Six members inducted Thursday
NORWALK — It was a long wait, but the FCIAC finally has added six new members to its Hall of Fame.
The conference inducted Charlie Anderson of Trumbull, Tim Eagen of Wilton, Ralph Mayo of Greenwich, John Reisert of Ludlowe, Kyle Seaburg of Norwalk, and Jason Shaughnessy of Warde during is annual year-end recognition program Thursday night at the Norwalk Inn.
Jerry McDougall, the legendary coach of Trumbull football who died in 2011, was honored with the Ralph King Award, and former New Canaan athletic director Vin Iovino received the John Kuczo Award.
The Hall of Famers were actually chosen back in 2020, but the induction was delayed for two years due to the pandemic.
“I know how much this means to people because of how disappointed they were that they had to wait each year, and how much it meant to them to finally (be honored),” FCIAC commissioner Dave Schulz said. “You could see it on their faces and hear it in their conversations.”
For each honoree, interviews of friends, family and athletes were shown in videos which were put together by Seaburg’s students in Norwalk’s Digital Media Communication Academy.
“That was very special too,” Schulz said. “There must have been 20 members of his class who worked on the videos and they all came and sat in the back. I think it was meaningful for them to see how important their work was and what it meant to people. You really don’t understand that until you actually see it.”
McDougall’s son, Jerry, Jr., accepted the King Award for his father. It recognizes someone “who has made substantial contributions to the FCIAC.”
McDougall won 265 games with Trumbull football, winning three state championships, including the undefeated 1986 team, which is considered one of the state’s all-time best.
McDougall had 510 victories in baseball, with a pair of Class LL state titles in 1986 and 1998, and he also served as president of the Fairfield County chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Current Trumbull football coach Marce Petroccio played for McDougall in high school, and was part of the Eagles’ first state championship as a senior in 1977.
“He was a phenomenal, phenomenal coach,” Petroccio said. “The man could get you to do things that you just didn’t think were possible. When he did, you just felt so proud of yourself and even more importantly, he wanted to make sure that you knew he was proud of you as well.”
The John Kuczo Award, given to Iovino, is the FCIAC’s “highest award to professional educators from within the FCIAC, CHSCA and CIAC.”
Iovino was New Canaan’s athletic director for 24 years and helped with the development of Dunning Stadium, and the Peter M. Deane Fitness Center, and built a strong coaching staff which captured numerous league and state titles.
“He’s a caring, compassionate person, and he’s also a visionary,” said Jay Egan, the current New Canaan AD. “Some of the things that are in New Canaan now are as a result of the vision that he had.”
Anderson is member of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and has been part of the Trumbull wrestling program for the past 15 years, after coaching at Norwalk from 1991-99. He has twice been named the FCIAC Coach of the Year and was the CHSCA Coach of the Year in 2012. In 2019, he earned his 300th career victory.
Anderson recently retired from the Connecticut National Guard as a Colonel after 33 years of service. He was mobilized three times in support of the Global War on Terrorism, and his awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.
Eagen has been the head coach of Wilton baseball since 1980, and has led the Warriors to nearly 500 wins in 42 years. They won FCIAC championships in 1995, 2015 and 2017, and Eagen was named the conference’s baseball coach of the year in those three seasons.
Eagen also coached football for 34 seasons, the first 24 as an assistant for Tom Fujitani and the last 10 as head coach. He was the league’s football coach of the year in 2007.
Mayo has been an administrator and teacher in Greenwich Public Schools for 41 years, currently serving as the principal of Greenwich High School.
His career had also included time as an English teacher, athletic director, housemaster, program administrator for Special Education, and interim superintendent. He’s held several roles in support of athletics, as a board member with the FCIAC, CIAC and CAS. He is also chairman of the CIAC Lacrosse Committee.
Mayo was also a coach in the Greenwich boys lacrosse, girls basketball, and wrestling, and junior varsity football programs.
Reisert, a teacher for 28 years, took the reins for Fairfield girls tennis in 1999 and in his first six years, the team advanced to six straight Class L finals, winning championships the last four trips. When the town split into two high schools, Reisert became Ludlowe’s head coach, and in his 23 years, his teams have nearly 400 wins, along with five FCIAC and six state titles.
Reisert is a three-time National Coach of the Year finalist, a Connecticut Coach of the Year, and has been named FCIAC Coach of the Year seven times. He is also the FCIAC Girls Tennis Director, the CHSCA Girls Tennis Chairman, a CIAC Girls Tennis Committee member, and the tournament director for the CIAC team and invitational tournaments.
Seaburg has turned the Norwalk field hockey program into a consistent FCIAC and state contender.
His Bears first qualified for the state tournament in his third season and they have reached the state playoffs in 25 of the last 28 seasons, collecting 224 wins and compiling a .619 winning percentage. They’ve also reached the FCIAC and state semifinals four times each, and the state finals once.
Seaburg has twice been named the Class L Coach of the Year, and was FCIAC Coach of the Year in 2011. He has been the FCIAC’s Field Hockey Committee chair since 2005.
During the past 25 years, Shaughnessy has turned the Warde wrestling program into a state and regional powerhouse. He also started the Fairfield PAL youth program in 1998.
Warde wrestling has been ranked in the top 10 in the state in 20 of 24 seasons, and Shaughnessy, a four-time FCIAC Coach of the Year, has a career record of 441-92, with one FCIAC and three state championships.