they led the Lady Bears to seven more FCIAC championships and another unbeaten season and Class LL state crown in 1991.
The two also coached together with the Norwalk Mariners in the summer, winning several state titles and a pair of New England championships to qualify for the nationals.
Then when Barry decided to end his legendary coaching career after the 2003 season, Petrini was his handpicked successor to take over the storied NHS softball program. In his two seasons as head coach, Petrini led the Bears to the FCIAC semifinals in 2004 and to the conference championship game in 2005.
"Fred was just so important with everything he did in our program," Barry, a 2000 Norwalk Old Timers honoree, said. "One thing always came out with Fred, he was always there for the kids. I know it's fashionable to say that, but he really was always there. Plus his sense of humor made him fun to be around. The kids loved him and had a lot of fun.
"He was fun, but he was also very knowledgeable about softball and he made all the players better. I really miss that camaraderie with Fred. We didn't realize it then, but those were the best years of our life."
For the past 16 years, Petrini he has taught math at Brien McMahon High School
Quinn served as an assistant basketball coach at Norwalk High School under Ed Cerulli, who stepped down to become a housemaster when the new Norwalk High opened in the fall of 1971. That created the opening for a head coach, which Quinn filled for the next six years.
All he did in his first season was lead the Bears to a sparkling 21-4 record and the 1971-72 FCIAC championship to christen the new high school.
In fact, after opening the season with back-to-back losses, NHS won nine straight games and 21 of its next 22 contests. The only loss during that stretch was a 67-63 setback against Danbury, which posted the best regular-season record in the conference at 16-1 to win the West I Division. Norwalk captured the East I title with a 15-2 record.
The two teams would meet again in the FCIAC final and this time Quinn coached the Norwalkers to a 61-54 victory and their first league crown in six years when Calvin Murphy led NHS to the 1966 crown.
Quinn's Bears would post two more wins, their 11th and 12th in a row, to reach the Class LL state semifinals where they finally lost to unbeaten and No. 1 Wilbur Cross, the eventual state champs.
Four of the five starters from that team would graduate, but Quinn took a revamped lineup the following year and led Norwalk High to a 16-win season and a return trip to the FCIAC championship game, where they fell to city rival Brien McMahon.
The Bears got off to a slow 3-6 start, but Quinn remained patient with his young team, which won 13 of its next 15 games, including an impressive 70-55 victory over Eastern Division champ Andrew Warde in the FCIAC semifinals. Norwalk would lose to eventual state champion Wilbur Cross again, this time in the Class LL quarterfinals.
It was also in 1973 that Quinn took over as head coach of the NHS boys track team, replacing the legendary Tom Scarso, who had retired. During his four years at the helm, Quinn coached a pair of state champions with Larry Miller winning the high jump and Tom Delmoor the decathlon. Delmoor would end up placing sixth nationally and later earn All-American honors in college.
Quinn's high school coaching resume also included eight years as assistant baseball coach under Jack Cronin.
A native of New York City, Quinn's connection to local sports goes back to when he played recreation baseball in Norwalk with Fitzgerald's All-Stars. A hard-throwing pitcher, he played two years at St. Basil's Prep in Stamford and then three seasons at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md.
He would play his summer baseball, however, with the Laurel Athletic Club in the Norwalk City League and Stamford Twilight League. Quinn eventually became player/manager of the team and helped lead the Laurels to back to back city championships as well as consecutive regular-season titles in the Stamford Twilight League, going a combined 29-6 in 1967.
Quinn also played basketball locally with Freddie's Bears in the early 1960s, and later with the Aristocrats, who won the Senior City League title.
But his most success came during a stellar 17-year career in the Inter-City Touch Football League in Norwalk, breaking in with the Rowayton Bears in 1962 and later playing with Georgetown.
His best years, however, came while playing with the Darien Sportsmen, who he quarterbacked to a perfect 12-0 record and the league championship in 1970, the same year he was the leading passer in the ICTFL.
The following year Quinn helped lead the Sportsmen to a 10-0 regular season before being upset in the playoffs by the Stamford Nobles.
"He could throw the ball 80 yards with an arc on it," Frank Fay, a 1998 Old Timers honoree and one of the league's founders who was a teammate of Quinn's with Rowayton, said. "We had some great quarterbacks in our league and Donny Quinn was one of the best,"
Since 2000, Quinn has resided in Lewes, Del.
Tickets to next Wednesday's Norwalk Old Timers Dinner, which begins with a hot hors d'oeuvres reception at 6 p.m., followed by a prime rib dinner (chicken or fish can be substituted) are $60 per person and can be obtained at any of the following locations: Laurel Athletic Club, Bru's Deli, New York Bakery, both Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools, or by contacting committee members John Peters (838-8681), Ralph King (846-0201), Pat Spinola (856-7864) or Jim Deering (846-1193). Tables of 10 are available.
Norwalk Democratic leader Slapin found dead at home
Posted: 10/27/2009 07:25:22 AM EDT
Updated: 10/27/2009 07:35:59 AM EDT
Slapin (File photo)
NORWALK -- Four-time Democratic common councilman Kenneth Slapin, a two-time Electoral College member who is credited with helping to create the Norwalk Wheels bus system, was found dead of natural causes in his home Sunday night, police said.
After not being able to reach Slapin, 70, since Monday, Robert and Mimi Burgess went to his Bettswood Avenue home Sunday night just before 9 p.m. and knocked on his door, Sgt. Lisa Cotto said. Unable to get an answer, Robert Burgess broke a window, let himself in and found Slapin dead in his bedroom, Cotto said.
A medic called to the residence said the death appeared to be from natural causes, Cotto said.
Mimi Burgess, who has known Slapin for 50 years, said the life-long Norwalk resident and bachelor was suffering from debilitating back problems. She talked to him Monday and Slapin e-mailed her later in the day to report he lost his cell phone. She and her husband became concerned after he had not replied to e-mails and calls through the week.
Slapin, who next week was standing for re-election after serving his first six-year term as commissioner of the First Taxing District, was remembered by friends as someone who was passionate, articulate and knowledgeable about city party politics.
"What a good friend he was and how helpful he was to me in politics," Burgess said.
Former Mayor Frank Zullo, under whom Slapin served a council term from 1967-69, said his old friend was a fantastic source of political information and had an encyclopedic knowledge of Democratic parliamentary procedure. Zullo has decided to stand in for Slapin and run for First Taxing District commissioner.
