ALUMNI NEWS
UPDATE
#21 JANUARY – APRIL 2011
1985, 1986 AND 1987 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
TEAMS HONORED AT HALL OF FAME DINNER
Nothing can beat getting teams together 25 years
later. The state championship teams of
85, 86 and 87 really enjoyed themselves at the Hall of Fame Dinner where they
were honored. The dinner was the largest
ever with over 400 attending, over 70 of which were there for the swim teams or
swimming inductees. In all, 22 swimmers,
divers and coaches from those teams attended the dinner, many of whom were part
of all three teams. Another two joined the Saturday activities which included a
team meeting at the pool and an evening cocktail party hosted by Sandy and Kim
Lecza. Many brought spouses, guests, and
parents to some of the activities. They all
thought I was an old man when I coached them but 25 years ago I was in my early
40’s, the age they are now. We all
enjoyed seeing each other, getting caught up and hearing some of the old
stories. Those who attended the dinner
were Tom Abbenante, Chris Ariyan, Steve Ariyan, Craig Cassista, Paul Connolly,
John Demetre, Ed Dingus, Phil Fischer,
Eric Golia, Bob Grenon, Greg Hopkins, Geoff Hotz, Sandy Lecza, Bill
Leete, Vin Mascola, Jim Mason, Jeff O’Connor, Sean O’Connor and Tony Palluzzi
and coaches Sylvia Corley Brink, George Miles and John O’Connor.
Note: The next swim teams to be honored by the
Branford Sports Hall of Fame will be the 1988 and 1990 Girls State Championship
Teams in 2013. Save the date.
Unfortunately the Hall of Fame only honors state championship teams but
each team was special and worked just as hard.
Anyone who would like to start organizing a reunion for any team let me
know and I’ll be glad to help you out with the project. I enjoy the reunions more than anyone.
ADDITONAL CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESSES NEEDED
Recently I’ve gotten several new email addresses from
alumni who get them from their Facebook.
I don’t do Facebook but I know most of you do, so if all of you could
send me email addresses of alumni that you may have on Facebook, I’m sure we
could add many more to the 300 we presently have. Especially send ones that you don’t see an update
on since that probably means we don’t have their current email address. Send
additional email addresses to jroconnor@snet.net
ALUMNI MEET BIGGEST EVER
By my count some 48 alumni attended the Alumni meet on
December 23. Many brought spouses,
children and even some parents. The meet
was a lot of fun with the alumni once again the winners.
The get together hosted by Sue Lecza immediately after
the meet was also a huge success as 30 alumni showed up to share old stories
and reunite with former teammates. We
all owe a debt of gratitude to Sue for all she does for Branford swimming
(Stingrays, High School, Florida Trip, and Alumni Get Together)
COACHING CHANGE FOR BOYS TEAM
Scott Butler took over as head coach of the Girls’ Team
five years ago and then added the Boys’ head coaching position three years
ago. He has been successful at both but
found that time requirements away from his wife and four children was too much
and as a result resigned as boys’ coach.
We are happy to announce that Greg Milles – 06 has stepped up and is
doing a fantastic job as the new head coach.
Greg developed his coaching skills as an age group swimmer under his dad
George, then swam for Branford High School under Rich Thompson and then swam
for Tufts University. The past two years
he has helped coach the 9 and 10 year olds with the Stingrays and has been a
chaperone on the Florida trip. His
experience and enthusiasm make him well suited to take over the reigns as boys’
head coach. The boys have two home meets remaining on January 24th
(Cheshire) and February 14th (Fairfield Prep) both at 4 p.m.
UPDATE #21
11 Bill
Irwin - Bill is in his freshman year at the University of Michigan.
11 Billy
Conte – Dove at the alumni meet. Bill is a freshman at Texas A & M
where he is on the gymnastics team. We just learned that Bill was named to the
All-American swimming and diving team for 2011. He won the Class M championship
this past year.
11 Jerry
Gargano – Freshman at Bryant and swimming in college.
11 Kevin
Gell - Freshman at Northeastern and works summers as a lifeguard at the
Lawn Club and for the town of Branford.
10 Morgan
Charlow – Likes college but came home for the alumni meet to see her
brother swimming for the Branford Boys HS team.
10 Katrina
Perito – In her second year at Georgetown University. Katrina swam in the
alumni meet and practices with a club team in Georgetown.
10 Ally
Perrotti – In her second year at Rutgers where she has been doing well
academically and in swimming. Ally is
looking forward to the Big East Championships next month.
10 Jen
Zullo – Jen is also in her second year at Providence where she is swimming.
09 Allison
Rasile – In her junior year swimming at Central CT State University where
she has continued to improve each year.
09 Kevin
Ferreira – Junior at UConn and stays in shape by swimming on the club team.
08 Meghan
Fay – Is captain of the Women’s team at SCSU which this year has over 50
swimmers on the team. Looking to have another great finish to this season.
08 Carole
Lupi – Starting her last semester and last swim season at Bates in
Maine.
08 Owen
Rood – Completing his swimming career this season as captain of the Tufts
University Team. Owen is trying to break
a minute for the 100 breast so he can swim that event instead of the 200 free
at New Englands next month. Owen becomes
one of a small handful of Branford swimmers that got to make eight training
trips to Ft. Lauderdale. (four in high school and four in college). Owen has
been accepted in the Teach Across America program and will spend the two years
after graduation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
08 Eric
Sokolowski – Soko is also in his senior year at Bucknell where he continues
to swim amazing times. On the day of the
alumni meet he had just returned from a training trip in Florida.
08 Michael
Thompson – Senior at UConn majoring in resource economics.
Due to space limitations on this welcome page, see more than 85 new updates on all the pre-2008 alumni at the Alumni News Archive at the left.
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