Mario Caminiti
Without a doubt, Mario Caminiti has been a soccer player all of his life. He developed a passion for the game at an early age in his native town of Fiumara in Calabria, Italy. He arrived in the U.S. in 1962 and graduated from Rippowam High school in 1968.
During his time at Rippowam, Mario played soccer for three years and was selected to the ALL-FCIAC team. He continued his education and soccer career at Southern CT State College.
In his sophomore and junior years, he was selected to the ALL-New England and ALL- Stars College division teams. Those years his team qualified for the NCAA regional tournament.
Mario graduated in the spring of 1972 and received his masters at the University of Florence in May 1973.
Mario returned to Stamford and started his professional teaching and coaching career at Stamford High School.
Outside of his high school coaching responsibilities, Caminiti has participated in a variety of summer camps related to soccer and sports. In 1985-1986, Mario was appointed head coach of the varsity team.
During his coaching career, his teams have qualified numerous times for the CIAC playoffs and in 1997, the team reached the ultimate goal, by sharing the FCIAC ‘s title with New Canaan. In 2012 Mario was named the Outstanding Coach of the Year from CHSCA.
Although Mario retired from teaching in 2013 after 40 years as a World Language teacher, many of them as the Dept. Head, Mario continues his tenure as head coach for the boys’ soccer program and serves as the FCIAC Chairperson. He is also a member of the board of the CT Soccer Coaches Association.
Mario continues to coach because he has not lost his passion for the game that he loves so much. Soccer has introduced him to some of his closest friends and taught him many life lessons.
Jim Gerweck
Over the past four decades, there is probably no aspect of FCIAC running sports that Jim Gerweck has not been involved in.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976, he made brief coaching stops at New Canaan, Ridgefield, and Rippowam before settling down at Wilton High School.
With some short breaks for full time work as editor of Running Times magazine, Gerweck has coached the Warriors in cross country and indoor and outdoor track ever since. But his real achievements are in what he has brought to those three sports across the FCIAC.
In cross country, he has directed the league championships for more than 40 years, modernizing and streamlining the entry and scoring process, as well as designing and measuring the championship courses and instituted a system of posting complete results of meets for all teams and competition levels.
In track, he was instrumental in making fully automatic photo timing de rigueur at the indoor meets, and moved results posting and meet entries from hand written paper to an online platform that gives every athlete a record of their performance and provides a centralized, accessible database of every league participant.
As a USATF-certified National Level official, he has worked virtually every job at a track meet over the years, and most recently served as co-director of the coed outdoor championships held at Southern Connecticut State University.
While he has coached dozens of league and state championships in his career at Wilton, he cites his greatest accomplishment there as meeting his wife of 27 years, Karen, who was the athletic trainer there when they met.
He looks forward to many years of continuing to improve the level of running sports in the FCIAC and enabling it to maintain its preeminent position in the state.
Ed Huydic
Known for his passion, fervor, and knowledge, Ed Huydic has carved a niche for himself as one of the FCIAC’s legendary coaches.
Between Staples girls’ softball and girls’ basketball, Ed coached 54 seasons and amassed some 748 wins. Combined, he led the Wreckers to 12 Division titles, 9 FCIAC Championship games and 2 LL Championship games.
However, it was for his basketball success that Ed is best remembered. His 4 FCIAC titles and 453 wins have him atop the all-time list; his run of 28 consecutive trips to the CIAC tournament is the second longest in State history; and his 1995 run to the State Championship earned him the nickname, “The Legend.” During that run the Wreckers broke Central’s 49 game winning streak and delivered NFA’s only loss in a 3-year period.
Amongst other awards, Ed was chosen as a CHSCA All-Star coach 9 times, the Connecticut Post’s Coach of the Year in 1990 and in 2004, he received the State’s “Outstanding Coach” award.
Following his retirement in 2014, Ed’s career has continued as an Associate Coach at Fairfield Warde.
Away from sports, Ed is a passionate advocate for Endangered Wildlife and in March 2018 he was a delegate to the UN Conference for World Wildlife Day.
Sheila Moffett
Since graduating from Southern Connecticut in 1975, Sheila’s career has involved athletics in one way or another.
Her first job was as a P.E. teacher and was given the task of starting the cross country and track program at Holy Cross High School from 1976-1980.
After a break to be a mom, she returned to coaching track at Norwalk High School and, eventually, teaching health there also. She joined her husband, who was the boys’ track coach, and they were lucky enough to also coach their son Patrick in indoor track.
After retiring from coaching track, she was the girls’ athletic director for a few years and then became the athletic assistant which she still does even though retired as a teacher. She was asked to serve on the FCIAC Board of Directors in 2010 and served as Parliamentarian from 2012-2014.
She remained on the Executive Board and Board of Directors as she took on the various computer duties behind the scenes such as scheduling for CIAC, All FCIAC team records, coaches’ directory and anything else that needs to be done.
Being involved in sports has been a big part of her entire life and she enjoys helping in any way to make that experience available for today’s athletes.
Rick Shook
After completing a tremendously successful college wrestling career at Central Connecticut State University, Rick became Danbury High School’s Assistant Varsity Coach in 1988.
After 11 years in that capacity, Rick assumed the position of Head Coach for the 1999-2000 season and he has continued to guide the Danbury team in its winning ways. Through the 2016-2017 season, the Danbury program has a 339-20 win/loss record during his tenure as Head Coach along with guiding Danbury to 17 of 18 FCIAC Championships, numerous State LL and State Open team titles and a New England championship in 2017.
Rick wrestled for Danbury High School and his 58-5 high school win/loss record speaks for itself. Rick was a 2X FCIAC Champion and a State LL Champion in his senior year.
In his final year at Central Connecticut State University, Rick was team captain and MVW, posting a 17-10 record en route to a third-place finish at 118 pounds in the Division I Eastern Regionals. He also finished third in the Division II Eastern Regionals during his junior year.
Rick graduated from Central in 1987, with a B.S. in Management. Rick’s coaching honors are extensive.
Some of the major highlights are 5-time FCIAC COY, 9-time CIAC Class LL COY; National Wrestling Coaches Association Connecticut COY 2008 and national finalist 2009, National Wrestling HOF Connecticut Chapter Inductee 2013, CHSCA HOF Inductee 2016 and New England Wrestling HOF Inductee 2017.
Betsy Underhill
With the encouragement or a friend, Betsy applied for the head girls’ tennis job in 1997. She had previously run several leagues in both tennis and paddle tennis but had no prior coaching experience. Garland Allen, the then AD at GHS, must have seen something in her because he did hire her.
That spring, her first team won States. In 1998, her team won FCIAC’s, and by her third year, Greenwich H.S. tennis won both. Her career was off and running. Her teams won 6 state championships and 6 FCIAC championships.
From 2007-2009, they had an 85-match winning streak and her current won-loss record is 362-71. She was named Coach of the Year three different years.
Her 2003 team won a sportsmanship award which was one of her proudest moments. She was an advocate for sportsmanship and had written a published article “A Plea for Sportsmanship.”
2018 will complete her 22nd year coaching. She feels that “..the rewards of coaching don’t come with the wins or losses. It comes from the life lessons we all learn along the way. I am a better person having coached high school tennis. It is a gift I never take for granted.”