"I lost a close personal friend. We had many great discussions from time to time and I will miss him sincerely. He was a valuable resource to the city. He was bright as all get out. When you got into a conversation with him you had to know what you were talking about because he knew what he was talking about," Zullo said.
As well as being graduate of Norwalk High School, Brandeis University and Yale University School of Law and a past member of the Connecticut Bar Association, Slapin campaigned for Norwalk mayor in 1987 but was defeated by Frank Esposito, who went on to serve seven two-year mayoral terms.
An extremely private man, Slapin was Democratic Town Committee chairman for six years, a leading proponent of saving the old Norwalk High School and turning it into City Hall, and one of seven Connecticut residents to poll their presidential votes in the Electoral College in 1996 and 2000. The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, however, soured Slapin on the Electoral College system.
"Before 2000, the Electoral College had, with very rare exception, reinforced the popular vote. The last two cycles have caused me to wonder, to doubt that the function was being served," he said in a 2004 interview.
Slapin was a ferocious debater and not afraid to tell people they were wrong. After losing his council seat in 1981, Slapin and other ousted Democrats, such as former Mayor William Collins and former council member Donna King, formed something Collins termed the "shadow government."
His attendance at meetings and willingness to speak up caused the Common Council in 1982 to adopt a special rule that required Slapin, a sitting transit district commissioner, to get the permission of 10 of the 15 councilmen members before he could speak at meetings.
Former Norwalk Democratic Committee Chairman Donna King, who knew Slapin for 30 years, called his death a "tremendous loss for the Norwalk Democratic party."
"He was the source of a lot of good advice and information. He had a memory that was unmatched. He remembered everything like a historian," King said.
Norwalk Transit District Administrator Louis Schulman called Slapin a founder of the Wheels bus system and said he was largely responsible for its creation.
"Ken led the fight for the bus system that was overwhelmingly approved. A large part of Ken Slapin's legacy was the establishment of the Wheels system, which was largely due to his foresight, intelligence and political skill and efforts," Shulman said.
First Taxing District Commissioner Robert Corbo said Slapin was very dedicated to helping the taxing district and led the effort this year to refurbish and relocate a 1881 French cannon to the Historic Town Green, one of 12 parks owned by the taxing district.
He set up a Parks Committee within the taxing district to help maintain and guide planning at the parks, said Corbo.
"He was a tremendous friend, a wonderful adviser and a real go-getter, because he had the political acumen to get things done," said Corbo, who also served on the Common Council.
Funeral arrangements for services are pending.
John Nickerson can be reached at 203-964-2320 or john.nickerson@scni.com.
Engagement George and Abdelwahab
Posted on 10/25/2009
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<a href="http://www.thehour.com/story/477001/">Engagement George and Abdelwahab</a>
William and Christina George of Norwalk announce the engagement of their daughter, Kellee Marie George of Norwalk to Osama Abdelwahab of Stamford, son of Sayed and Magda Abdelwahab of Hightstown, N.J.
The future bride graduated from Norwalk High School. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in education from Sacred Heart University. She is a fourth grade teacher at Kendall Elementary School in Norwalk.
The future groom graduated from Hightstown High School. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University. He is a trader with SAC Capital in Stamford.
A July 31, 2010 wedding is planned.
Greenwich school system's assistant superintendent of business to retire
Posted: 10/20/2009 09:52:58 PM EDT
Wallerstein
A Greenwich High School graduate who has spent the past five years looking after the school system's finances, budget processes and maintenance of school facilities is retiring at the end of this year.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Sue Wallerstein, who oversees the non-instructional "operations side" the schools system, plans to step down at the end of December, school officials announced Tuesday afternoon.
An educator for nearly four decades, the Norwalk resident says she's looking forward to spending more time with her children, her grandchildren and her husband, a retired Greenwich public school teacher of 35 years.
"My goal after 38 years -- and my husband is role model on this -- is to really spend time assessing what, if anything, I want to do" in education, said Wallerstein, 60, who also teaches at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y.
One of her first priorities after retiring: "Catching up on my reading," she added.
Wallerstein has worked for the school district since 1997, when she started out as a program director for media and technology. A former French and Spanish teacher at Norwalk High School during the early 1970s, she served for six months as interim principal at Hamilton Avenue School before being promoted in 2004 to her current position.
School officials credited Wallerstein with developing a comprehensive and transparent budget process as well as managing the district's facilities and maintenance programs, among other contributions.
"The value of this position, and of Susan's work in particular, in an organization of this size and complexity is not to be underestimated," Superintendent of Schools Sidney Freund said in a statement.
Wallerstein had previously planned to retire this past June. However, she decided to stay on board with the district for another half-year to help ease the transition for Freund, who took office in July following a wave of top-ranking administrator departures. Those included former Deputy Superintendent Kathy Greider; former Director of Curriculum Chris Winters, now interim headmaster at the high school; and former Assistant Superintendent of Research and Evaluation John Curtin, now a district "special projects manager."
While her departure is a loss, Freund said he's in good hands with his current team at the central office.
"By the time Sue departs, I will have been here six months," Freund said in an interview on Tuesday. "I am learning more every day about how the operations side works. And she's a phone call away, and there are good support people."
"Sue will be a tough act to follow," he added, "but as a school board member once taught me, everybody can be replaced."
Next year Freund plans to reorganize the business services job into a new "managing director of operations" overseeing operations, including budget and finance, information technology, human resources, facilities and maintenance, transportation and school safety.
The human resources director job, formerly held by Deputy Superintendent Ellen Flanagan that has yet to be filled, will answer to this new managing operations director, who in turn will answer to Freund. Positions are being restructured, but not eliminated under this plan, Freund said. The goal is to have the human resources director and managing operations director positions filled by January 2009.
-- Staff Writer Colin Gustafson can be reached at colin.gustafson@scni.com or 203-625-4428.
Packer, Letizia to be honored by Norwalk Old Timers
Posted on 10/21/2009
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<a href="http://www.thehour.com/story/476786/">Packer, Letizia to be honored by Norwalk Old Timers</a>
Dick Packer, an All-American soccer player at Penn State and 1956 U.S. Olympian who for the past 32 summers has a run a local soccer camp, and Dan Letizia, who played baseball and soccer at NHS and later became one of the top umpires in the area, will be among the 2009 Norwalk Old Timers honorees at their 47th annual awards dinner Nov. 4 at Continental Manor.
Joining Packer and Letizia at the head dais that night will be Fred Petrini, Don Quinn, Bob Mendence, Rich MacDonald, Dan Santarella and Phil Tegano.
Partners Café, a supporter of Norwalk sports for more than a quarter of a century, will also be honored at this year's dinner with the 2009 Mike Errico Award.
