by Jeff Fisher
Host, NHSCA Sports Hour
Congratulations to the
National High School Coaches Association's Class of 2011 for Coaches of the Year.
This year's class covers 20 boys and girls sports from 17 different states. California, Connecticut and Florida lead the way with two honorees each.
Below are the NHSCA's 2011 Coaches of the Year...
Football – George Smith
St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
After taking the reins as head football coach in 1975, Smith could be found hammering nails and pouring concrete into what would become the visiting bleachers at the school’s football stadium. Smith, 62, then built a program that became renowned at the state and national levels. He retired this spring after 34 seasons at the helm of the Raiders, building a 361-66 record in two separate stints and leading St. Thomas to 13 state championship games and six state titles – four in Class 5A and two in 4A. Smith stepped down after St. Thomas won its first state title in 1992. He returned for the 1995 season and led the Raiders to the state playoffs in all 16 seasons of his second stint, adding state titles in 1997, 1999, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Overall, his teams earned 26 playoff berths and posted a 64-20 playoff record (only Charles “Corky” Rogers of Jacksonville Bolles School, the NHSCA’s National Coach of the Year in 2005, with 66 playoff wins, has more). His 2008 team finished the season ranked No. 1 by the NHSCA and by USA Today, which named Smith its National High School Coach of the Year that year. His final team in 2010, which finished 15-0, also earned national title honors and the NHSCA’s No. 3 ranking. Smith, who came to St. Thomas in 1972 as wrestling coach, has been elected to the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the Florida Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame and the Broward County Sports Bureau Hall of Fame. He will remain the school’s athletic director.
Baseball –Tom O’Connell
Catholic Central High School, Burlington, Wisconsin
The first high school coach ever elected president of the college-dominated American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), O’Connell has spent 42 years coaching baseball. From 1969 through 2000, he coached at Milwaukee Pulaski High School, where his teams won more games than any sport in the school’s history. He led Pulaski to state tournament berths in 1981, when they reached the state semifinals, and in 1989. He has been at Burlington Catholic Central for 11 seasons, and his Hilltopper teams have made the state quarterfinals eight consecutive years. They went on to win four state championships, in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2010. O’Connell has twice been named the Diamond Sports National High School Coach of the Year by the ABCA, most recently in 2010, and has been named Midwest Coach of the Year four times. In 1995, he skippered the USA Baseball North Team in the United States Olympic Festival in Colorado, a team that featured four future major leaguers. O’Connell chaired the ABCA’s High School Division from 1984-96, and now serves on its Board of Directors and heads its Ethics in Coaching Award Committee. A former president of the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association, O’Connell organized and ran the group’s annual clinic and convention for 20 years and, in 1991, was named its Man of the Year. He has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: the Old Time Baseball Players Hall of Fame in Milwaukee, the WBCA Hall of Fame in 1987 and the ABCA Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming only the 16th high school coach to be inducted in the ABCA’s 64-year history.
Softball - Debbie Holcombe
James F. Byrnes High School, Duncan, South Carolina
An ankle injury as a volleyball player at Southern Wesleyan College added a fifth year to Holcombe’s college career and a second major, physical education, to her business administration major. She’s winning games – and awards – 23 years later. As a rookie volleyball coach at Anderson T.L. Hanna High School in 1989, her team finished 18-4 and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs, earning Holcombe Region 1-4A Coach of the Year honors. She began the first of two stints at Byrnes in 1991 as softball and volleyball coach. Her first volleyball team finished 26-6, won Region 2-3A regular season and tournament titles and earned Holcombe a second Region Coach of the Year award, while her softball team finished 22-4. She then spent eight years in college coaching – six at Southern Wesleyan, where her volleyball teams finished 79-31 and her softball teams 109-33-1, advancing to the NAIA national tournament in 1996, and two at Presbyterian College. There, she coached the volleyball team to a 54-20 record and started the softball program, which went 31-16 in its inaugural season. After returning to Byrnes as softball coach in 2001, Holcombe was named Coach of the Year by the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association and National Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 2005, when she led the Lady Rebels to the 4A state title and the first of three consecutive Upper State crowns. They also won a district title in 2004 and were district runners-up in 2003, 2009 and 2010. Holcombe also was the South Carolina High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 2008 and a finalist for the National High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 2009 after being named Southern District High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year.
