The Connecticut High School Coaches Association inducted nine members into its Hall of Fame Thursday night during ceremonies at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, including Register sports editor Sean Barker.
Coaches Richard Albonizio (Trinity Catholic and Greenwich football), John Blomstrann (E.O. Smith soccer), Robert Freimuth (Plainville baseball), Tony Gorman (Abbott Tech soccer, baseball and cross country), Jack Hunt (Ansonia football, posthumously), Dennis Lobo (Granby track and cross country), Fred Williams (Northwestern girls basketball and soccer) and Terri Ziemnicki (Avon field hockey, Granby lacrosse) were also inducted.
“From the present staff, led by Joe Morelli and Sean Bowley, going back to Bill Cloutier, Ned Griffen, Scott Ferrari and Steve Wilson, and further back to Mark Lewis, Bob Barton and Bob Casey, and countless others, the Register has always prided itself on high school sports coverage,” Barker said. “There is a great deal of pride and responsibility in knowing all-state teams have been selected here since 1933, and state polls dating back to 1961.”
Barker joined the Register in 1999 and has been sports editor since 2006. In 2011, he was named sports editor for 21st-Century Media’s Connecticut publications, which include the Middletown Press and Register Citizen of Torrington. This past September, GameTimeCT.com, a statewide high school sports website, was launched.
Barker, who started his career at the Evening Sentinel in Ansonia in 1991, is also a McGinley Award winner for meritorious service to the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance.
“I have always had a great deal of respect for the Connecticut High School Coaches Association,” Barker said. “To be honored in this way is extremely humbling.”