The face of youth soccer in Norwalk changed in 1964, the year Packer moved to Rowayton, bringing with him a wealth of soccer experience and accolades at every level.
Some 14 years later, in 1978, he hooked up with former New York Giants kicker Pete Gogolak, his good friend from Darien and another soccer enthusiast, to launch what has become a summer tradition that has continued for more than three decades.
The Packer-Gogolak Soccer Camp took the Norwalk area by storm, and before long the duo opened camps in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York, drawing hundreds of boys and girls ages 6 to 12.
In 1992, with the demands of his successful business in New York increasing, Gogolak stepped down as co-director, and the Packer-Gogolak Soccer Camp became the Packer Soccer Camp. Packer has been the sole director for the past 17 summers, but the camp's motto, "Kicks for the fun of it," has remained the same.
In fact, this past July, the popular youth camp celebrated its 32nd consecutive year with two weeks at Rowayton Elementary School, while a third week was held in Darien.
But his soccer camp is only a small part of Packer's impressive background in a sport he has played since he was six. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Bucks County, Pa., he attended high school at George School in Newtown, Pa., from 1948-52, and scored 55 goals during his four-year varsity career there. He was named to the All-Philadelphia Scholastic Team three straight years, and scored a goal in the annual All-Philadelphia vs. All-NY Scholastic Soccer game as a sophomore.
He earned a scholarship to Penn State where he played three years of varsity soccer (freshmen were ineligible to play varsity back then). It was during his years in Happy Valley that Packer really built his legacy as a scoring machine while cementing his place among the best players in the country.
A three-year starter, the center forward helped lead the Nittany Lions to back-to-back unbeaten seasons and the 1954 and '55 national championships while being named to the All-America soccer team both years.
As the senior captain of the 1955 title team, Packer established a single-season scoring record with 24 goals, a Penn State mark that still stands some 54 years later. And amazingly, he did it in just nine games.
And as if that wasn't enough, Packer was also named captain of the South team in the 1955 Senior Soccer Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla., and scored three goals in the final.
Packer's 50 total points during that 9-0-0 season also remains a single-season record for the Nittany Lions, and his 53 career goals was another PSU record that stood for 40 years. It wasn't until Stuart Reid, a player from Belfast, Northern Ireland, recorded 56 goals from 1992-95, that Packer's long-standing mark was broken.
But Reid, who played four years, scored his 56 goals in 88 games. Packer was only allowed to play three years and scored 53 goals in just 24 games.
The 8-0-0 team in 1954 and the '55 team that finished 9-0-0 are also the last two Penn State soccer teams to go unbeaten and win national titles. What's more, the 18 straight wins Packer and his teammates accumulated during their three years is yet another record that has stood the test of time.
But the best was yet to come for Packer. In 1956, he was selected to the U.S. Olympic soccer team for the Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia. A total of 16 players made Team USA, 15 professionals and one college player: Packer.
Packer went on to play professionally himself with the Philadelphia Uhrik Truckers, who he helped lead to consecutive American Soccer League championships in 1956 and '57, scoring two goals in one of the title games. He also played with the U.S. Armed Forces team in Germany from 1957-59 and with the Central Valet Professional Soccer Club while working in Washington, D.C., from 1959 to 1964, the year he moved to Norwalk.
Packer is still a big supporter of Penn State soccer, sponsoring a four-year scholarship, attending several home games a year, and even accompanying the team to Brazil on its spring tour this year.
Letizia grew up in the Broad River section of town and played for a number of local teams in the late 1940s, all through the '50s, and early '60s. But the one constant on whatever team Letizia played for was his position: second base.
With Little League baseball in Norwalk still a few years away, Letizia began his career as an 11-year-old with the Broad River Community Boys Club in 1948, playing for his brother Lou Letizia. He would play there, and in the Broad River summer playground league, for seven years through 1954.
Also during that time, from 1950-52, Letizia played for Center Junior High School, and then for Norwalk High School in 1953 and '54. It was in the summer of 1954 that a 16-year-old Letiza enjoyed perhaps his best day on a baseball diamond, belting six triples in a doubleheader while playing for Broad River in a City League game at the NHS field.
Letizia would join the U.S. Air Force a few years later, but that didn't derail his baseball playing. Instead, in the summer of 1956 he assumed his familiar post at second base for the baseball team at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Then in 1957, he played for the baseball team while stationed at the Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya.
The following year, Letizia was transferred to USAF Headquarters in Washington, D.C., once again manning second base for the baseball team there.
Upon returning to Norwalk, Letizia played the 1961 season for the Hilltop Athletic Club, which competed in both the City League and the Stamford Twilight League. The following year, he made a seamless transition from baseball to softball as he embarked on a 14-year career with the Bermudas and Chatham Oaks, a perennial powerhouse that ruled city softball for years.
But baseball and softball weren't the only sports Letizia shined in. While at Norwalk High School, he played soccer for three seasons under hall of fame coach Tom Scarso and as a starting forward he helped the Green and White win its first County Conference championship in 1955.
"I was more proud of that than anything I did in baseball because I had such great admiration for Tommy Scarso as a coach," Letizia recently pointed out. "I never played soccer before. One day I was walking by the field and saw the soccer team practicing and thought this looks like fun. So I went out for the team.
"I was built low to the ground," he added with a chuckle. "That's what helped me become a good player."
Letizia also made his mark in the highly regarded Inter-City Touch Football League during the 1960s and '70s as a linebacker for the Georgetown team and a coach with Cranbury and the Silvermine Nuggets, who he led to an unbeaten season and the championship in 1971.
"Danny didn't have any speed and our league required a lot of speed," Frank Fay, one of the league's founders and its only commissioner from 1962-96, recalled. "But he had good hands. That's what made him such a great second baseman.
"He was also a good strategist when he coached," Fay, a 1998 Old Timers honoree who coached and quarterbacked the Rowayton Bears to six straight titles in the '60s, added. "He had a good mind for strategy. I'll never forget the day he shut me out 6-0 on a rainy day. It was one of the few times we were ever shut out. We had won six years in a row and we might've gone back to the championship game if not for that loss.
"All the players in the league had a lot of regard for Danny. He was a lovable guy."
Letizia also coached baseball in the Norwalk City League and Stamford Twilight League in the 1960s after he stopped playing, managing the Laurel AC for one year and Sterling Furniture for two seasons. He also coached in the Norwalk Senior Babe Ruth League in the 1980s, including five seasons with The Hour, who he guided to a league championship.
