When the Norwalk High School field hockey team has its opening game on Sept. 4 at Stamford High School, coach Kyle Seaburg will officially begin his 31st season as Norwalk’s head coach.
When the Bears have their first home game hosting New Canaan at Nathan Hale Middle School on the Thursday evening of Sept. 12, their beloved and well-respected veteran coach will be a fresh Hall of Fame inductee.
Seaburg and seven other individuals will be officially inducted into the 24th annual Connecticut Field Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Sept. 8 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington at 3 p.m.
The eight Class of 2024 inductees will be inducted into one of the five different categories this year which include High School Player, College Player, High School Coach, Umpire, and Honorary.
Seaburg will be the sole Class of 2024 inductee in the High School Coach category.
“I’m very humbled, which I guess is the right word,” Seaburg said.
“When Jenna Tucio, the coach at Stonington (and a CFHCA Hall of Fame committee member), called me and let me know, I was speechless, which is hard to believe for me,” Seaburg added with a quick laugh. “With this coming from people I respect a lot, it means a whole heck of a lot. I am very honored and very humbled.”
“I am very inspired with the passion and commitment Kyle shows not only to his own field hockey program at Norwalk, but his league in Fairfield County as well as the state,” said coach Terri Ziemnicki, a Hall of Fame committee member who is now beginning her 40th season as a field hockey coach at Avon High School. “He is very unselfish and modest, which makes him respected by so many in the state.”
Ziemnicki was a junior varsity coach during her first four years, she is in her 36th year as Avon’s head coach and she’ll be trying to guide her Falcons toward qualifying for the state tournament for the 36th consecutive season.
Ziemnicki was the bellwether who spearheaded the founding of the Connecticut Field Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame which had its first induction celebration ceremony in 2000. So, if there is anyone with expertise regarding who may be appropriately worthy of Hall of Fame induction, it is certainly Ziemnicki.
“Kyle is a great coach, always produces talented teams and displays genuine true sportsmanship” said Ziemnicki, who is also currently the second vice president of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. “He does a lot for the sport of field hockey in the state and is most deserving of this incredible honor!”
It is especially gratifying for Seaburg because although he’ll officially be the Hall of Fame inductee, he adamantly believes it is an award which he proudly gets to share with the hundreds of players who played for him.
“I know it’s kind of a cliché comment, but this is not really just for me, this is also an honor for all the players I’ve coached for the last 31 years,” Seaburg said. “That part of it makes it real special.
“Kati Cavanagh played for me and is now coaching with me. She’ll be introducing me,” Seaburg continued. “Without my players, I’m just a coach still standing on a sideline. They’re out there on the field and they’re the ones who are playing. This is their honor too.”
This upcoming season is Seaburg’s 32nd overall year of coaching and 31st as head coach. He was Norwalk’s junior varsity coach that first year in the 1993 season and then was the head varsity coach the next year during a period of three swift transitions. He became Norwalk’s fourth head varsity coach in four years since Donna Vavrinec coached her final season three years prior to Seaburg’s first year in the fall of 1994.
Some of Seaburg’s current players are daughters of mothers who have played for him at Norwalk High, and that has occurred plenty of times before this season.
Seaburg has an overall career record of 240-173-58-10 at NHS, including the 58 ties and 10 overtime losses at the back end of his record.
Seaburg took over and laid the foundation for a program that has been consistently successful in a very tough conference led by teams such as Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Staples, and Wilton perennially being among the best teams in the state for the past several decades.
Seaburg’s Bears have qualified for the FCIAC Field Hockey Tournament 13 times, advanced to the semifinals four times, and they’ve qualified for the state tournament in 28 of his 30 previous seasons.
Annually playing in the strongest conference in the state and being battle tested during the regular season, Norwalk has often advanced deep into the state tournament and plenty of those state tourney victories have occurred at the expense of non-conference teams which were seeded significantly higher than Seaburg’s Bears.
The CHSCA named Seaburg the Coach of the Year in 2012, he’s been the Class L Coach of the Year twice, and the FCIAC selected him as the Coach of the Year in 2011 and the Coach of Excellence in 2017.
Seaburg will become the 23rd person inducted into the CFHCA Hall of Fame’s High School Coach category since the initial Class of 2000 inductees. Seaburg certainly joins some esteemed company of former FCIAC coaches in this Hall of Fame in joining legendary conference coaches such as Pat Small (Roger Ludlowe/Fairfield High School, CFHCA Hall of Fame Class of 2001), Ginny Parker (Staples, Class of 2003), Sue Schwerdtle (New Canaan, Class of 2012), Mo Minicus (Darien, Class of 2014), and Deirdre Hynes (Wilton, Class of 2021).
Vavrinec was a Class of 2016 inductee in the Umpire category.
The seven other Hall of Famers in this Class of 2024 include Nancy Shepard Gatta (Old Saybrook), Leah A. Helm (Haddam-Killingworth) and Caroline Schaefer (Avon) in the High School Player caterory; Kristen Kilburn (North Branford, Mount Holyoke College) and Courtney Watts Russo (Cheshire, University of Rhode Island) in the College Player category; Deb Stolle (Wallingford) in the Umpire category; and Dawn O’Neil (Willingtown, former Somers coach) in the Honorary category.
Dinner is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Sept. 8 for the 24th annual Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame induction celebration at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington. Tickets are $65 and may be reserved no later than Aug. 29 by contacting Terri Ziemnicki at the phone number of (860) 212-2299 or email address of [email protected].