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February 2012 |
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Committee
 President: Frank Beneski Vice-Chairman: John Bertolini Secretary: Sheila Beneski Treasurer: David Padegimas Members: Kathy Bielonko Mike Bosworth Cookie Bromage Hillary Cahn Lou Casinghino Bob Cecchini Art Christian Tim Geary Kevin Goff Dennis Kinne Larry Krogh John Kulas Barbara Novak Bruce Remington Joe Sinicrope Danny SullivanLinks Section
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 Class of 2008

TED BENESKI
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Ted was a three-sport athlete at Suffield High School earning 8
varsity letters in his career --- 3 in baseball, 3 in soccer, and 2 in
basketball. In his eight varsity seasons, Ted was NCCC all conference 4
times --- once in soccer, once in basketball, and twice in baseball. In
addition, he was named to the Journal Inquirer First Team, All-Area
baseball team, one of nine Northern Connecticut athletes selected from
all school class sizes. Further, his coaches and peers named him captain
or co-captain in all three sports his senior year. None of the eight
teams Ted played on ever had a losing season. While achieving
athletically, Ted also graduated in the top 2% of his class, was
President of Student Government, and received numerous academic awards
including a special award in 1974 (created that year) from the Suffield
Education Association “to recognize superlative academic and
extra-curricular accomplishment and potential for future success.” Ted
also was a recipient of the Meade Alcorn Outstanding Athlete award. |
| In soccer, he was a versatile player who played forward,
midfielder, and defender. Ted helped lead his team to the Class B
tournament in his first two varsity years and as a senior was named an
NCCC all-star, with 4 goals and 10 assists, participating in two-thirds
of his team’s goals. He went on to become a 3-year starter and captain
of his Amherst College soccer team anchoring the defense on a team that
compiled an overall record of 20-12-4 over his career. Amherst played
national powers Connecticut and Brown as well as traditional rivals such
as Williams and Wesleyan. As a senior he received the “Friends of
Amherst Athletics” award for contributing the most to the soccer program
In basketball, Ted was the leading scorer and an NCCC all-star his
junior year averaging 13 points per game. His high game was 25 against
Fermi High of Enfield. He was among the top 10 scorers in the conference
for the season, and was often in the top 5. He led his team to a berth
in the Class B state tournament. As a senior, Ted was called upon to
shift from shooting guard to forward to bolster the team’s rebounding.
The result was an NCCC tournament championship and a much improved
overall record of 13-6. Ted went on to play one season of basketball in
college for Stirling University in Scotland during his semester abroad.
He averaged 25 points a game with a high game of 41 against Glasgow.
Clearly Ted’s best sport at SHS was baseball and he is regarded as
one of the best baseball players ever to play for Suffield High. He was
the ace of the pitching staff for 3 years compiling records of 6-2, 9-2,
and 8-1 for an overall career mark of 23-5. His career earned run
average was under 2.0 and his strikeout to walk ratio was more than 3 to
1. He led his Suffield team to the Class B state “final four” in both
his junior and senior years, with completely different teams. In his
junior season, going into the state tournament, Ted had given up only 1
earned run all season…and, after competing against the best in the
state, including the #1 ranked team, his overall ERA was 1.11 with 66
strikeouts in 73 innings pitched. In his senior year, he finished at 8-1
with his only loss coming from a 2 run error with 2 outs in the last
inning. As in the prior year, he pitched and batted the Wildcats to the
state tournament semifinals with wins over Weston and Guilford. Suffield
then had to face the #1 ranked team, Ansonia, but Ted could not pitch on
2 days rest. Suffield lost in the semi-finals for the second consecutive
year. It should be noted that all of Ted’s, and the team’s,
accomplishments occurred without ever playing a home game…Suffield High
did not have a playable field during this entire period!
Ted graduated from Amherst in 1978, received an MBA degree from
Harvard and, most recently, founded his own private equity firm, Insight
Equity. He and his wife, Laurie, live in Colleyville, Texas with their
children Kristin, Jeff, and David.
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| Lauren Naida was an outstanding athlete at Suffield High
School where over her four-year high school career she earned nine
varsity letters. She was the starting point guard on the basketball team
for two years, a team that earned a state tournament bid in 1999 with a
14-9 record. In the spring, Lauren played on the tennis team earning
three varsity letters and was named NCCC All-Conference for two of those
three years. |
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It was in soccer, however, where Lauren really made her mark. In her
first two varsity games as a freshman, she scored an amazing ten goals.
Coach Mimi Park’s team went on to win 15 games that year, losing but
one, and tying three as they made their way to the Class S State
Semi-Finals before losing for the first time. Lauren finished her first
year with 35 goals and 17 assists to lead the team in both categories.
Her reputation now established, Lauren was a marked person throughout
the rest of her career but her goal totals remained high, scoring 20 as
a sophomore and 24 as a junior. As a sophomore, she teamed up with
another prolific scorer, Sena Maziarz, and the two led Suffield to a 15
and 1 regular season record. Suffield won the NCCC Conference
Championship but lost in the state quarterfinals. In her junior year,
Lauren was joined by her freshman sister, Tracy, and Suffield once again
ended the regular season with only one loss. This time they were upset
in the opening round tournament game when they tied Coventry in
regulation time but lost on penalty kicks. In all three years, Lauren
was named to the All-NCCC Team, the All-State Team, and as a junior,
added All-New England honors to her accolades. As Lauren prospered, so
too did SHS girls soccer and the team won one NCCC title outright, tied
for a second one, and was runner-up for a third. They also made three
trips to the state tournament during this time. |
| In the summer of 1998, Lauren was selected to
participate in the Elite Addidas Invitational Soccer Program featuring
the top 100 girls soccer players in the country. To everyone’s dismay,
she tore her ACL at the camp and was forced to sit out her entire senior
season. Undaunted, she spent the campaign on the sidelines with Coach
David Sullivan and the team helping in any way she could. The team went
on to win the Class S State Championship!
Lauren finished her high school career with 79 goals, which at the
time was the school record. She is currently ranked second all time in
career goals. Following graduation, took her abundant talents to the
University of Connecticut. She was an impact player there for four
years, scoring a number of key goals, and helped lead the Huskies to
their first ever Big East crown. As in high school, Lauren again
suffered a torn ACL just before her senior season, but this time was
able to play most of the year.
Lauren, too, had a long and successful career playing for Oakwood in
the Connecticut Premier League where she was the team captain and led
the team to two successive state titles. She also participated on the
Olympic Development Team, playing on the state team for six years and
the Region I team for two.
A personnel professional, Lauren now makes her home in Florida.
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1978-79 SUFFIELD HIGH SCHOOL BOYS ICE HOCKEY TEAM (1st Row) Karl Kirschbaum,
Peter Campanelli, Henry Gardocki, Wright Pearson, Chris Coppolo, David Hill,
Shaun Fleming, Mark Sullivan, Marty Demers, Bob Parnell. (2nd Row) Manager Kim
Carney, Manager Robin Hinckley, David Mann, Ben Dion, John Bertolini, Don Lownds,
Bob Bauchiero, Gary Raynes, Chris Demers, Chris Noe, Danny Hinckley, Coach Larry
Green. (3rd Row) Donny Heyse, Shawn Gifford, Jimmy Rossi, Gary Kuchachik, Billy
Heyse, Peter Gardocki, Steve Pelletier, Roger Lenentine, Mike Cain.
| When it came to schoolboy hockey in Connecticut in 1978, there were
several high school programs that were well funded, had a history of
successful seasons, and some even had a rink on their high school
campus. Suffield High was not one of these teams. Still in their “hockey
infancy,” the program was beginning its fifth year at the varsity level
and received no funding from any outside source. Players had to pay
their own way to play and relied on fundraisers to help defray the cost
of uniforms, travel, and ice time. With a student body of only 500
students, and high school ice hockey being somewhat of a rarity in
Northern Connecticut, they played as an independent team (no league
affiliation) and were forced to play against significantly larger
schools from all over the state.
Nonetheless, the team had a burgeoning youth hockey system that
helped develop talent for the high school team and, in the winter of
1978-79, Suffield High was coming off a superb 19-3 season. They had
advanced to the state tournament semi-finals where they lost to Notre
Dame of West Haven. Although 6 Letterman had graduated, they had a sound
nucleus of players returning and SHS was optimistic about the coming
season. Coach Larry Green had decided to upgrade the schedule with the
understanding that the team may win fewer games but, hopefully, end up
better prepared for the March Division II tournament run.