Volleyball – Fred Rakers
Mater Dei High School, Breese, Illinois
The only volleyball coach Mater Dei has ever had, Rakers, 65, brought a sterling 35-year coaching career to an end last fall. His Knights compiled a 41-1 record, and sent him out a winner. Ranked No. 26 nationally by PrepVolleyball.com, Mater Dei’s 15-25, 25-18, 26-24 victory over Joliet Catholic Academy in the 3A state final gave Rakers his sixth state title. With a career record of 1,046-200-7, Rakers stands No. 2 on the all-time victory list among Illinois coaches. The only coach with more victories, Peg Kopec of Wheaton St. Francis High School, was the NHSCA’s National Coach of the Year in 2008. In addition to his six state titles – the Knights previously won championships in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 2001 – Rakers' teams have won 14 state trophies, having finished second once, third four times and fourth three times in 20 state tournament appearances. He also won four district titles, 24 regional championships, 21 sectional titles and 20 super-sectional championships. Rakers will continue to teach consumer education and career guidance at Mater Dei. His son, Chad, an assistant coach the past four seasons, will succeed him as head coach.
Field Hockey – Wendy Wilson
Tabb High School, Yorktown, Virginia
One of the most respected offensive minds in the sport’s coaching ranks, Wilson has turned Tabb into a small-school Virginia powerhouse since her arrival in 2004. In 2009, the Tigers became just the sixth team in the nation to score more than 150 goals in a season, while posting its second consecutive 24-0 season. That team, which included the first group of seventh-graders she recruited in building Tabb’s program, graduated with back-to-back state championships and the nation’s longest winning streak. Wilson’s 2008 team allowed just six goals all season, earning her Bay Rivers District, region and state Coach of the Year awards, along with South Region Coach of the Year honors from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA). The Tigers’ 2009 title earned Wilson the NFHCA’s National Coach of the Year award. Last fall, rebuilding a team that graduated its goalkeeper and its entire defense, Wilson led the Tigers to a 22-3 record, and her team didn’t allow a goal in the state tournament for the third straight year. A standout field hockey and lacrosse player at Christopher Newport University (CNU), Wilson once scored nine goals in a game and holds the school single-game, season and career records in goals and points. She also scored 73 goals in two lacrosse seasons, and is an assistant lacrosse coach at CNU.
Wrestling – Cliff Ramos
Collins Hill High School, Suwanee, Georgia
Ramos, 57, retired last season after a hugely successful run at the helm of the Collins Hill program, the fourth school he coached in a 34-year coaching career, 29 in Georgia. His overall dual-meet record was 626-80. Ramos guided Collins Hill to nine state team titles in Georgia’s biggest class, 5A – five individual state tournament titles and four dual state titles – and his Eagles teams finished in the top three for 11 consecutive seasons. A co-founder and past president of the Georgia Wrestling Coaches Association, he is a 22-time Region Coach of the Year and was selected the state’s Coach of the Year five times – in 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010. His teams were nationally ranked five times in a six-year span. His best team, in 2010, not only reached the top 10, but beat two nationally-ranked teams, including host Easton High, and came within three points of shocking 31-time National Prep champions Blairstown Township (N.J.) Blair Academy in the NHSCA Final Four of High School Wrestling. Ramos, who coached 34 individual state champions, was selected Coach of the Year, Georgia Chapter, by the National Wrestling Coaches Association in 2002 and is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Georgia Chapter. He currently serves as Director of Wrestling at Greater Atlanta Christian School, located in Norcross.