In addition to his achievements as a player and coach, Letizia became one of the most respected umpires in the area from 1973 to the mid-1980s while working high school games in the spring and collegiate league contests in the summer. He also volunteered his time to umpire one game a week in the National Little League in Broad River.
Tickets to the Nov. 4 Norwalk Old Timers Dinner, which begins with a hot hors d'oeuvres reception at 6 p.m., followed by a prime rib dinner (chicken or fish can be substituted) are $60 per person and can be obtained at any of the following locations: Laurel Athletic Club, Bru's Deli, New York Bakery, both Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools, or by contacting committee members John Peters (838-8681), Ralph King (846-0201), Pat Spinola (856-7864) or Jim Deering (846-1193). Tables of 10 are available.
Norwalk man's legacy alive after 2007 killing
Paulk's legacy alive after '07 killing
Posted: 10/19/2009 09:52:08 PM EDT
Updated: 10/20/2009 07:23:42 AM EDT
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NORWALK -- A few days after Donald "Curtis" Wilson was convicted of murdering Larry Paulk in a Roodner Court entryway on Christmas Day 2007, Paulk's widow said she desperately misses her husband, the father of her two growing boys, and thinks about him every day.
"Many times I think about that night, and the thing that plays over and over in my head is that in a matter of two hours, he went from being someone alive right next to me, to feeling in the hospital his already very cold cheek against mine when he was dead. I spoke to him then, and I imagined his spirit was watching, telling him how much I loved him," Delia Paulk said, fighting back tears.
Paulk is a very private person, who during the course of two murder trials
turned down many interview requests. But after the verdict, she said she wanted to tell everyone what a loving husband Larry Paulk was.
Wilson, who is facing 25 to 60 years in prison, will be sentenced Dec. 18 at state Superior Court in Stamford.
On that Christmas night, Larry, 51, an electrical engineer who worked for IBM in New York and was the oldest of eight siblings -- including boxers Travis and Tarvis Simms -- arrived with his wife and their two sons and relatives to celebrate the holiday with his mother, Barbara, who lived on the second floor of Building 13 of the public housing complex on Ely Avenue in South Norwalk.
Later in the evening, Larry Paulk's nephew told him there were people dealing drugs outside.
Paulk got up, and a few minutes later, shots rang out.
During final arguments in the five-day murder trial, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Richard Colangelo said that when Paulk walked out the apartment door, he found Wilson and another man, Jason Gonzalez, dealing drugs in the second-floor hallway and followed them to an exit to the building. A moment, later the three had a confrontation in the first-floor hallway that spilled out into the entrance of the building.
Larry's brother Frederick testified that he saw Wilson fire the shot that killed his brother.
Explaining why her husband got up and went out the door that night, Delia Paulk said the 1974 Norwalk High School graduate was a terrific father who was "adamant" about not allowing drugs and violence near his two boys.
"He didn't want that around his mother's house. He was a very peaceful man," Paulk said, adding that before he died, Larry Paulk was working to get his mother out of the public housing complex, where he too lived until he was about 16.
"It is very ironic that he was trying to get his mother out of the very place he would pass away at," said Paulk, who remembers seeing her husband take his last breath as he lay in a pool of blood just inside the entrance to Building 13.
Travis Simms said his oldest brother, who liked to plan family reunions and vacations, was the "glue" that held his family together. Although the Simms twins have a different father from Larry Paulk, technically making them half-brothers, they make a point of referring to him as a brother.
"He was the one besides my mother and father who taught me how to pray and serve God. He showed me how to set goals in life. When my brother Tarvis and I wanted to quit a sport and get started doing something or another, he taught us how to persevere," Simms said.
When Larry Paulk stepped into a room, the room lit up, and he was the type of guy people always gravitated to, Simms said.
"I cannot let his legacy go. I have to continue to carry it on. He was such a strong-willed person. He would help anybody," Simms said.
Ozell "Donnie" Paulk, who is 11 months younger than Larry, called his brother "a protector" and the type of person who would drop what he was doing to help out a friend with electrical work or fix someone's car.
He enjoyed organizing trips for the family to see relatives in Georgia and Florida, and he was a good athlete who could have had a football career, Donnie Paulk said, adding that Larry was a fan of the New York Jets, Mets and Knicks. Larry and Donnie were the last of the Paulk children born in Georgia.
"He always wanted people to be their best and contribute to society and be an asset, as opposed to a detriment. He respected people, which showed when so many people came to his funeral service that many could not come inside to see the service," Donnie Paulk said.
Larry and Delia Paulk met by chance at the photo shop at the old Pathmark supermarket at River View Plaza in 1987. The two were married less than two years later and would have celebrated their 20th anniversary next month.
Larry collected Ford Mustangs for restoration and especially loved his blue 1969 Mach 1 Mustang, said Delia Paulk, who was eight years younger than her husband.
"He loved children. He was very friendly and gregarious. He liked to joke around. He always tried to encourage people. He was full of life and a very hard worker," said Delia Paulk, who buried her husband in a white casket, she said, to symbolize the purity of his heart.
Over the past year and 10 months, Paulk's death has hit both sons particularly hard, she said.
A week after her husband's burial, Delia Paulk bought a journal for Gabriel, now 16, and Elijah, 11, so they could write down every memory of their father they could muster, in hopes that they would share them with their own wives and children.
"He was special, and he deserves to be remembered, and the grandchildren should know who their grandfather was," Delia Paulk said.
But the murder has been too painful for Gabriel, who has not yet made one entry, even though Delia knows he still has vivid memories of the two together.
Although Elijah, who Delia says is the sensitive one, has made a few entries in the keepsake, he is very quiet when the subject of his father comes up. "He is still really still hurting from the passing of his father," she said.
Delia said she is struggling to make ends meet, since her husband -- the sole breadwinner in the family -- was killed.
Although she and her sons remain in the same Norwalk house as when Larry Paulk was alive, money is tight, and Delia is now working part time as an office administrator, even though she has been trying for a while to get a full-time job.
"I am scrambling to stabilize my finances, and I don't know what the outcome will be. I just have my faith in God that he is getting us through this," she said.
Delia Paulk said she had enormous gratitude and respect for prosecutor Colangelo, who obtained the guilty verdict about five hours after the jury began deliberating. She also thanked victim's advocate Pam O'Leary and the jury.
"I thought they were smart, and they listened intently to the case. The verdict was murder, and the verdict was the truth. The truth prevailed. I pray that God will give the jurors peace with their decision," she said.
