By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
Two coaches who will finish the spring with a combined 65 years of experience and over 800 career wins will end their careers at Daniel Hand High School in June.
Bob Schultz, the only person ever to coach boys’ golf at Hand and Ray Ezell, the softball coach for 20 years, have both indicated this is the final season.
“We’re losing some icons in our athletic program,” Hand athletic director Craig Semple said.
Schultz began the golf program 45 years ago. His 1964 team, the Tigers’ first, was captained by Dick Bierkan, now the head pro at Lyman Orchards Golf Club. Schultz estimated 20-25 of his former players have gone on to careers in golf, either as pros or working in the industry.
Perhaps his best player ever was Bret Stegmeier, who went on to play professionally, and even made a start a couple of years ago in the Travelers Championship.
“After 45 years, it was time to let the younger guys take over,” said Schultz, who envisions a scene in which either of his two assistants, Matt Link or Jim Holleran (who also resigned recently as Hand’s girls’ basketball coach) takes over.
“I like them both; they’re both qualified,” Schultz said.
Going into this season, where Hand is 3-0, the Tigers had a 518-96-7 record under Schultz. From 1975 to 1983, Hand suffered no losses in the Shoreline Conference and, as a member of the Southern Connecticut Conference, won divisional titles from 1996 to 2006.
He was the Connecticut High School Coaches Association coach of the year in 2002-2003 and was a finalist for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association coach of the year in 2005.
“I don’t even know where to begin in talking about him,” Semple said. “He’s a person who will be tremendously missed. The kids love him and he has an easy-going approach and manner about him. He’s been a good influence on a lot of kids. He’s all about kids, and anyone who is like that is okay in my book.”
Ezell has been the varsity softball coach at Hand for 18 years after two seasons as the junior varsity coach. His team’s record, as of Friday, was 291-121.
“I though I might get to 300 this year, but that’s going to be close,” Ezell said.
His teams have never had a losing season and have won four league titles, two each in the Shoreline Conference and Southern Connecticut Conference. Hand was ranked first in the final state poll in 2001 when it won the CIAC Class L state title and has been a state runner-up twice (2002, 2005), a semifinalist five times and a quarterfinalist six times.
He was the 2001 New Haven Register coach of the year and earned a similar award from the area’s umpires in 2006.
“My 20 years here in Madison have been a wonderful experience,” said Ezell, whose future plans include coaching a team in Florida, where he will be moving. “No coach in any state has had the support from the softball community as much as I have had here in Madison. This was a hard decision because of the great relationships that have passed our way and still exist during our stay in Connecticut.”
“He has been instrumental in bringing the softball program to a very competitive level,” Semple said. “He’s leaving a legacy and he is leaving the program in a very good position. I think he’s done an amazing job bringing us to a competitive level. He has good rapport with the players and parents. He is the face of Hand softball and he is going to be hard to replace.
“I feel the program will continue to prosper because of our new field and the youth of our present team and the huge group of youngsters now playing in the lower grades,” Ezell said. “I have recommended Mike Niekrash (the Hand assistant for the past five seasons) as my successor, so continuity will be there is he gets the job.”
Anderson Earns Art McGinley Award
The Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance will honor former Hartford Courant staff writer Woody Anderson with the Art McGinley Award for meritorious service. Anderson will be honored at the Alliance’s Gold Key Dinner on April 27 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.
I’ve known Woody ever since he was on my staff at the Connecticut Daily Campus at the University of Connecticut. A National Guardsman at the time, he got called up for duty and when he came back he took my job as the CDC sports editor. A former track and cross country runner at Berlin High, he sported that unique sense of humor distance runners cultivate and it grew to be one his professional calling cards.
Anderson joined the Hartford Courant after graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1970. In his 36-year career, Anderson covered thousands of local events, from high school to college, and was known for his writing style as well as his flair.
Anderson was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work on high school athletes and steroids in 1989. He touched the hearts of thousands of Courant readers writing about his battle with prostate cancer.
"In January and February 2001 I wrote two stories about my prostate cancer," Anderson said. "I was overwhelmed with 100 e-mails and 80 cards and letters from all over the country. Some men said because of the stories they were going to get a blood test, the first step in detecting prostate cancer.
"I’m still fighting it today."
Anderson, 61, and wife Sharon have six children and three grandchildren, and reside in Southington.
The Gold Key Dinner will begin at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $75. To reserve tickets please contact Alliance secretary Bob Ehalt at (203) 929-6584 or by email at ehalt.b@sbcglobal.net, or Alliance President John Silver at 1-800-237-3606 x 317 or via email at jsilver@journalinquirer.com.
For more information on the Gold Key Dinner and other award recipients please visit www.ctsportswriters.org.
Final Thoughts…
I can’t begin to match the columns written by guys like Mike DiMauro and Jeff Jacobs, nor the commentary on WTIC-radio by Scott Gray, but the passing of Manchester Journal-Inquirer sports editor and columnist Randy Smith struck me very hard.
Randy and I go back almost 40 years to when he started at the Journal-Inquirer and I was working at the Norwich Bulletin and Groton News.
The night Chris Chambliss hit the home run to put the Yankees into the 1976 World Series, we were both covering the game. About 2 a.m., we were standing on the steps of the dugout looking out at the guy who played “Crocker” on Kojak, and a couple of his buddies turning mock double plays (no ball, no gloves) on the Stadium infield.
“You know, Levy,” he said. “We could do this job. We could cover this beat for the New York papers.”
About 5 a.m. as I was finishing my last Groton story and he was polishing his column, I thought to myself, “yeah, maybe we could but we better figure out a way to get some sleep.”
That was what I reminded myself – and Randy – of as I stood before the casket at his wake. Yeah, Randy, we could have done it, or at least you could.
He loved to tell stories and he also loved to make observations on his craft.
“What in the world are they writing?” he asked one evening as we were waiting for a UConn basketball game to start. A half-dozen guys were typing feverishly away an hour before the game.
“Blogs,” I suggested.
“Sports typing,” was his reply. “They’re not doing sports writing, they’re doing sports typing.”
It was one of his favorite expressions and he used it about himself when he had a quick turn-around time.
He always had the same words of advice for whomever he talked to in our business.
“Write well,” he’d say. “They all count.”
He was a guy who stood up to anyone he considered a bully. He also criticized, but he did so by his own rules.
“Don’t kick a guy when he’s down,” he’d say. “They’ve just lost three in a row. Wait until they win three and then I can say the same thing.”
And he was never afraid to offer an opinion.
“Levy, all these years and you still really don’t know anything about basketball, do you,” he’d say during a game when I made an observation which differed from his. “All I’ve tried to teach you and you still don’t get it.”
Yeah, Randy, I get it. And I get it that you will be tremendously missed.
