At 92 years old, Sam Cario is sharp and still recalls his Sachem career with fond memories. Cario was Sachem’s first wrestling coach and one of the earliest hires for legendary Superintendent Walter C. Dunham. He later served as a longtime principal at Wenonah Elementary School and has the honor of being perhaps the oldest living original Sachem educator and coach.
Hired in 1955 after attending Cortland State and serving in the U.S. Marines, Cario retired in 1986. He was inducted into the Sache Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016. He lives in Englewood, Florida, with his wife Louisa, who taught first grade for two years in Sachem at the old Parsnip Pond Annex.
During the conversation, Cario spoke about wrestling for legendary coach Sprig Gardner at Mepham, wrestling in the Marine Corps, taking a sabbatical at Florida State that changed his life and career, and working for men like Dunham and legendary Sachem athletic director Dave Rothenberg.
Over the last few months, the “Sachem Conversation” has captured the life and spirit of longtime Sachem coaches and educators through video interviews. Since Cario does not have a computer or smartphone and was more than happy to chat on a regular phone call, this conversation is purely text-based.
The “Sachem Conversation” is an oral history project featuring people who helped make the history we appreciate today. These interviews will be saved on hard drives and donated to the Sachem Public Library and the libraries at Sachem North and Sachem East.
Chris R. Vaccaro: Let’s go back to the beginning of 1955. How did you get connected to Sachem and eventually get hired?
Sam Cario: I was up at Cortland State. A friend of mine said he has a friend on Long Island who was hiring. I met Mr. Dunham, Walter C. Dunham. I said I’d like to coach wrestling and teach. Wrestling was number one, and teaching was number two. He called in David Rothenberg, the athletic director, and said, he would like to have wrestling. The rest is history.
CV: You’re pretty passionate about wrestling. It has defined your life in many ways. Where did that passion come from?
SC: I came from Sprig Gardner’s Mepham High School. I wrestled for two years of varsity and never lost a match. I had a good background in wrestling. Sprig laid the foundation for many other coaches who started wrestling throughout Long Island. Gardner was the one who taught me everything. I wrestled 103 and 112. I won the Long Islands in both. The Long Islands were a big deal back then. He was a very controlled coach, and he taught us drills and was open to coaching and teaching everyone. We would have other schools come and wrestle with us but they would practice with us, so he was very open to expanding the sport. His main idea was to spread wrestling throughout Long Island.
CV: You wrestled in college, too, at Cortland. What was that experience like?
SC: My friend Bob Mahoney told me to come up to Cortland. They had a wrestling program we could get going. One year we beat Syracuse. I wrestled in three national championships. In my junior year, I was student teaching and met my wife, which was key to the rest of my life. I also got drafted into the service, which changed things a bit.
CV: Talk about the service and how that altered your plans.
SC: I went to Freeport, NY, to register, which is where you went when you were drafted. I said I wanted to go into the Marine Corps to stay in shape. I wrestled in the Marines, also. I wrestled in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Navy-Marine team. One of my matches was against a kid who had beaten the only guy I lost to at nationals. That was enjoyable.
CV: Three national championship appearances are outstanding. What was that experience like?
SC: I was in the semifinals but never won. One was National AAUs at Hofstra College as a sophomore. Two times I wrestled in the national NCAAs, junior and senior years. Both were when I was out of the Marine Corps. The final was at Cornell University.
CV: Let’s get back to Sachem. The district was just forming, and it must have been very unique to be part of something growing quickly.
SC: The way we started, grades seven, eight, and nine were in Gatelot Avenue at the time. We wrestled in a little room in the back. We progressed from seven, eight, and nine to high school. Sachem was home for us. I loved working at Sachem. It was a great and friendly community. We were a central distinct and encompassed four schools, Ronkonkoma, Lake Ronkonkoma, Holbrook, and Holtsville-Farmingville. It was quite a huge area. We had kids from a large section. We became a pretty good wrestling program, but it took a while. We progressed and grew. We had so much potential.
CV: Walter Dunham has a great reputation as a builder and visionary. Can you describe what it was like to work for him?
SC: Working with Mr. Dunham was very easy. He set the tone. Whatever that was, you automatically did that. It was no problem. He was a very intelligent man. He did wonders by making Sachem the school it was. He was hired to make a central school district, and he did that. He was in control. You knew that he was your boss. He was a good man. He made everyone feel that we were in an important school district, and it was that. His leadership was important.
CV: Dave Rothenberg, Sachem’s first athletic director, is another one of those legendary figures who set the done.
SC: He made sure everything was done right. He bought everything I ever wanted. He knew exactly where to go, what to do, and how to get what we needed. I never had to ask him to do something a second time. We had beautiful uniforms. It worked out so well. I was lucky to work at Sachem because of people like him.
CV: At some point, you made the decision to become a principal and spent the rest of your career leading Wenonah Elementary. How did that happen?
SC: After 14 years, I took a sabbatical leave and went to Florida State University. That’s when I made up my mind. I was in Tallahassee, Florida, and I had been offered another year that they would allow me to pursue my doctorate, or I could come home and become a principal. Mr. Dunham said a bird in the hand was better in two in the bush. I’m going to give you a principalship, don’t lose this opportunity, he told me. I had Dr. Frick as my head professor at Florida State. It was a good year. Incredible year. Our kids loved it. They went to school in Florida. Mr. Dunham said to forget the doctorate and come home. It was fine with me. Being principal was a big deal for me.
CV: My kids go to Wenonah, and my wife is co-PTA president. We love the Wenonah family and our Lake Grove community. What was it like during your time from 1971 through retirement in 1986?
SC: What made it good, I had an incredible staff. They were outstanding. Their love of the kids and teaching and working in the community. We had a great community feeling. The teachers still get together every once in a while. It was an awfully good experience. I was fortunate to have them on my staff.
CV: Can you share the story about how an impromptu meeting with Don Woolley in upstate, New York brought him to Sachem for what would be another legendary career?
SC: I met Don in Ithaca, New York. He was at my wife’s uncle’s gas station at the time. This guy was working on the cars and said, “Hi there, I go to Ithaca.” I asked him what he was majoring in and about wrestling and soccer. I said well, what you do right now is give a call to Dave Rothenberg and that was the beginning of Woolley’s move to sachem. He came into Sachem the next year. He was our soccer coach and my assistant in wrestling.
CV: Let’s end with this … what do you want your legacy to be?
SC: I have a scrapbook, and every once in a while, I look at it and have fond memories. I was a good teacher, and a good coach and I loved what I was doing at Sachem. At Wenonah, I had an excellent staff, and a good community, and the kids were the nicest. It’s kind of emotional to think about it all these years later, but it was a special place and meant a lot.