No matter the verdict, Delia Paulk knows she has lost something she can never replace.
"I loved Larry, and I will always love him and miss him every day of my life. He was the one for me and everything I ever wanted in a husband. He was the love of my life, a rare diamond," Paulk said, as tears welled in her eyes.
Staff writer John Nickerson can be reached at john.nickerson@scni.com or 203-964-2320.
Matthew Doran column: Mariners a labor of love for Cenatiempo
Posted on 10/14/2009
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<a href="http://www.thehour.com/story/476471/">Matthew Doran column: Mariners a labor of love for Cenatiempo</a>
You don't have to speak with Ted Cenatiempo very long to understand how passionate he is about the sport of soccer.
For Cenatiempo, a former All-New England goaltender at Norwalk High who went on to win a Division II national championship at Southern Connecticut State University in 1987, the unexplainable magic he discovers when his foot taps against the black and white dots on a soccer ball is almost as vital to his survival as the air he breathes and the blood that pumps through his veins.
Multiply that love a hundred times, and you might begin to know the depth of Cenatiempo's dedication to the Norwalk Mariners soccer club.
Like a bottle of fine wine or a piece of antique furniture, the team has been passed down from generation to generation, and Cenatiempo has made sure to treat it well.
The Mariners, an over-30 men's team which competes in the highly competitive Shoreline Adult Soccer League, have been run by someone in the Cenatiempo family since 1975. Stephano Cenatiempo, Ted's father, founded the club with Eli Catarino of Darien, to give older players who were not ready to retire a place to continue playing competitive soccer.
Ted Cenatiempo took over the team in 1987 with his brother, Steve, when it became too much to handle for their father.
Since then, Cenatiempo has done whatever it took to keep the club alive. That included a brief controversy over a name change and a five-year hiatus while many of the team's players were getting married and buying houses, perhaps the only time Cenatiempo made soccer a second or third priority in his life.
But thanks to his persistent effort, the Mariners are still going strong.
Now in their 25th year of existence, the Mariners are thriving in Division 2 of the SASL, one of the top adult soccer leagues in New England, one which attracts more than its share of former college and professional players.
The Mariners are currently in first place with a 5-0-1 overall record, having allowed just three goals since the start of the season in August. The SASL breaks over the winter beginning in November, picks up again in April and finishes in June.
The Mariners, one of the greatest -- perhaps unknown -- traditions in Norwalk's sports landscape, are also 1-0 in CSSA Group C State Cup play having posted a 4-0 victory over the Ridgefield Kicks this past Sunday.
Leading the team back to its standing as a competitive force has been a thrill for Cenatiempo. Keeping the team in the family, and keeping it alive, warms his heart every time he stops to think about it.
"It's very gratifying for me," said Cenatiempo, whose team plays at Broad River and Vets Park. "To look out onto the field and see what you've built and see the success we've had, it's nice."
The Mariners have been an institution in Norwalk's soccer circles for decades, but Cenatiempo didn't realize how important the club was in the grand scheme of the city's soccer landscape until he ran into a couple of old timers at a funeral service over the winter.
"I saw Tony Taliercio and John Florio, who used to play for the St. Ann's team with my father. They asked me if the team was still around, and I said it was," Cenatiempo said. "They couldn't believe it. I could tell they were moved. That meant a lot to me because we worked hard to keep it going."
The club was originally known as the Norwalk Italians when Stephano Cenatiempo ran the team. As a spinoff of the St. Ann's Club, it attracted only Italian players.
In 1987, while Ted was still in college, Stephano handed him the checkbook, signed over the papers -- the team has been incorporated since early in its existence -- and left his two sons in charge of the club.
In 1990, the team brought Joe Taccone on board as a financial backer. Taccone is the owner of Italia Restaraunt, and his influence was felt immediately. The team formed a board of directors that year to make sure the club's spotless reputation remained intact.
"We first started, we had a very good rapport with the mayor. We never had a problem getting fields or getting the fields cut and lined. We had so many loyal financial backers and we always had good management. That's the type of team people want to play for," Cenatiempo said.
Early on, under the regime of the Cenatiempo sons, recruiting became difficult since only Italian players were signing up. That's when Cenatiempo decided to change the team's name. The Italians became the Mariners in 1992.
"We did it because we wanted to attract players of all ethnic backgrounds," Cenatiempo said.
First, Cenatiempo had to clear it with former Norwalk High School softball coach Ray Barry, who was running a summer softball team which used the same name.
"There was a little controversy," Cenatiempo said. "Out of respect for Ray Barry, we asked him if it was all right if we used the name. He said, 'No problem. Go ahead.' So that was it."
After that, the Mariners started attracting top-flight players from all over Fairfield County, including Ita More, who played on the Isreali National team, and Magnus Nilerud, a member of the Swedish National team who now coaches at the University of Bridgeport.
Cenatiempo credits the tireless work of Naz Malizia, who served as president of the club for 10 years beginning in 1990, for helping the Mariners reach new heights. After the name change, the Mariners no longer had to recruit.
"When you become a successful as a club, people come to you," Cenatiempo said.
The Mariners are still attracting great talent. Vinny Mallozzi, was an All-American at Westhill, and his brother, Ralph Mallozzi, the team's goalie who stopped a penalty kick in the 70th minute to preserve the win against the Ridgefield Kicks last weekend, was an All-FCIAC pick.
This year's team also features players like Scott Vanderwall of Stamford, who played pro soccer with the New York Fever, a satellite team with the New York Cosmos, the former flagship franchise of American soccer.
Sweeper Orlando Douglas played with the national team of St. Vincent, an island in the West Indies.
All the teams the Mariners play against have rosters bulging with the same type of talent.
"We play some of the best competition in New England," said Cenatiempo, whose team will next face the Waterbury Cabo Verde at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. "Some of these guys are used to playing against professionals."
The Mariners did go through a rough patch, disbanding the team for five seasons from 2000-2004. With a new house and a young family, Cenatiempo knew he wasn't going give the team the time it deserved.
"We really didn't have any management at that time," he said. "I kept playing on a team out of Trumbull. But I thought, 'Let's shut things down and we'll start it back up when we're ready.' "
That happened in 2005. Since the league splits itself into three divisions with teams moving up and down according to the previous year's standings, the Mariners had to start at the bottom and work their way up.
The Mariners won the Division 3 title that first season back.
"That's rare because teams usually spend a few years there before they move up," Cenatiempo said.
The Mariners placed second in Division 2 in 2006 and won it in 2007. Last year, the team played in the highest level of the league and struggled to a sixth-place finish, which dropped them back down to Division 2.
