Winning Seasons, Polished Grads are FHS Hoop Legacy

Coaching the Farmington High boys basketball team has been a fulfilling enterprise for Duane Witter.

Witter, now in his 14th season and approaching the 200-victory milestone, is having his best season since the Tim Abromaitis-led 2006-07 squad won 22 games and went to the Class L semifinals.

In Abromaitis, his older brother Jason, the Noon brothers Preston and Spencer, Mike O’Connor, current center Ben Pollack and so many others, Witter has been blessed with talented players, dedicated and wise beyond their years.

Two more program graduates – Matt Brechun and Trevor Chaves – man the scorer’s table for home games. Another – Tim O’Connor – is Witter’s main assistant. Others have made their way in different aspects of life enriched by their FHS hoop experience.

So many times in the worn-out world of sports clichés, a coach has expressed that his team is more like a family. For Witter, it’s become much more than an allegory this season with his son Trey donning the Farmington togs for his freshman season. The others may as well be surrogate offspring. The endearment in his voice when he speaks about Pollack is easily paternal.

Pollack, broad-shouldered at 6-foot-7, is as much an intellectual power as he is a physical force. Witter, as he did so fatherly with the Abromaitis’, Noons' and O’Connor’s, has nurtured Pollack’s career and prepared him for the immediate future – furthering his academic and athletic prowess at Amherst College beginning next fall.

“Amherst is lucky to get him so it’s a two-way street there,” Witter said. “Ben’s fortunate to go there but they’ve got a great kid coming to their school.

“I love coaching Ben. It’s been a pleasure for four years. I want to make the most of this season because it’s his senior year and he deserves my best effort.”

Spencer Noon is also at Amherst and served as Pollack’s tour guide during his visit. Noon, with his senior year still pending, has shattered the school record for goals (35) and points (83) and reigns as the New England Small College Athletic Conference player of the year – in soccer. He played basketball for his first two years with the Lord Jeffs, but injuries forced him to give it up this year.

“He got hurt in soccer and wasn’t able to do his thing on the hardwood,” Witter said. “He was on the team last year but wasn’t able to play a lot. He came home and said to me, ‘Coach, uh, uh, I had to do this.’ It was almost like he was apologizing to me for not being able to play basketball.”

Pollack is as close to being a coach on the floor as any high school player can be.

“He’s like the quarterback in the back of the defense,” Witter said. “He’s directing kids where to go. He has a great understanding of our system. He played varsity here as a freshman. That’s hard with the schedule we’ve had. He’s had many different experiences and he’s learned his lessons well. Now, he’s trying to teach other guys.”

Pollack has supplemented his growth on the scholastic level with intensive offseason play alongside many of the state’s best players. Some all-league players get burned out or hit a wall as the usual enticements of being a teenager in today’s America become too intoxicating to ignore. The line from just the greater Hartford region forms at the right.

Not Pollack.

“Since he’s come to the high school, he’s worked really hard,” Witter said. “He became a serious player when he was a freshman and has worked really hard in the offseason. People think that just because he’s tall he’s good at basketball but it’s been a lot of hard work.”

Like Mike O’Connor brought along Jason Abromaitis, and Jason Abromaitis served as an example for younger brother Timmy, Pollack reinforces Witter’s credo for the underclassmen striving to follow in his footsteps.

If the past is prologue, the sophomore class led by Ivan Guadalupe, Obi Momah and Colin Cheesman will follow Pollack’s model. Therein lies Witter’s legacy.

“Our sophomore class is strong,” Witter said. “We have some sophomores who are contributing and he’s trying to help those guys along.”

But the true meaning of legacy for a coach and a man sits down the varsity bench from Witter, smaller and thinner than the others, but with a court savvy that surely will be the underpinning of his career.

Trey Witter has been on the FHS bench for numerous years as a ball boy, water boy and assistant equipment manager, helping his father, sincerely displaying  a wide-eyed reverence for the FHS greats of the past. While he’s not likely to be seeing much varsity action this year, he’s more than willing to wait his turn.

Coaching one’s son is filled with complexity. If the boy gets excessive varsity minutes, the coach is a nepotistic charlatan and gets beaten up at the coffee shop. If the boys is held back when he deserves better, the coach finds that dinner time is no longer pleasant and may end up eating more cold meals than he bargained for.

Characteristically, Witter is walking the line gracefully.

“My wife [Julie] helps me because she offers perspective,” he said. “It’s good for me that I have her in my life and that Trey has her.

“Trey’s been part of our basketball family for many years. It’s different now because he’s wearing the uniform, and not an old uniform that I found in the back of the equipment room. He’s actually earned a spot on the team. He’s playing well at the freshman level and he’s scored some points on the junior varsity team.

“His role on the varsity team is to be the bench guy, root on his teammates and get the waters, just like some other very, very good players in our program when they were freshmen … like Ben Pollack.”

Trey Witter will pay his dues, just like all the rest.

“I’ve decided I’m taking it one game at a time,” Coach Witter said. “I enjoy watching the freshman team play, not just because my son plays but because I’ve watched all those kids coming up. They always played with Trey.

“We’ll see where it goes from here. He works really hard. If he continues to work hard good things will happen. I’m glad that he’s around these seniors. They’re having some success and he gets to be a part of it. Someday hopefully, he’ll be a leader and he’ll be able to pass on some of the wisdom that Ben shared with him.”