It was the winter of ’63.
Yes, last century, the winter of 1963 to be exact.
Going into this season, that winter of ’63 was also the last time the Staples High School boys’ basketball team was crowned the FCIAC champion.
And then it would be 62 years later that these 2024-25 Staples Wreckers would win that coveted second FCIAC championship in school history.
The FCIAC was still in its infancy as a league when those 1962-63 Staples Wreckers won the second FCIAC boys basketball championship one year after Danbury was the first conference champion.
For these 2024-25 Staples Wreckers who made the big breakthrough toward grabbing that long-awaited second title, it was significantly sweet because several of these players and their head coach Dave Goldshore had advanced to the previous two FCIAC tournament finals. Staples lost to Trumbull last year and to Danbury in 2023.
But this year, the winter of 2025, was their year.
Adam Udell, the game’s MVP, had a dozen of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter to lead the second-seeded Wreckers to a 68-58 victory over top-seeded Ridgefield in the 2025 FCIAC Boys Basketball Tournament final at Fairfield University’s Leo Mahoney Arena on Feb. 26.
The three victories in the FCIAC tourney were especially impressive because the Wreckers overcame the tough break of having lost their superb sharp-shooting junior guard Sam Clachko for their last 11 games of the season after he fractured his wrist in a 63-56 loss at St. Bernard on Feb. 1.
Clachko, who heated up with 40 points to lead the Wreckers to last year’s FCIAC championship game with their 73-57 semifinal victory over Ridgefield, has been so good the last two years that he was selected to this year’s All-FCIAC Boys Basketball First Team for the second straight year.
Matt Corrigan scored 19 points and Mason Tobias contributed 11 points for Staples in this year’s FCIAC final.
Alex Hickey led Ridgefield with 17 points while Joseph Humphrey and Jack Winstanley had 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Tigers.
Coach Drew McClellan’s Ridgefield Tigers won the FCIAC West Division championship and secured the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC tournament with their 14-1 conference record.
Ridgefield was followed in the overall FCIAC standings by East Division champion Staples (13-2), Fairfield Ludlowe (12-3), Greenwich (10-5), Fairfield Warde (10-5), New Canaan (9-6), Wilton (8-7), and Stamford (7-8).
In the quarterfinals of the FCIAC tournament: Ridgefield defeated eighth-seeded Stamford, 66-56; Staples beat No. 7 Wilton, 76-54; No. 3 Fairfield Ludlowe advanced to the semifinals with a 61-50 overtime victory over No. 6 New Canaan; and No. 5 Fairfield Warde nipped No. 4 Greenwich, 51-50.
Staples advanced to the championship game with a 56-46 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe and Ridgefield defeated Fairfield Warde, 67-57, in the semifinals.
The big breakthrough for that long-awaited second conference championship for Staples was the main highlight in what was a solid, competitive FCIAC boys’ basketball season.
Thirteen of the conference’s 16 teams played in four of the five divisional state tournaments.
Staples was the only one of the four FCIAC teams to win a game in the 2025 CIAC Division I Boys Basketball Tournament.
The fourth-seeded Wreckers advanced to the quarterfinals with an 80-71 victory over Kolbe Cathedral and then finished their season with a 21-5 record after their 67-56 loss to No. 5 St. Bernard, which ended up losing to No. 2 Notre Dame-West Haven, 68-55, in the championship game.
Trumbull and Brien McMahon were the FCIAC teams who made the deepest runs as they both utilized a pair of victories over higher-seeded teams to advance to the semifinals of their respective state tournaments.
Trumbull was seeded 20th in the Division II state tournament and the Eagles advanced with a 70-67 victory over No. 4 Hillhouse and a 64-61 quarterfinal victory over No. 12 East Hartford before their 64-45 loss to top-seeded and eventual champion Manchester.
Brien McMahon’s 19th-seeded Senators won three games in the Division III tournament before their 60-48 semifinal loss to No. 7 Fitch. The Senators opened with a 74-59 victory over No. 14 Cheshire, then stunned No. 3 Killingly with a 77-62 victory, and advanced to the semifinals with a 64-60 victory over No. 27 St. Joseph.
That FCIAC championship won by Staples was also instrumental regarding the conference being represented in the Final 2025 GametimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll. The 21-5 Wreckers were among the 11 teams in that final state poll as they finished tied for the 10th and final ranking with Windsor (17-8).
Notre Dame-West Haven was the unanimous choice for No. 1 with all 17 first-place votes. Coach Jason Shea’s Green Knights finished the season with a 25-2 record and a 17-game winning streak after their 68-55 victory over St. Bernard in the CIAC Division I Boys Basketball Tournament championship game.
The other eight teams ranked 2-through-9 were St. Bernard (22-4), Division II state champion Manchester (24-2), No. 4 Notre Dame Prep (22-4), Division II runner-up New London (23-5), East Catholic (20-9), No. 7 Northwest Catholic (23-3), Division III state champion Bunnell (23-4), and No. 9 Ellington, which finished with a perfect 27-0 season after its 55-39 victory over Sheehan in the Division IV state championship game.
There were 24 players who earned All-FCIAC recognition while Goldshore of Staples and Ridgefield’s McClellan were both selected as the FCIAC Coach of the Year.
Trumbull’s junior co-captain Sean Wilson was selected the FCIAC Player of the Year to lead the group of seven players voted onto the 2025 All-FCIAC Boys Basketball First Team.
Wilson, a 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 22 points, eight rebounds and 2.5 assists this year, was the only FCIAC player among the 12 players on the 2024-25 GameTimeCT All-State Boys Basketball First Team. Wilson also made the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Division II All-State Team.
Sam Clachko of Staples and St. Joseph’s T.J. Wright were the two players who made the All-FCIAC First Team for the second consecutive year. The four other all-conferece first-team selections this year were Jack Cramer of Fairfield Warde, Ryan Torello of Fairfield Ludlowe, Matt Maloney of Greenwich, and Pete Szpakowski of Ridgefield.
Clachko, a 6-foot junior guard who averaged 21.1 points per game when his season was ended with his injury on Feb. 1, was also selected to the CHSCA Division I All-State Team and GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
St. Joseph’s Wright earned all-conference kudos for the third consecutive year. This year he was on the All-FCIAC First Team for the second straight year after having made the 2023 All-FCIAC Second Team and Wright was also on this season’s CHSCA Division III All-State Team.
Cramer, Fairfield Warde’s 6-foot-5 senior forward/center, elevated to All-FCIAC First Team this year after being on the All-FCIAC Second Team last year. This year Cramer was also picked to the CHSCA Division II All-State Team and GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
The seven players selected to the 2025 All-FCIAC Boys Basketball Second Team were Adam Udell of Staples, Alex Hickey of Ridgefield, Ryan Luchetta of Wilton, Ryan Connors of Stamford, Jermel Bynum of Brien McMahon, Sandro Scott of Greenwich, and Will Sapione of Darien.
Udell of Staples and Ridgefield’s Hickey, a pair of 5-foot-11 senior guards, both were selected to the FCIAC All Defensive Team and the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Jermel Bynum of Brien McMahon, Sai Akavaramu of New Canaan, and Fairfield Ludlowe’s Charlie Jones were the three other players who joined Udell and Hickey on the FCIAC All Defensive Team.
The seven players selected to the 2025 All-FCIAC Boys Basketball Third Team were Aidan Shea and Ryan Moore of Fairfield Warde, Henry Chandra of New Canaan, Charlie Mahoney of Fairfield Ludlowe, Jordan Sutton of Stamford, Aneaje Kearney of Bridgeport Central, and Mason Tobias of Staples.