With an infusion of young talent this year, the Mariners are dominating once again.
"We have a lot of new players who just turned 30 who have been waiting to play with us," Cenatiempo said. "Once we got those guys, we've been unstoppable."
Cenatiempo is now 42. So is his longtime friend and teammate Al Boccanfuso, who serves as the club's general partner and assistant team captain. Cenatiempo has no sons whose hands he can leave the team. He has two daughters aged 9 and 6. So when Cenatiempo is ready to call it quits, the Mariners will also come to an end.
Steve Cenatiempo has a son by the same name who earned all-state honors at Norwalk High before going on to play at UConn. But the younger Steve Cenatiempo is still chasing his dream, trying to hook up with a professional team in Europe.
"I don't want to leave the team in the hands of someone I don't trust," Ted said. "We've always been a reputable club, and I always want to uphold that."
Santarella, Tegano among Old Timers honorees
Posted on 10/14/2009
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<a href="http://www.thehour.com/story/476431/">Santarella, Tegano among Old Timers honorees</a>
Dan Santarella, a standout running back and state champion track sprinter for Norwalk High School in the late 1950s, and Phil Tegano, an all-star football player on the high school and collegiate level who later starred for two decades in the Inter-City Touch Football League, will be two of the eight 2009 Norwalk Old Timers honorees at their 47th annual awards dinner Nov. 4 at Continental Manor.
Santarella and Tegano will be joined by Dick Packer, Dan Letizia, Fred Petrini, Don Quinn, Bob Mendence and Rich MacDonald as this year's Old Timers award winners.
In addition, Partners Café will receive the Mike Errico Award for its more than a quarter of a century support of Norwalk sports.
Santar-ella played three years of varsity football at NHS from 1956-58, and as a senior led the Green and White in scoring, utilizing his tremendous speed to outrace opposing defensive backs to the end zone.
It was in track and field, however, where Santarella really made a name for himself a half century ago. Showcasing the same speed he displayed on the gridiron, Santarella won consecutive County Conference championships in the 100-yard dash his junior and senior years, recording a time of 10 seconds flat several times during his career.
He also finished third in the state in the 100 as a junior, while as a senior he helped lead Norwalk to the 1959 County Conference championship.
Santarella also competed in the 220-yard dash, recording a personal best of 21.9 seconds in a dual meet against rival Stamford. In addition, he ran on the NHS relay team and competed in the broad jump, finishing first on the team in points.
Since track season was in the spring, Santarella did not play high school baseball, but he did play for the Norwalk American Legion team during the summer and captured the team batting title in 1958.
The Norwalk native played a lot of baseball growing up in the Strawberry Hill section of town, and had the distinction of playing in both the National Little League and American LL when the two local leagues first formed in the early 1950s. Santarella also played in the Norwalk PONY League and the Babe Ruth League, where he won a championship with Style Footwear in 1956. He made the all-star team in both leagues, as well in the two Little Leagues he played in.
Santarella played baseball at Nathan Hale Junior High School from 1954-56, and when he was done with American Legion baseball, he played in the Norwalk City League with Strawberry Hill, K of C, and the Laurel Athletic Club.
He also played three years of basketball while at Nathan Hale and then three more seasons (1956-58) with the St. Thomas CYO team, which won the championship in 1958.
Santarella switched from baseball to softball during the 1960s, playing for Risilo Paving, Singewald Buick and T's Aces. He also played basketball for the Aces in the Norwalk City League, and touch football for them in 1964 and '65 in the Inter-City Touch Football League.
The father of two coached in local youth leagues, including the International Little League, where he guided the Lions Club to the 1977 championship. He also coached in the Norwalk Jewish Center Biddy Basketball League and in the Norwalk Athletic Association Jr. Girls Softball League, winning the 1979 crown. He then moved up to coach in the NAA Sr. Girls Softball League.
It was also during the 1970s that Santarella became one of the top basketball officials in the area. He was a member of the Fairfield County Board of the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials (IAABO Board 9) for 25 years, officiating in the Norwalk AA Junior Basketball Association, the Norwalk City League, and high school games, including the FCIAC playoffs.
Santarella was also a member of the Nowralk High School Fathers Club, a past president of the NHS Booster Club, and served on the Norwalk Athletic Association Executive Committee.
Tegano has been involved with football for 44 years, most of them as a player. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and growing up in East Norwalk, Tegano's first exposure to organized football came in 1963 as a member of the Nathan Hale Junior High School Green Devils where he played nose guard on defense and wide receiver on offense for three years.
That was followed by three years at Norwalk High School, starting all three seasons at defensive end and earning All-FCIAC honors as a junior and senior in 1966 and '67. He was also voted the team's Most Valuable Defensive Lineman his senior year.
His scholastic career didn't end that fall, however. In the summer of 1968, Tegano was chosen to play in the prestigious Nutmeg Bowl, Connecticut's annual all-star game featuring the best players from all over the state. As a member of the West team, coached by Jerry McDougall, Tegano recorded a remarkable 25 tackles, 17 of them unassisted, including six quarterback sacks. He also blocked a punt and was named the West MVP by the sports writers covering the game.
He went from NHS to Graceland College in Iowa, where he started at defensive end his first two seasons in 1968 and '69. He transferred to Norwalk Community College in 1970 and started at DE for the school's successful club football team the next two years. Tegano was not only named all-conference and the Cougars' team MVP both seasons, but in 1971 he received All-American Honorable Mention in club football as he helped lead NCC to a No. 16 ranking in the nation.
That was also the season the Cougars upset Westchester Community College, the No. 3 club football team in the country, 16-14, as Tegano keyed the defense with 23 tackles, 17 unassisted, including five QB sacks against an explosive WCC offense. Afterward, he received the game ball from NCC head coach Ed Hall.
With two years of eligibility remaining, Tegano returned to Iowa and played two more seasons of football for Graceland College in 1972 and '73. He was named to the Heart of America Conference all-league team both years, while as a senior in 1973 he received All-District honors and was tabbed the team's Most Valuable Defensive Lineman.
After Graceland, Tegano would play one year of semipro football as a safety with the Bridgeport Jets before embarking on a long - and successful - career in the highly competitive Inter-City Touch Football League that played Sunday mornings at Rowayton School.
Tegano played 21 years with the Darien Sportsmen, seeing action at running back, linebacker and end for coach Henry Egan, and helping the Sportsmen win six league championships, including three in a row from 1974-76.