Boys' Basketball – Vito Montelli
St. Joseph High School, Trumbull, Connecticut
The state’s all-time leading winner with a record of 853-329 (a .722 winning percentage), Montelli, 78, the only basketball coach St. Joseph has ever had, completed his 49th season with a record 10th state title. With a 79-53 victory over Fairfield College Preparatory School in the Class LL title game, Montelli’s Cadets (23-3) became the only Connecticut team to win state titles in all four classifications. He previously coached St. Joseph to five titles in Class L and two each in Class M and Class S. St. Joseph previously won titles in 1975, 1977, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 2001, and have advanced to 16 state title games. That included 10 appearances in a 13-year span from 1985-1997. In 1992, Montelli was named National Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association, and in 1995, he was inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. In 1998, he received the Gold Key Award when he was inducted into the Connecticut Hall of Fame by the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance. In 2002, Montelli received the Frank Maguire Foundation Award from the New York Athletic Club. He was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. He has had 25 players receive McDonald’s All-American recognition, and he coached the East squad in the McDonald’s All-American Game in 1990. He was featured in the Faces in the Crowd section of Sports Illustrated magazine in April.
Girls' Basketball – Kevin Kiernan
Mater Dei High School, Santa Ana, California
Believe it or not, Kiernan’s first job after graduating from college was as a sportswriter – at the Orange County Register and the Anaheim Bulletin. Not fond of the late nights, Kiernan landed the head coaching position at Westminster La Quinta High School, which had won just eight of 82 games in the three seasons prior to his arrival. Over the next five seasons, La Quinta went 110-79 and made a state tournament appearance under Kiernan, who has gone on to put together 20 glittering seasons. From La Quinta, Kiernan moved on to Fullerton Troy High School. In 11 seasons, his teams went 317-33, never lost a Freeway League game (going 110-0 in those games), and won five Southern Section titles and three state championships. The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) named him the Russell Athletic/WBCA National High School Coach of the Year in 2006. In four years at Mater Dei, Kiernan’s teams are 123-7, and he owns a 613-109 career record (a .849 winning percentage). This year, his Monarchs finished 34-1, ended the season on a 26-game winning streak and won their second consecutive state championship – in Division 1AA this year after moving up from Division II a year ago – giving him five state titles overall. This year’s title made Mater Dei the first girls basketball team in five years to finish No. 1 in the USA Today Super 25 in consecutive seasons, and the newspaper named Kiernan its National Coach of the Year in 2010. The Register named him its Coach of the Year this season.
Boys' Cross Country – Adam Kedge
Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Kedge has coached the boys cross country and track and field teams at Albuquerque Academy for the past 19 seasons, and has been the head coach of both sports since 1998. His teams have won 11 4A state championships in cross country. The Chargers won titles his first five seasons, 1998-2002, and also own a pair of three-year streaks, in 2004-2006 and the past three seasons, 2008-2010. He has led the boys track and field team to nine state crowns – in 1999 and eight of the past 10 years, most recently in 2009 and 2010. Ten of his athletes hold 4A state track and field records, one an all-state record. Under Kedge, the Chargers have been ranked No. 1 nationally twice by The Harrier High School Cross Country Report. The Chargers own 14 district titles, 13 City of Albuquerque championships, 84 meet victories and four undefeated seasons in the past 11 years. Kedge has coached seven cross-country runners to state medalist honors, with two becoming Foot Locker National All-Americans and one a USA Junior World Team member. Kedge was named Regional Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 2001 and 2003. A 10-time state Coach of the Year in cross country and track and field, the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame honored Kedge as its Coach of the Year in 2006. He is the former president of the New Mexico Track and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Girls' Cross Country – Jim Tracy
University High School, San Francisco, California
In 1995, Tracy, 60, gave up a secure corporate career, steady income and conventional lifestyle for a part-time position coaching University’s high school runners. Seventeen seasons later, Tracy is the most decorated girls cross country coach in California history. When his girls dug down deep to repeat as Division V state champions last fall, it was a record eighth state championship for Tracy, awarded Coach of the Year honors by the California Coaches Association in 2004. The Red Devils previously won titles in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2009, while finishing second in 1995, 1999 and 2000. His boys teams finished second in state in 2001 and 2007 and third on five other occasions. His Red Devils have combined for 25 Bay Counties League titles and 20 North Coast Section titles, 10 each for the girls and for the boys. Tracy’s eighth state title came five months after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. And at the state meet, one of his runners, junior captain Holland Reynolds, collapsed yards short of the finish line due to dehydration, then crawled across the line, allowing her finish to count toward the Red Devils’ winning total. That title run was profiled on ESPN’s Outside the Lines series in April, and the National Federation of State High School Associations presented Tracy and his team with the Region 7 Spirit of Sport award this year.
Boys' Golf – Larry Ries
Hunterdon Central High School, Flemington, New Jersey
Ries has coached four sports at Hunterdon Central over more than 30 seasons. He has more than 800 victories as a varsity head coach in golf and boys soccer, and also had successful runs coaching the Red Devils’ freshman basketball and baseball teams. Ries is currently in his 30th season as golf coach, for which he also was named National Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations this year. Last spring, Ries guided the Hunterdon Central golfers to Team of the Year honors from The Newark Star-Ledger. The Red Devils posted a 16-1 record in 2010, winning Hunterdon County and Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament championships and Skyland Conference, Group 4 Central-South Jersey Section, state and Tournament of Champions titles, the latter the second of Ries’ career. Through last spring, his teams had a record of 467-105-1 and won 19 conference titles, 10 sectional titles, four Group 4 state titles and the 1992 Tournament of Champions title. Ries was named Coach of the Year by The Star-Ledger in 2008 and the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association in 2010. He also started the girls golf team at Hunterdon Central. As the school’s soccer coach for 29 seasons, retiring in 2007, Ries’ teams had a record of 332-177-63, with 26 winning seasons and four Central Jersey Group 4 sectional final berths.
Girls' Golf – Ryan Best
St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Overland Park, Kansas
Best holds an interesting dual role at St. Thomas Aquinas. He is the chairman of the Theology Department…and has been the coach of the boys golf team since 1997 and the girls golf team since 1999. He has held numerous campus ministry positions, including director of the KAIROS Retreat Program, and has coached basketball and volleyball at the school in addition to golf. Last fall, Best guided the Raiders girls golf team to a state-record fifth consecutive team title, shooting a state-record score of 303 to win the 5A title by 66 strokes. It was Best’s sixth girls state championship, his first coming in 2002. He also has had one of his girls golfers win medalist honors seven times, including each of the past five seasons. The Kansas Coaches Association named Best Girls Coach of the Year in 2003. Best’s boys teams have qualified for state every year of his tenure, and broke through to win back-to-back 5A titles in 2007 and 2008, to go with five state runnerup finishes, two third-place finishes, two fourth-place finishes and a sixth-place finish. He has coached four boys to state medalist honors, and nearly 20 of his golfers have gone on to earn college scholarships. Best was guest speaker at the National High School Golf Association annual conference in 2007 and also created and directed “Golf for the Soul,” a summer golf retreat program for players of all ages. Best played basketball and golf at Benedictine University in Atchison, Kan. and earned a master’s degree from the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kan.
Boys' Soccer – Jerry Little
North Central High School, Indianapolis, Indiana
Little’s teams have won more state championships – five – since the Indiana High School Athletic Association first sanctioned the boys state tournament in 1994 than any other school. Little guided the Panthers to state-sanctioned titles in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002 and 2005 (seven overall), along with seven state championship games and eight trips to the state’s Final Four in the state-sanctioned era. He came to North Central in 1984 after three seasons at cross-town Broad Ripple High School, and his record on the Panthers’ sideline is 453-86-48, including a 12-2-1 mark last fall. His 1993 and 1994 teams, both of which finished 25-0, earned No. 7 final rankings from USA Today, and six of his teams were nationally ranked. His teams have won 17 conference titles, and sectional, regional and semi-state crowns 10 times. Little has won over two dozen Coach of the Year awards, including six state Coach of the Year awards from the Indiana State Coaches Association (ISCA). The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) named him its Division I Regional Coach of the Year in 1994, 1995 and 2002 and presented him with its National Merit Award in 2001. Little was inducted into the Indiana Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003 and the ISCA Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2007, the National Federation of State High School Associations named him its National Coach of the Year.
