Sachem boasts the most inductees of any school district in the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame and that number continues to grow each year.
Two more coaching legends were inducted to the hall on Friday night during a ceremony at the Upsky Hotel in Hauppauge, N.Y. Former lacrosse coach Rick Mercurio, and former gymnastics coach Ken Friedheim are now both enshrined with a number of other legendary Sachem coaches and student-athletes.
Sachem has had a hot streak in recent years in getting hall of famers inducted. There have been eight inductees with ties to the district to get the nod in the last three years.
Mercurio is one of Long Island’s all-time winningest lacrosse coaches with 316 victories to his credit. He led Sachem to a New York State title in 1993, and was an assistant with Mount Sinai for another state title in 2008. In recent years he has worked for the Federation of International Lacrosse as an ambassador of the game and traveled the world giving clinics. He is helping lead the charge to get lacrosse recognized as an olympic sport in the coming years.
“I share this honor with the entire Sachem community,” said Mercurio. “This recognition is the result of the collective achievements of all the administrators, teachers, coaching staff, parents and especially all the great players I’ve had the opportunity to coach.”
Like Friedheim, Mercurio gave a special thanks to former Sachem athletic director Tom Sabatelle, who was inducted to the hall of fame last year, and who was in attendance at the ceremony.
“He maintained an environment where coaches didn’t just work with each other, we worked, rather, for each other,” said Mercurio. “We worked together as coaches in the Sachem athletic program and not just as individual coaches for individual teams.”
Friedheim is New York’s all-time leader in gymnastics victories with 324 and coached Sachem boys gymnastics to a dynasty level before the sport dwindled down to no teams in the region.
He started coaching at Sachem in 1969 and built the gymnastics program through a variety of campaign methods that included a summer camp, Saturday community program, and exhibition sessions at local elementary schools. He physically had to sell kids on the idea of the sport in order to build his program, and it worked.
Like many former Sachem coaches, he credits longtime football coach Fred Fusaro as a guiding light and leader during his career.
“I came to Sachem at a time when Sachem was growing,” said Friedheim. “It was like a fraternity of coaches that helped each other. I learned a lot from Fred about the planning of practice, about doing what was necessary from the ground up to develop a strong program.”
“It was a lot of work, but it was fun coming to work every day,” he added. “It was a wonderful atmosphere to work in and I was very lucky to work with many fine young men that made me a better coach.”
2015 Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame Inductees
- John Gregorek, Olympian
- Ken Friedheim, Gymnastics coach
- Walter Williams, Coach and AD
- Carol Rose, Lacrosse coach
- Rob Pannell, Lacrosse player
- Bob Herzog, Sportswriter
- Gary Lee Brown, NFL player
- Harold Cooley, Bowling coach
- Richard Mercurio, Lacrosse coach
- Rob Grable, Pro baseball player
Complete list of Sachem inductees in Suffolk HOF
- John “Jumbo” Elliott (football player), 1993
- Joe Cipp Jr. (football coach), 1996
- David S. Rothenberg (administrator), 1996
- Neal Heaton (baseball player), 1997
- Diane Nelson (equestrian), 2000
- Fred Fusaro (football coach), 2003
- Jack Mahoney (wrestling coach), 2004
- Bill Batewell (baseball coach), 2010
- Risa Zander (basketball coach), 2013
- Jeff Ruland (basketball player), 2013
- Nicole Kaczmarski (basketball player), 2013
- Tom Sabatelle (administrator/athlete), 2014
- Doug Shanahan (lacrosse player), 2014
- Nick Schroeder (interim administrator), 2014
- Ken Freidheim (gymnastics coach), 2015
- Rick Mercurio (lacrosse coach), 2015
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro