Chuck Drury, longtime high school football coach, dies in car crash
Fellow coaches and others who knew him are mourning the loss of Chuck Drury, a former Pomperaug High School football coach who also served as an assistant coach at Southington High for his son and had coached football for 40 years in the state. Drury died in a car accident Tuesday morning in upstate New York.
He was 77.
His wife Clare was also in the accident and has been hospitalized.
Chuck Drury had been an assistant for his son Mike Drury, who stepped down after this season after coaching for 12 years to spend more time with his family. Chuck had been the Pomperaug football coach before resigning to help his son coach at Southington in 2011. At Southington, Chuck helped his son win state titles in 2013 and 2014.
“That was one of the things he wanted to end his career doing, was coaching with Mike,” said Rob Levesque, who took over as Southington football coach after Drury stepped down and who was an assistant alongside Chuck Drury. “Coach and person, he was the best around. He made coaches and players feel like they were important and every relationship was individual. He was one of my first phone calls when I found out I got the job and I sat down and talked to Chuck for a while. He was very important to me.”
Glenn Lungarini, the executive director of the CIAC, shared an office with Drury when the two were health and physical education teachers at Pomperaug High.
“Chuck and Pete (Kamide) were two of my mentors as a young teacher,” Lungarini said Wednesday. “There’s not a better man than Chuck. He had a way with everybody, his friends, kids in his class, kids on his team – Chuck cared about people more than he did wins and losses.
“What I learned most from Chuck is the relationships you form with people is the most important thing. Once kids trust and believe you care about them, you can teach them anything. Chuck also had a way of using humor to ease situations and was always the steady rock that you can depend on.”
Lungarini recalled a football game where Drury had the players huddled around him late in the game during a timeout and he called a play.
“The kids kind of looked at him and said, ‘Coach, we’re just not feeling that’ and Chuck said, ‘You’re right, that play stinks,’” Lungarini said. “They went with a totally different play, and it was successful, they scored a touchdown. I talked to Chuck the next day and he said, ‘You know, if we have the trust of our kids, if I have execute a play they don’t believe in, it won’t work. If we run a play they believe in, we have a better chance of being successful.’”
Former Pomperaug athletic director Joe Velardi remembered Drury as “a big part of the fabric of the school.”
“He understood kids better than any educator I ever met,” said Velardi, who is now the state coordinator for health and physical education at CAS-CIAC. “He was one of the bright lights that you meet in life.”
Sheehan football coach John Ferrazzi wrote about Drury on X (formerly Twitter): “Coach was one of a kind. Always greeted everyone with a big smile and the utmost respect. I always appreciated the respect he showed me, especially when I was a young coach. My sincerest condolences to Mike and his family.”
Bill Liquindoli, a Southington football assistant, wrote on X: “Rest in Peace Coach Chuck Drury, One of the best men I’ve ever met . Prayers to Clare and your family that you loved so much! Heaven gained an Angel today, a true Gentleman.”
Chuck Drury, 77, played football at Northwest Catholic, graduating in 1965, and played at Southern Connecticut State University. He was a health and physical education teacher for 33 years at Pomperaug. Prior to Pomperaug, he had taught and coached at Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern. Last year, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.