The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Williams, Strong followed winning formulas for success beyond wins
There probably is a mathematical equation here to prove their success. There certainly are similarities.
Fred Williams and Dave Strong were math teachers. Both were athletic directors. Both had daughters play for them and coach with them. Both were good athletes and neither especially good basketball players. Both remained at the same school just shy of forever.
What the two have been the best at is winning basketball games.
With the next one Williams
will equal Strong’s state record of 704 victories. It could come Thursday in No. 1 seed Northwestern’s second-round game of the CIAC Class MM girls playoffs.
“If someone is going to break the record, I’m very happy it is Fred,” said Strong, who coached 35 years at Masuk. “He is an even better person than he is a basketball coach.”
They have known each other for decades. They’ve served on various committees together.
“Dave is one great person and coach,” said Williams in his 45th year at Northwestern. “When and if 704 and 705 happens, I feel Dave was the superior coach. His winning percentage is a whole lot higher than mine. He did such a super job for a long time. I have a lot of respect for him.”
What they do not share is the same story as how they got into coaching basketball.
In his first year of teaching math at Masuk, Strong was assigned to chaperone a school dance. A girl had too much to drink and, well, some of it would end up on Strong.
“I was assigned to the inside of the boys’ bathroom,” he said. “When I took a break and went outside, that’s when the girl threw up on me. I was really annoyed.
“I said I’m never chaperoning another dance. The principal said my other choice is to coach boys freshman basketball. I said OK. That was probably the best decision I ever made in my life.”
Strong coached the freshman boys for a few years, the junior varsity boys four more and that’s when the girls coaching job opened at Masuk.
Williams’ story is a little more conventional.
“I went to Northwestern and played soccer, basketball and baseball,” Williams said. “I was a horrible basketball player. I was the one who went in when the team was up or down by 30 with 25 seconds to go.
“When I came back (after graduating from Central Connecticut), I started coaching middle school soccer, middle school basketball and eventually softball. The varsity girls basketball position became available. Leon Veretto, then AD, encouraged me to take it.”
Strong, who retired in 2011 with a career record of 704-156, won three state championships and 19 league titles, had a 93game regular-season winning streak from 1993-97 (including a 50-game streak with playoffs) and seven undefeated regular seasons. Among his many honors, he was inducted into the National High Schools Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“To have a successful record, you have to build a program instead of just coach the team,” said Strong, 78. “I worked really hard at building the program. Probably every one of my 35 years, I had an All-State kid on the floor. If not that year, sometimes she was a sophomore or junior who would be All-State as a senior. I always had the luxury if we hadn’t scored in three possessions of saying get the ball to so and so and she’ll get us out of it.”
Consider these factoids from the Waterbury Republican-American. Strong placed 55 players in college basketball. Williams has coached the daughters of eight former players.
Williams, 703-321, has won a Class M state title in 1990, 11 Berkshire League titles, and had a 141-game Berkshire League winning streak. He also had 254 wins in boys soccer and 101 in girls soccer at Northwestern.
The man is still ticking at 71 with four-figure Dubs.
“My philosophy is really education based,” Williams said. “To try to make people better. We run pretty simple plays. Not
that many kids are going to play in college. The common goal is camaraderie. To have fun.
“We’ve done a student evaluation at the end of the season the last few years. It’s interesting to read the comments that they enjoyed being on the team. That’s what we look for. Not everybody plays a lot. They’re a tight-knit group. They go out to breakfast together. There is an importance of being there to support each other.”
A major part of their longevity, both agree, is the inclusion of daughters on their coaching staffs.
“Of course, you want to do whatever you can for your children,” said Strong, whose daughter Julia was on his first state championship team. “Your children are always supportive. I don’t know about Fred’s, but mine also was never bashful about telling me what she thought I was doing wrong. Which probably made both of us better.”
At one point, Williams had Stacey, Lindsey and Christie playing on the team together. That meant a lot of rides together to school and back home after practice.
“They may have a different point of view, but I thought the relationship was pretty good,” Williams said.
The girls arrived in strollers with Fred’s wife Donna in the early years. They were mini cheerleaders for the team before playing. The years roll by quickly. Fred and Donna, an administrative assistant at Northwestern, have been married a halfcentury. Stacey and Lindsey have been on Fred’s staff for several seasons.
“I really don’t refer to them as assistants because we do it all together,” Williams said. “The last 15-20 years, having their views have made it a lot easier. They help me run the practice. My legs don’t allow me to do a lot of what I used to do. It has been a great relationship. If not for them, I probably would have stepped down a while ago. They made it fun.
“One does the digital scout. The other does hand stats. They’re constantly bombarding me with this is happening and that’s happening. I was saying to our girls the other day I take full responsibility when we lose, but they constantly bombard me with things. Sometimes I listen. Sometimes I might ignore them.”
Williams, who played soccer and baseball at community college, went on to get his bachelor and master’s degrees at Central Connecticut. He taught algebra and geometry. Strong always enjoyed
playing chess and bridge. He loved solving problems. He taught calculus at and pre-calculus. As an AD, he had to be ready to fill voids. Over the years, he also coached cross country, golf, boys tennis, softball and girls soccer.
“The reason I retired in 2011 was because Ann Odoy, she was the best player I ever coached, had more than 2,000 points without the three-point line,” Strong said. “She was the all-time leading scorer at BC when she graduated and was my assistant for 13 years. It was time to give her a chance to be head coach.
“It was the right call. I miss coaching every day and it still was the right call.”
Strong moved into the house he grew up in Woodbury after his dad died at age 99. He also took over as town historian. Did you know Woodbury was settled in 1672 by two groups from Stratford and was the western- and northern-most town west of the Connecticut River? And Woodbury later was broken up into all or parts of seven different towns?
“It really was the frontier,” Strong said.
While it isn’t true he was among the first settlers, Strong did graduate from Woodbury High in 1962 before it became part of Nonnewaug regional.
Williams, who lost to Thomaston in the Berkshire League tournament final Friday, has his second chance to settle the 704 frontier. No. 705 could come in the state quarters or next season.
Either way, Stong said, “I will be there to congratulate him.”
“He may have a long wait,” said Williams, who won No. 700 against Terryville on Feb. 13. “There’s no pressure whatsoever. My kids are now aware of it because it has been in the papers. We didn’t talk about it at all during the season. We focused on winning the league. When it’s over, it will be over. I just don’t want the kids to feel the pressure that they’re letting us down. They’ve worked really hard. It’s been a great year for them.”
Williams will coach next season. After that? Year to year.
“My goal is to stay until my youngest granddaughter graduates,” Williams said. “She’s a junior. Unfortunately, she had an ACL tear. She’s a very good soccer goalie. She plays for a club. She didn’t feel she could also be committed to basketball this year. Whether she returns or not, I’m hoping she does. It would be fun.”