Legendary FHS Coach Retires After 53 Years of Service

The curtain has come down on perhaps the most dynamic coaching career in the history of Farmington High School with the retirement of multiple sport coach Ted Orzech after 53 years of service.

Orzech coached cross country, track and assisted former athletic director Paul Maskery with football, but his longest lasting endeavor was on the golf course, where he guided Farmington boys for 23 seasons and won 819 matches. As to how many student-athletes’ lives he’s touched, that’s a number that would be hard to compute.

“It’s about liking kids, that’s it,” said Orzech, who starred in football at Hartford Bulkeley and then at Central Connecticut State College (1952-56), where he was twice selected to All-New England small college teams.

“My proudest time is when these kids come back four or five years later and we sit down and reminisce. They’re happy.

“The basic principle behind education is it trains you to become a good citizen and that encompasses so many things. … Sports is a vehicle that helps you appreciate life.”

Orzech, 77, cited degenerating knee and eye issues as reasons for stepping down, but he has no intention of stepping out completely.

“I’m going to be like General [David] Petraeus, a senior advisor,” Orzech said, with his omnipresent sense of humor showing. “I’m retired but I’m still going to be involved.”

He said he would continue to help the program raise money for equipment and when Farmington plays golf next spring, he plans to be there.

Orzech said that his assistant Fran Amara, the dean of students at Lewis Mills High in Burlington where he coaches boys basketball, is the logical choice to take over the head coaching slot. Orzech said Amara shadowed him this spring in anticipation of inheriting the job.

Orzech has twice been named Connecticut High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year – 1970 in track and 2008 in golf. In 1984, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Central Connecticut State University, where he attended after graduating from Hartford Bulkeley High School.

The Indians, led by senior Monte Mullen and junior Zach Zaback, went 13-1-1 this spring and won the CCC Tournament. He referred to Zaback when he talked about the innate feelings he gets about setting his lineup.

“There’s a certain feeling you have about certain kids and I can figure out who is going to be good,” Orzech said. “Zaback is out in California playing [in the Calloway Golf Junior Championships] at Torrey Pines right now. I said this kid is going to be a top-notch player, just like Josh Edelson and Greg Beloin. He’s got a beautiful swing and he’s got that ‘something’ in him.”

Edelson is golfing at Lafayette and Beloin at CCSU. Mullen is also headed to CCSU, which Orzech helped orchestrate with his deep Blue Devil connections.

“I’d always tell the kids that when you’re out there, it’s you against the golf course, but you’re all a team,” he said. “When I used to coach track, I’d say you go against your opponent but you want to win as a team. Kids love being recognized as a champion.”

Orzech was on leave from military duty in Korea when he was hired to teach at Farmington High.

“I wanted to coach football but they said the staff was full. I went out to help for a while and they said I had to do something. They said I would coach cross country and I didn’t even know what it was,” he said.

But he built the program up and passed the program on to Lee Chisholm, who was CHSCA Coach of the Year in 1973.

Maskery also turned to Orzech for help when he became Farmington football coach in the early 1970s.

“He was really for the kids,” Maskery said. “His heart and soul were in the program and the kids learned a lot of little things from him. He was structured and disciplined. The kids liked him. They may not admit it but they like structure, and he gave them that.”

Orzech brought a track team to Finland and Russia in 1988.

“I spent a month over there and we went to four or five track meets,” he said. “It was an experience and never again will I have anything like that.”

Orzech retired from teaching in 1991. He taught technical education, primarily drafting.

“Farmington has a good school system and it’s a good town,” he said. “They were good to me.”

Orzech was born in Hartford’s North End, but lived in West Hartford for 40 years where he raised his two children. His son, Phil, is the boys lacrosse coach at .