Norwalk- Trnity Catholic announced this week Jack Kelly had been named as the Crusaders New Athletic Director.
In a press release from Trinity Catholic Marketing and Communinication Director Mike Macari, it stated Jack Kelly has been a long-time Dean of Students at Trinity and himself a veteran high school girls’basketball coach for the past 20 years, 17 of them in the FCIAC. His 17 years on campus give him a clear understanding of the culture, traditions and students at Trinity. His goal is even clearer: Get asmany students as possible involved in athletics- the “Body” of Trinity’s motto “Mind, Body, Spirit” andhelp TCHS families to “believe again”.
Kelly said his dual role will be a definite advantage since he knows the students and has a relationship established throughout the hallways on a daily basis. He is looking forward to the oppurtunity.
“You’re going to hear me say this a lot,” said Kelly. “The more kids are involved the school, the better it is for the the kids and the school. I am big believer in kids taking part in extra-curricular activities. I think it helps everybody involved.”
Kelly replaces Frank Fedak who served in the post for the last six months after Bob Robustelli ended his two-year tenure as the A.D. The position had been held by Tracy Nichols for 34 years before Robustelli took over in July of 2016.
Kelly takes over in what Macari termed as an “on-going restructuring” at the school. The future of Trinity Catholic has been under a cloud for some time. There have been reports of dwindling enrollment which led to some speculation of the school remaining open. Bishop Frank J. Caggiano quelled those rumors in late May stating the school had indeed attracted enough new students to remain open.
The endorsement did not put an end to the doubts surrounding the school ability to field enough players for a full roster for all their athletic teams especially the football team. The Crusaders compete in the FCIAC and have long been the only small school in the conference. It had always been a sense of pride in the school community as they competed and won against schools with student bodies which dwarfed them in size.
“The football team is a go,” said Kelly. “They are co-oping with Wright Tech and there will be a meeting with the returning players from Trinity and all the players from Wright Tech. We are hoping to have that meeting some time in the next week to ten days. Its the first step but there iwll be a football program and I’m excited for it.”
Kelly said the football team would compete with a full FCIAC schedule in the fall of 2019 but Kelly did not want to seculate beyond this year. He added the volleyball team , a cross country team and both soccer squads were on track to be available for the Trinity students to join as well.
Kelly is well- known within the stamford sporting community. He served stints as the girl’s head basketball coach at both Westhill and King. He was also a long-time assistant to former Westhill girl’s coach and current Trumbull A.D. Mike King. So he is well aware of the challenges in having teams ready for FCIAC action.
Kelly said the enrollment had recieved a slight boost since the annuncment was made by the Diocese of Bridgeport it would be open for the 2019-2020 school year.
“The numbers are improving but they need to contiinue to improve and it is our job as the Trinity community to keep those number going in the right way and I am going to do my best to get those numbers going in the right way,” said Kelly.
Kelly gave a lot a credit to the increase in the enrollment to the current student body. He said the kids have been amazing and remained staunchly loyal to the school thrughout the sometimes rampant reports of doom.
“It is one hindred percent about the kids, the students are first and foremost,” said Kelly. “I’ll be honest the kids have struggled a little bit. They start as freshmen and want to leave as seniors . They want to graduate. The juniors and sophomores, I have to give them credit, they mobilized an effort. They went out and recruited kids. They were like let’s keep this place open.”
Kelly has an inside understanding about the FCIAC and CIAC so he feels those established relationships will help him as he takes the reigns. He also said he will count on Nichols as a counsel
“When I call people they know who I am already,” said Kelly. “I talked to Tracy and he said he will help me in any way he could so I am going to count on Tracy because if there is one person who knows Trinity Athletics it’s Tracy Nichols.”
Kelly did not want to specutlate about winter or spring team but added he was encouraged by inquiries of interest he had received about whether teams such as hockey would be available.
“Are we behind the eight-ball?” said Kelly. “Yes but we are excited and we are moving forward.”

By JOE RYAN
Norwalk-The FCIAC Hall of Fame will finally include Jim Moriarty and it is one of the most well-deserved honors in my opinion.