The team started the season with two narrow losses to Division I
teams, Fermi and Simsbury. They then reeled off four successive
victories before settling for a tie with rival Enfield High. Two more
wins prefaced a three-game span with Division I powerhouses Fairfield
Prep and Hamden plus a rematch with Fermi. They lost the first two of
these games but avenged their early season loss to Fermi. Three more
victories followed before losing a second time to Simsbury. They closed
the season with three more triumphs (including wins over Enfield and
Notre Dame of West Haven), finishing with a regular season mark of
13-5-1. All five losses were to Division 1 schools.
They entered the Division II Tournament ranked 3rd, good enough to
earn a first round bye. In their second round game against North
Branford, they won fairly decisively by a 5-1 score. In the semi-finals,
they faced the Norwalk Bears, a school with a population four times that
of Suffield, and walloped the downstate team, 10-1. In the finals, they
soundly beat Westhill of Stamford, a school with three times Suffield's
population, by a 7-3 score to capture the Division II State
Championship. Coach Green’s strategy had worked like a charm.
Suffield was led in scoring by the line of Wright Pearson, Henry
Gardocki, and brother Peter Gardocki. Wright capped his brilliant
scoring career by notching his 100th goal in a game against South
Windsor earlier in the year (he finished with 113 goals). Not far behind
in scoring, was the “young guns” sophomore line of Danny Hinckley
centering Chris Demers, and Gary Kuchachik. The third line of Mark
Sullivan, Shaun Fleming, and Chris Noe drew the tough assignments of
penalty-killing and keeping the opposing team’s highest scoring line in
check. The primary defensive pairs were Marty Demers and Steve Pelletier
as well as Chris Coppolo and freshman John Bertolini. David Hill tended
the nets for the Wildcats. Pearson was selected the tournament MVP and
joined Marty Demers and Hill on the 1st Team All-Tournament squad. Chris
Coppolo and Danny Hinckley were 2nd Team selections. Wright Pearson and
Marty Demers were also named 1st Team All-State.
Overcoming the odds of a team with no funding, a program only 5 years
old, a team from a school of only 500 students, and a team going up
against some of the largest schools in the state, the 1978-79 Team
shocked the ice hockey world by winning the State Division II Ice Hockey
Championship for the first time in Suffield High School history.
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Patrick Dougherty first taught at McAlister Middle School and then
Suffield High School, starting in 1968. He taught Math and History at
McAlister and Social Studies at SHS. He retired from teaching in 1999.
He also retired from the U.S. Army Reserves at that time.
Coach Dougherty started Suffield High School’s girls cross country,
track, and indoor track programs around 1970 with Becky Gibson-Laemel as
an assistant. They began as club programs at McAlister and soon evolved
into high school varsity teams. Due to his early prominence as a coach,
the cross country high school State Open was held in Suffield in the
early 1970’s. It is now held annually at Wickham Park in Manchester.
Those familiar with the Title IX legislation of 1972 and the dramatic
changes and opportunities that it brought to women’s athletics, can
appreciate the challenges in funding and respect that female athletes,
girls teams, and Patrick faced prior to Title IX and for many years
following its passage. Attitudes towards female athletes did not change
overnight, but Coach Dougherty always treated his team members as the
disciplined, smart, and tough athletes they were. He was a tireless
advocate for their equal treatment. |
| Pat has coached Suffield girls cross country running for
almost 35 years and he also coached the boys team for a period of time.
He was honored as the Connecticut Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year
in 1981. A highlight in Pat’s coaching career occurred in 2001, when his
SHS girls team earned 6th place at the Connecticut State Open (in which
all teams from smallest to largest classes run). That high placement in
the Open earned Suffield a spot on the New England Championship, the
first time a team from Suffield (or for that matter, the NCCC
Conference) ever earned a trip to a New England level event! The team
placed 11th in the elite competition.
In the early 1980s Coaches Dougherty and Gibson-Laemel mapped out a
new cross country course using the ideal environment of Bruce Park.
Other NCCC schools followed their lead and cross country changed from a
“road race” to the safer, off-road, truly “cross country” courses that
we have today. For over 30 years, Coach Dougherty has retained a female
assistant coach (usually one of his former runners) to be sure the girls
have a female to talk to.
Patrick’s former athletes include Melanie Schorr, who was an
outstanding runner at Dartmouth College where she was an All-American in
Division I cross country and Kristina Miner who continues a premier
running career at Trinity College in Hartford.
Pat decided that the 2002 season would be his last and “retired”.
Current and former team members, from the class of 1976 through the
class of 2006, attended his retirement party. While working as an
official at state track meets in the spring of 2004, young SHS runners
that he had never coached in cross country, but who had heard about how
wonderful a coach he was, literally begged him to return from retirement
when the position had opened up again. They wore him down, and he
returned as the girls cross country coach for the 2004 season. He
continues to this day to coach girls cross country, and he assists Joe
Sinicrope with the track and field team as distance running coach.
In November 2005, Patrick was honored with the dedication of the
“Kathleen Dougherty Memorial Bridge” and the “Patrick Dougherty Cross
Country Trail” at Bruce Park in Suffield in recognition of his
contributions to Suffield High School running programs and the heartfelt
loss of his only daughter, whose memorial donations funded the
construction of the little bridge in the late 1990s. Colleagues,
parents, administrators and town officials joined current and former
team members to celebrate the dedication.
Three decades of runners have been coached by Pat, who is dedicated
to instilling the value and rewards of the hard (and sometimes solitary)
work of distance running. His runners are taught the tough lessons of
endurance, discipline, competitive challenge, and teamwork. Pat and his
wife make their home in Manchester.
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Hillary Rockwell Cahn graduated from Suffield Academy in 1988. She
was raised in Suffield, attending Bridge Street School, Spaulding and
McAlister Schools before enrolling at Suffield Academy. Hillary began
her alpine racing career at the age of six, competing for the Ski
Sundown Racing Team. In each of the years she was eligible, she
represented the State of Connecticut in the New England Buddy Werner Ski
Championships. When she reached the age of twelve she competed in the
Tri-State Region (CT, MA and RI) of the United State Ski Association. In
each year she was eligible, Hillary was selected to compete in the
Junior Olympics skiing in both the slalom and giant slalom events. As a
twelve year old, she was awarded the Chairman’s Trophy as the top Junior
three skier in the region. She was a Junior Olympic participant from the
age of twelve and skied against this high level competition for six
years. During this time she was selected to represent the United States
in an international race against Canadian skiers. Hillary continued to
compete through high school at the highest level of Eastern Alpine
racing, as a representative of the Tri-State Alpine Racing Association
in the Eastern Cup Series. |
| As a member of the Suffield Academy Ski Team, Hillary
was often the only female skier competing in the Berkshire Ski League.
She earned the distinction of being the only female in the league to
beat all of her male counterparts. In each of her four years at Suffield
Academy, she was selected to the All-New England Prep School ski team.
She was elected captain of her team in her senior year. Throughout her
high school years, she trained (during the summer) with several United
States Ski Team coaches. Hillary went on to ski for the University of
New Hampshire. As a member of UNH’s nationally ranked team, she
represented the school on their top competitive team.
Upon graduation, Hillary coached in Breckenridge, Colorado for one
year before accepting a position as a coach at the Holderness School in
New Hampshire. She coached at the school for three years and some of her
skiers participated in USSA events. Following her stint at Holderness,
she returned to Suffield Academy to take over the Alpine Ski program.
Since returning to Suffield, Hillary has coached numerous All-New
England skiers, at the same time establishing Suffield Academy as one of
the top independent school programs in Southern New England. They have
been Berkshire Ski League champions the past two years.
Hillary’s athletic career also included stellar years as a soccer and
lacrosse player at the Academy. She captained both teams in her senior
year and played on several undefeated teams in both sports. At
graduation, Hillary was awarded the Butler Cup as the Outstanding Female
Athlete at the Academy.
In addition to coaching the ski team, she also coached the Girls
Lacrosse Team for a time. No longer the lacrosse coach, Hillary is on
the faculty of the Academy and remains the Head Coach of the Alpine Ski
Team.
She and her husband, Academy Headmaster Charlie Cahn, live at the
school with their two children, Peyton and Harrison.
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