Girls' Soccer – Hank Tenney
Rivendell Academy, Orford, New Hampshire
Tenney, 67, retired from a 30-year coaching career after leading the Raptors to a 17-1 record and their first-ever Vermont Division IV state championship last fall, the sixth soccer title of his career. That achievement earned him NSCAA Division II National Coach of the Year honors for the second time in his career. Tenney previously won the award in 2001 at Hanover (N.H.) High, where he coached for 27 seasons. His career record as a soccer coach was 432-79-17, including a 36-12-1 mark in three seasons at Rivendell. He led Hanover to the state tournament in each of his 27 seasons, never had a losing season and reached the 250-victory plateau faster than any coach in New Hampshire history. His teams advanced to eight state title games and won five state titles. Tenney was named the state’s Coach of the Year eight times, the New England Coach of the Year in 2001 and was inducted into the New Hampshire Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998. The National Federation of State High School Associations named him its National Girls Soccer Coach of the Year in 2006. Tenney also was a successful girls basketball coach, leading Sunapee (N.H.) High to back-to-back Class S state titles in 2006 and 2007, and led Hanover’s softball team to a state title in his only season as coach in 1983. He will remain the Director of Parks and Recreation for the town of Hanover, a position he has held for 33 years.
Boys' Swimming – Art Downey
Edina High School, Edina, Minnesota
Downey retired from a 34-year teaching career nearly two decades ago, but at age 83, he is still going strong as the school’s swimming coach. He just completed his 55th year at Edina-Morningside High School, Edina and Edina East High School, when the district had two high schools. His teams have won 10 state titles – in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1984, 1986, 1987, 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2010 – and posted a career dual-meet record of 483-141-1. That included a 24-1 record this past season, when the Hornets finished third in state. His swimmers produced three individual event wins this year, giving Downey 58 career winners. Named district Coach of the Year 11 times, state Coach of the Year six times and a National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) National Coach of the Year, Downey has served in every swimming leadership capacity in Minnesota. He was a co-founderof the Minnesota Swimming Coaches Association, has served as chairman of the Minnesota Swimming Hall of Fame since its inception in 1978 and has served as NISCA’s Minnesota state delegate since 1980. Downey is a member of seven Halls of Fame, most recently his induction into the NISCA Hall of Fame this year.
Girls' Swimming – Brian Gross
Charlotte Catholic High School, Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte Catholic had a successful swimming program before Gross arrived at the school nine years ago, and he has elevated that tradition. His girls teams have won the state team title in every one of his nine seasons at the helm, winning Class A-AA state crowns from 2003-2005 and 3A titles the past six seasons. The Cougars have won the past seven state meets by an average margin of 146 points, and their overall streak of state titles currently stands at 10 (with 12 titles overall). His swimmers own seven of the 12 existing state meet records, and with all 18 scorers returning next season, his Cougars seem assured of stretching their overall streak to 11. Gross also guided the boys team to four straight team titles, from 2005-2008, and his boys finished second in state the past three years. Named Coach of the Year by The Charlotte Observer in 2006, 2008 and again this year, Gross is a 1997 graduate of Wright State University, where he was a four-year member, captain and Most Valuable member of the swimming team, was the director of the Raider S.K.I.L.L.S. Program and Assistant Director of Special Olympics Swimming. Gross has been Vice President and Senior Recruiting Consultant at Wells Fargo Bank since 2005, and holds the Certified Internet Recruiter (CIR) certification.
Boys' Tennis – Kelly Mulligan
Gulliver Preparatory School, Miami, Florida
Mulligan has coached the boys and girls teams at Gulliver Prep for 22 seasons, and now owns a total of 11 2A state team titles. Seven of those have been won by her boys teams, which have finished in the state’s top two in nine of the past 10 seasons. This spring, her boys team, which included just one senior and five freshmen, rolled to its fifth consecutive state team title by scoring a clean sweep, capturing all five singles titles and both doubles titles for a perfect 21 state tournament points. The only other boys team in any class to achieve a perfect score of 21 in the last decade: Gulliver Prep’s 2009 state championship team. Her boys teams also won titles in 2003 and 2005, finishing second in 2002 and 2004. Mulligan also has coached two boys to individual singles titles and three doubles teams to state crowns. One of them, current Northwestern University standout Raleigh Smith, was named the NHSCA National High School Athlete of the Year in 2010. Gulliver Prep’s five consecutive titles are the state’s longest current streak and the third longest in state history, and their seven titles are fifth best in state history. The Miami Herald named Mulligan the All-Dade Boys Coach of the Year in 2008, and she was named the Florida Dairy Farmers Florida Coach of the Year in 2009, after previously being awarded the state’s 2A honor.