I only got to cover his teams for eight of his 33 years but it was long enough to admire a man who seemed to be doing the thing which was his destiny. Moriarty was a born teacher and coach.
Call it inspiration, communication or whatever but he was able to see inside a player and get the most out of thier skills. His teams were always the “team you least wanted ” on your schedule. A Black Knight game gave other coaches plenty of sleepless nights trying to prepare for what the wily Irishman had in store.
The Black Knights teams garnered 445 victories. Stamford High was FCIAC runnerup five times. He finally won a league crown when Stamford outlasted Trinity Catholic in double overtime for the 2008-09 FCIAC championship. The game was a classic and is still talked about as one of the greatest. The Black Knights won the 1992 Class LL championship.
It was always a sight to see him work the sidelines during a game. His palms down wave of disgust at a bad call or play. His one legged jig or stamping of his foot which became a full-fledged Riverdance some nights but always entertaining.
Moriarty was one of my favorite interviews always like there was any doubt. An Irishman can always tell a tale. He would fill my recorder with basketball gems not platitudes and cliches but a streetyard wisdom which brought the game to life.
One of Moriarty’s favorite quotes came from the movie Hoosiers. He said he always began each season thinking of Gene Hackman’s quote:
“Lets see what kind of hand I’ve been dealt.”
Whatever the hand, Moriarty made the most of it but he never really talked about the wins or losses. He would talk about the players like David Fields going on to be the captain of the Columbia University team and a success in the business world. He would talk about the players from his iconic FCIAC championship win but not about what they did that night. He would talk about how they all went on to success after graduating from Stamford.
The FCIAC finally out Coach Mo in the Hall of Fame. Most people knew he was a Hall of Famer a long time ago.

By JOE RYAN
Norwalk-The speculation has been around for a while with people whispering it was only a matter of time until the proud tradition of Trinity Catholic football would come to an end.
It seems they received a chance last week from the Diocese of Bridgeport to keep the program alive as a Co-op after it was said a piece of paper finally did what no FCIAC team could ever really do competely and stop the Crusaders.
It is a sad time not just for the former players and members of the Trinity Catholic family but it is also a sad time for high school atheltics overall. It is hard to cling to the romantic notion of “bunch of underdogs” overcoming huge odds to post a memorable win.
The theme of a band of brothers being stronger together than the team across the field with the fancy uniforms and large roster numbers.
The men wearing the green and gold always kept the faith and strived to compete for the chance to make the dream a reality.
I was lucky enough to be an observer at a lot of those games.
It started with a sunny afternoon when Gene DeVito and Anas Koummall led Trinity to a win over Darien at the Blue Wave Stadium. Yes, the Crusaders were led by Bryan Fox and won a game which now would seem impossible but Trinity was stacked with players that year. Vinnie Cortese, Ryan Durkin, Eric Stevens and Tegge Steele were some of the other names.
They would lose in the waning moments against Joel Barlow at home and against Stamford to prevent them from having a classic season but they made a lasting imression on me as a reporter.
Fox handed off the reigns to Pete Stokes and he gave them to Donnie Panapada but the theme and effort never changed. They even made the state playoffs a couple of times as the number of players kept shrinking.
How could this under-sized and undermanned unit hope to compete with teams like New Canaan?
Then, there was the day when on a muddy Alumni Field, the green and gold stood toe to toe with the Rams and won on a last minute field goal.
There was that night in an icy rain and Boyle Stadium when Panapada led the team to it’s first post season win in many years.
John Madden used to tell his Oakland Raiders:
“Don’t worry if the horse is blind, just load up the wagon.”
I always toook it to mean to stop worrying about all the reasons we can’t accomplish this task and start working towards making it happen. Those words always rang in my mind as I watched a Trinity game.
We hope to interview athletic Director Frank Fedak next week to confirm all the information availabale but for now we can only hope.
There have been so many memories for me and even more for the town of Stamford.
Even if a pen ends up doing what no FCIAC team could ever do and stop the Crusaders, those images will never fade.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton