By Hal Levy, Shoreline Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
Connecticut’s Naugatuck River Valley is filled with old mill towns, smash-mouth football teams and old core values. The Valley has produced some of the state’s finest athletes and also some of its most well-respected coaches.
Such a man was Shelton High School baseball coach Eddie Marocco, who died last week of complications following a heart attack and subsequent by-pass surgery.
Marocco, 58, taught history at Shelton and was in his 29th season as the head baseball coach. He chaired the Connecticut High School Coaches Association baseball committee and was a fixture at tournament games. His teams were twice the CIAC Class LL state runners-up, in 1989 and 1990.
He also was a fixture in the Shelton community where he grew up. Returning home after a stint with the U.S. Navy, he began to teach and coach in his hometown. A lifelong bachelor, he made Shelton High and its students his family. He worked the public address system at football games, was the official scorer for basketball games, chaperoned dances and was the part owner of a baseball batting facility in Shelton with the former head coach, Joe Benanto.
Marocco replaced Benanto when the latter went on to become the Yale baseball coach.
“Eddie Marocco is hometown America in the purest form,” former Shelton girls’ basketball coach Howie Gura, now the headmaster at Shelton Intermediate School, told Joe Morelli of the New Haven Register. “The community lost a magnificent teacher. He lived and breathed education at Shelton. He was almost like a member of the family.”
Gura’s son, Scott, who was Marocco’s assistant, has taken over as the interim head coach of the team.
“There wasn’t an event at Shelton High School that he wasn’t at,” Benanto said. “If you went to see a play, he was collecting tickets. A lot of people don’t give back, but he gave back in any way he could.”
“He was one of the nicest people I have ever been associated with,” North Haven baseball coach Bob DeMayo – the dean of state high school coaches – told Morelli. “He was a true gentleman. I don’t know anyone who has anything bad to say about Eddie.”
As a sportswriter who had the opportunity to cover Marocco and his teams, I was honored at flattered because you were only a stranger in Shelton once. He always remembered my name, he always came over to say hello and he always made time to talk after a game, win or lose. He was the epitome of what we call a “class act”.
Contributions can be made in his honor to the Edward Marocco Scholarship Fund to benefit students at Shelton High School.
Baseball
DeMayo’s North Haven team played the longest game in the history of the Southern Connecticut Conference, recently, a 15-inning contest with Derby which was played in two segments because of darkness.
Derby came out with a 4-3 win. North Haven pitcher Steve Vermiglio threw all 15 innings for the Indians, striking out 21.
“He had a lot of strikeouts. His fastball was popping,” DeMayo said. “It was an outstanding performance.”
The old record was a 13-inning game May 5, 1997 in which North Haven defeated Fairfield Prep, 7-6.
Track and Field
Danbury High School’s streak of winning 137 straight boys’ dual meets in outdoor track was ended last week when Trumbull defeated the Hatters, 77-73. Chris Huynh won the 110-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles to lead the Eagles.
Other winners for Trumbull, in meet which also included Westhill-Stamford and Wilton, were Julian Orenstein in the 400-meters, Max Coleman in the long jump, Brendan Naude in the triple jump and Zach Russell in the high jump.
Softball
Masuk-Monroe junior pitcher Rachele Fico, who already has committed to LSU, threw the 10th perfect game of her softball career last week, striking out 18 in an 11-0 win over Weston. Masuk, which leads the state softball media and coaches’ poll, was led at the plate by Alyssa Pagano with three hits, including a home run and a triple. She also drove in three.