Girls Tennis – Anita Murphy
Lewiston High School, Lewiston, Maine
Now retired from teaching, Murphy completed her 33rd season as girls tennis coach, and under her direction, the Blue Devils finished 13-2 and won their sixth consecutive Class A state championship. Her teams have made 19 trips to the state championship match and won 12 state titles overall, along with 14 Eastern Maine regional titles and 16 conference titles. Murphy’s career record is 404-60, and her teams had a winning streak nearly six years in duration before it was snapped this regular season. Murphy has received the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame Presidential Award 11 times and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. A recipient of the USA Tennis New England Junior Tennis Chapter of the Year award for her work with Lewiston’s youth tennis program, Murphy was named the Maine Tennis Coach of the Year in 2001 and was recognized by the National Federation of State High School Associations as its National Girls Tennis Coach of the Year in 2008. This spring, she was one of five recipients of the Unsung Heroines in Maine Sports awards presented during the Mentoring Women in Sports XIII Conference, hosted by the Maine Principals Association.
Boys' Track and Field – Robbie Robinson
Mountain View High School, Mesa, Arizona
Robinson’s career spans over 50 years in two different states, including 31 seasons as a boys and girls track and field coach. He started his career in Minnesota, where, in addition to his teaching and coaching duties, he served 10 years as an athletic director and was the founder and first meet director of the prestigious Mayo Invitational in Rochester. He came to Mountain View in 1988, and during his career, he has led both the Toros boys and girls teams to four state titles. His boys teams won 5A state titles in 1994, 2000, 2003, and 2004 and also earned eight state runnerup finishes, in 1988, 1989, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2008, and 2010. Through his first 20 seasons, his teams recorded a dual-meet and multi-meet record of 2,819-119 and also won 20 region titles. His girls teams were state champions in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1997. He typically has about 130 boys out for track and field, and during his tenure as the girls coach, about 100 girls typically came out for the sport. A five-time Arizona Coach of the Year, Robinson was a three-time Region Coach of the Year selection by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA), and the NHSACA named him its National Coach of the Year in 2008. Robinson was awarded the Victory with Honor Coach of the Year award by the Arizona Interscholastic Association this year.
Girls' Track and Field – Susan Curnias
William H. Hall High School, West Hartford, Connecticut
The second NHSCA National Coach of the Year from William H. Hall in as many years, Curnias is the only woman to be named Coach of the Year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) in three sports. She was 78-37 in nine seasons as Hall’s gymnastics coach and was named Coach of the Year in 1980. In 27 years as Hall’s cross country coach, Curnias is 338-97-1, winning a Class L state title in 1987 and Coach of the Year honors in 1988. And Curnias is in her 34th season as Hall’s track and field coach. The 1990 Coach of the Year, her teams won Class L and State Open titles in 1986 and have finished second in state five times, including three straight Class LL runnerup finishes in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and have won 11 Central Connecticut Conference Western Division titles. She also coached swimming for two years at another West Hartford school, Conard High School, with a 14-5 record. Inducted into the CHSCA Hall of Fame in 2005, Curnias was named National Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 1992. The NHSACA named her Region Coach of the Year in track and field in 1991 and in cross country in 2004. At the 40th annual Lindy J. Remigino (NHSCA Boys Track and Field National Coach of the Year in 2002) Outdoor Track and Field Invitational next month in New Britain, the women’s 100-meter hurdles has been renamed the Sue Curnias Women's 100m Hurdles in her honor.