In fact, he played in the ICTFL title game 15 times during his 21-year career, and in 1993 received the league's prestigious "All Timers" award. Tegano played one more season before finally calling it a career in 1994 at the age of 45.
He remained involved with his favorite sport, however, as an active member of the Brien McMahon High School Football Booster Club for 11 years, from 1996 to 2006, including the last six years as the club president.
Tegano also coached football on the high school level for a brief time as an assistant at Norwalk High, first during the 1974 season under head coach Sam Testa, and then in 1992 and '93 under Mike Santa Lucia.
In addition to his long association with football, Tegano also played many years of recreation softball, beginning with the Bruski Athletic Club from 1966-68, before joining Singewald Buick. He also played with T's Construction, T's Aces and the Norwalk Aces (he was the "T" in T's Construction and T's Aces.) He was a member of several city and sectional championship teams that twice finished third in the state playoffs, as well as win titles in the Norwalk Independent League and Hank Aaron League.
Tegano also coached baseball in the Norwalk Small Fry League from 1988-90, and then in the West Norwalk Bambino League from 1991-96. He was the head coach of four district championship teams and an assistant coach with a state championship 10-year-old all-star team. He also served as president of the league in 1995 and '96.
A product of the International Little League and Norwalk PONY League growing up, Tegano also played baseball and basketball while at Norwalk High.
Tickets to the Nov. 4 Norwalk Old Timers Dinner, which begins with a hot hors d'oeuvres reception at 6 p.m., followed by a prime rib dinner (chicken or fish can be substituted) are $60 per person and can be obtained at any of the following locations: Laurel Athletic Club, Bru's Deli, New York Bakery, both Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools, or by contacting committee members John Peters (838-8681), Ralph King (846-0201), Pat Spinola (856-7864) or Jim Deering (846-1193). Tables of 10 are available.
NHS Classmates of 1959 share golden moments
Posted on 10/13/2009
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<a href="http://www.thehour.com/story/476362/">NHS Classmates of 1959 share golden moments</a>
NORWALK
By FRANCIS X. FAY Jr.
Hour Senior Staff Writer
A Russian MIG fighter had seriously wounded a Navy gunner in an attack on a U.S. Navy patrol plane off the coast of South Korea, indicating the intensity of the Cold War, but some 400 Norwalk High School seniors took their diplomas in relative security the night of June 16, 1959.
Mayor Irving C. Freese, Independent Party leader seeking a sixth term, told the graduates assembled in what is now the Norwalk City Hall auditorium "to be themselves in the arena of life and never conform for the sake of conforming."
And as evidenced by the personalities manifest by 110 of those classmates during their 50th anniversary reunion here this past weekend, they took him to heart.
It became obvious during the first evening at Shore & Country Club that they were here for a good time, and they set about to do just that.
The Reunion Committee had been at work for 18 months on the affair and it showed in the special gifts distributed, the elaborate booklet providing mini-biographies of almost every classmate attending and some who didn't, plus a necrology with dates of death for 54 classmates and a couple of slide shows.
Several flights north from Bonita Springs, Fla., required of chairman Diana Dominici Durante didn't make it easier, although the retired special education teacher in Norwalk shrugged it off.
The class has had two of its members honored by the Norwalk High School Alumni Association, namely John Fitteron, now of Laurel Hollow, L.I., N.Y., retired chief financial officer of two New York Stock Exchange listed corporations, to the Wall of Honor in 1999, and Maryjane Conner Pacifico to the Teacher Honor Roll for her work in local schools. Fitteron was with his wife and classmate, Leola Kellogg Fitteron.
The class as a whole has an above average level of success with many having become professionals in various fields and others rising to the top in non-professional capacities.
The non-conformity of the class is no better exemplified than by Robert Grumman, who as yearbook editor, got into a scrap with the high school administration over an article he wished to publish. It made the Norwalk Hour and he is still proud of it. He has continued marching to his own beat as a creator of mathematical poetry which he calls "mathemakes," somewhat but not quite like Haiku. He certainly looked like an artist with his pony tail. He is the youngest brother in a Rowayton family that also produced F. William Grumman, onetime Norwalk DPW director, and Sherman Grumman, a onetime U.S. Navy pilot from the class of 1950.
Individuality is a quality demonstrated by classmate Richard Rudder, a New York City lawyer who was in the vanguard of those arranging financing investments for institutions and banks with a technique now known as "securitization," a bad word in contemporary society for the red ink it has spilled across the nation's economic scene. However, this man who can afford a Central Park South abode, defends the practice and says it must be reinstituted in a healthier format because "it is the best way to expand capital."
The tallest member of the class, Martin Gerstel, who played varsity basketball, came all the way from Israel. After studies at Yale and Stanford universities and armed with two degrees, he became an entrepreneur who started several health-related companies in California and is now doing the same in Israel after marrying an Israeli woman.
One of the tallest women in the class, Mary Lou Bennett Barrett, was Glastonbury Republican Town Chairman during four of her 35 years in that town, a position which afforded her close-up visits with Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Reagan and U.S. Sen. Robert Dole.
Thomas Bernardino, an executive with three oil companies, was known as Mastroberardino in high school but in 1972 he had to drop the "Mastro" because it wouldn't fit on a computer license. His wife of 44 years, classmate Charlene Cronenberg Bernardino, obtained a master's degree in counseling and did so for several years.
Frances Jess Blair was one of the most active members of her class, known for her writing aspirations as author of a weekly Hour column on NHS happenings. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, she worked at the Library of Congress, then spent 30 years in marketing and sales for her own business. She now volunteers at the San Diego (Calif.) Hospice and teaches a couple of months a year in Bali, Indonesia.
Bruce Chimento, onetime Norwalk DPW director, is still employed in the field as director of the Killingly DPW.
Maryellen Hyatt Cheh has been a dental assistant and secretary in both Norwalk and Southbury where she now lives with her husband, Donald, of the Class of 1958, a retired electrician.
Arline Miklas Cioffi taught high school mathematics in Norwalk, New Canaan and Wethersfield and married her high school sweetheart, retired Superior Court Judge Nicholas Cioffi of the Class of 1957.
Kathy Dreher Ganino attended as the nine-year widow of classmate Col. Joseph Ganino, U.S. Army Ret., after a 30-year career after Provi-dence College which took him to Iraq for Desert Storm and back to Pasadena, Calif., as operations manager for the Jet Propulsion Labora-tory. She has worked as a secretary for Save the Children, Quality Systems Inc. and for Hollywood screenwriters.
Patricia Murray Hadden, who has held several positions in City Hall, is the widow of John Hadden, onetime Norwalk police officer. Patricia Gehan Zakhar, a former teacher at Honeyhill School who also worked in the Assessor's office of City Hall, is the widow of Bill Zakhar, a standout NHS basketball player with the Class of 1949 who taught physical education at Rowayton School for three decades.
Lee Hunt, class president best male athlete, who has been a manufacturer's representative in Virginia since graduation from Marietta College, welcomed the alumni with some humorous asides, looking every bit the image of his late father, Bob Hunt, a volunteer assistant football coach at NHS for several years.
William King, owner of King Industries in Norwalk, was with his wife, a former producer for ABC-TV. He was host to all the classmates for a Sunday brunch at his Redding home.
Unbeknown to most classmates was a political and show business celebrity in their midst. Robert Lasprogato was a relatively anonymous classmate in high school who has since become known as third selectman of Westport and a bit player in several television shows including "The Sopranos" and "Law & Order." He is soon to been seen in the leading role of two independent productions -- "Nothing for Christmas" and "Bernie Waldoff." He also continues as the drummer in his own Uptown Jazz Band.
Bruce Nichols, raised on Witch Lane and a graduate of Dartmouth College, had a career in commercial and private banking in the Chicago area.
Another native Rowaytonite attending was William Pack, who afer four years with the U.S. Air Force, was a computer information systems analyst for 39 years. Of late he's been a volunteer at the New England Air Museum at Bradley Field where he is restoring two missiles.
After taking an associate degree from Norwalk Community College and a bachelor's degree from Western Connecticut State College, Samuel Perry served with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the National Guard, the Naval Reserve, and 12 years on board the USS Carpenter and USS Wadsworth before retiring as a chief petty officer in 1992.
Charles Singewald, who provided some of the linens for the re-union, has been operating Norwalk Linen with his brother, Alan Singe-wald, for many years.
James Paterson, who left NHS for the Air Force before senior year, has been returning for reunions after a career as a commercial airlines pilot.
Rose Marie Cavallo Ray, also a widow, has written two published works -- "Super Women Do It Less" and "Broken Neck to Broken Records." The master cyclist and Florida representative in the Senior Olympics is 2009 champion in the 20 K bicycle race and ran a campaign that brought defibrillators to every swimming pool in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Robert Rosenblum, once a New London surgical ophthalmologist after studying at Washington University of St. Louis, is now a Manhattan financier with Wells Fargo Bank. He was photo editor of both the NHS newspaper and yearbook.
Daniel Santorella, was one of the top athletes in high school and was later active in local amateur leagues. He is to be honored Nov. 4 by the Norwalk Oldtimers Athletic Association for those achievements. He had a long career as a salesman for Pacific Plumbing on Westport Avenue. He was with his wife and classmate, Patricia Herman Santorella.
Patricia McEwen Kugeman, who has managed all U.S. consumer market research for InBev Inc., and was editor of the class book, remarked: "After reading these biographies, I'm in awe of what our classmates have accomplished and heartened by the many who are giving back to society through volunteer work."
The Hour 10/10/2009, Page A01
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Tackling sleep disorders Dentist says oral device can lead to a good night’s sleep
NORWALK
By TOM EVANS
Hour Staff Writer
Snoring is often used as a jumpingoff point for comedic conflicts in television and the movies, but sleep disorders associated with snoring are no laughing matter.
Dr. Donald Yanell, a Norwalk orthodontist, wants to help everyone get a good night’s sleep. He will bring his message to national television today when he appears on “American Health Front” New York Edition on WNYW, Fox 5 out of New York.
As one of the guest experts, Yanell expects to be on air for about two minutes during the broadcast from 7 to 7:30 p.m.
“’ American Health Front’ is the nation’s leading independent medical television news program, educating viewers and explaining important advances in medical technique and technology,” Yanell said. “It also introduces acknowledged specialists in their community.”
Yanell notes that 90 million people in the United States snore when they sleep, and of that number, 18 million have obstructive sleep apnea.
“Where I can help people is with snoring alone or with people who snore and have mild to moderate sleep apnea or with people who can’t tolerate the CPAP (mask),” Yanell said. “People go to a sleep center — there are centers from Greenwich to Yale- New Haven
see ORAL, A4
Hour photo / ERIK TRAUTMANN
Dr. Donald Yanell displays a oral device that helps with sleep disorders.
See ORAL on Page A04
Oral device could be key to a good night's sleep
From A1
Hospital - and doctors there can recommend an oral appliance for mild cases or the CPAP mask for more serious cases."
The CPAP mask is connected to a hose which carries air pumped by a fan. It uses air pressure to push the tongue forward, opening the throat to air and reducing snoring and sleep apnea.
"If a person's airway is closed for 10 to 15 seconds or more perhour, that's apnea," Yanell said. "An airway closed for 15 to 30 seconds per hour is moderate apnea, and over 30 seconds per hour is severe apnea."
Snoring is caused by a narrow airway, where rapidly moving air causes the soft tissues of the throat - tonsils, soft palate and uvula - to vibrate.
Large tonsils, a long soft palate or uvula, and being overweight (with excessive flabby tissue) all can contribute to snoring, Yanell said. The most common cause of a narrowed airway is a tongue that relaxes too much during sleep andgets sucked back into the airway with each breath.
" As our population has gotten heavier, there are more problems with snoring and apnea as weight has something to do with it," said the Norwalk High School graduate.
For mild to moderate cases of apnea or for folks who can't handle the fairly intrusive CPAP mask, Yanell has a dental appliance to help stop snoring.
"The typical path for one of my sleep disorder patients is the patient is not sleeping well, and the spouse is concerned," Yanell said."The patient is analyzed at the sleep center, and after reviewing the overnight data, the (CPAP) mask is suggested. If they can't handle the mask, then we go to an orthodontic device."
Those devices have evolved during the last century to the state-ofthe- art model Yanell now prescribes. Similar in look and feel to an athletic mouth guard, the appliance brings the lower jaw forward by holding the tongue forward and by lifting the drooping soft palate.
Yanell points out that these appliances are relatively small and weigh just a couple of ounces, the dental- appliancetreatment is reversible, and the procedure is non- invasive, meaning no surgery is involved.
"I work directly with medical doctors in the sleep centers," Yanell said. "People come from far away for my treatment, because it's not something every dentist can do."
Yanell said he does not have a favorite side to his practice at 83 East Ave, suite 202.
"I do what's right for the patient," Yanell said. "I get a lot of satisfaction from orthodontics and helping people with sleep disorders. I love what I do, and I do it well."
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