2011 Marks 40th Anniversary of Fusaro's 1st Year

With this year being the 50th anniversary of Sachem football and the 25th anniversary of Sachem's Rutgers Trophy team from 1986, there is one key anniversary people forget: the 40th anniversary of Fred Fusaro taking over as head coach at Sachem in 1971.

Brian Smith, the second coach in Sachem's long football history, lasted just three seasons at the helm before being let go. Enter Fusaro, straight in from the college rank as a graduate assistant at St. Lawrence under Bobby Ford and as an assistant at Hofstra under Howdy Myers.

Anxious to build a program with the values he learned from two coaching legends, Fusaro set out to change history and make Sachem High School dominant and fierce not just on the gridiron, but all walks of life from academia to other sports.

Due to an unsettled financial situation at Hofstra with rumors of the school canceling football, Fusaro started looking around and came across a teaching and coaching opening at Sachem thanks to former Brentwood football and wrestling coach Joe Campo, who he befriended when recruiting some of Campo’s players for Hofstra.

“He told me there was this great opening,” Fusaro said. “Joe recommended me for the job, made a couple of phone calls for me. I interviewed and ended up getting it.”

The rest is history. In 1971 Sachem went 3-4-1. His first victory was a 6-0 win over North Babylon in Week 2 and the final game of the season was a 46-0 loss to Huntington, his alma mater. The Flaming Arrows won their first county title six years later. Fusaro went on to win six county championships, had 192 career victories and is one of the most successful football coaches in Long Island history.

He's still going strong, recently helping John Glenn with their second straight Long Island championship as their defensive coordinator.

A look at Fusaro's first season in 1971: