Since he took over as head coach in 2007, Trifone’s Blue Wave has compiled a 129-26 record with four FCIAC and three state championships. Darien earned the state’s final No. 1 ranking for three straight seasons from 2015 to 2017.
Trifone has a 252-86-2 career record between Brien McMahon and Darien, and ranks sixth in all-time wins in the state.
“I have had the privilege of teaching amazing young men and women in the classroom, and coaching tremendously talented and dedicated young men on the football field,” he said in his resignation letter sent to Hearst Connecticut Media. “The pride I feel as I look back on my time at DHS is impossible to put into words and would be even harder to say without fighting back tears.”
Trifone, who will also be stepping down from his teaching position at DHS at the end of the school year, has had four sons go through the football program: Stepson Kevin Joy of the Class of 2007, twins Bobby and Christian of the Class of 2016, and Mark, a senior who will graduate in the spring.
“He is retiring from teaching and coaching,” Darien athletic director Chris Manfredonia said. “I have been here seven years and for seven years I have been to the state football championship luncheon six times.
“That’s unheard of. That is a testament to Rob and the program he has built here. He is going to be missed. The next guy has big shoes to fill, for sure. I don’t think people understand how hard it is to build a program up to that level. Rob did that and he sustained that. I have great respect and admiration for Rob.”
In a letter addressed to “Friends and colleagues of the Darien community, Trifone wrote, “As coach, I had the honor of working with an incredible group of coaches and parents, and talented and dedicated student-athletes to achieve amazing success.
“Together, we went to seven state championships, won three, and steadily progressed into one of the most competitive football programs in the State of Connecticut. And while the wins and success were wonderful by-products of our collective hard work and dedication, they pale in comparison to the experience of being a part of the development of young boys into young men who have, and will continue, to go on to become great parents, professionals, neighbors, and friends.”
His final Blue Wave team went 11-2 this season, reaching the state championship game for the sixth time in seven years. They defeated Greenwich, 26-16, and Southington, 21-12, in the first two rounds of the CIAC Class LL tournament before losing the final to Newtown 13-7 on a touchdown pass as time expired.
This year’s senior class was a special one for Trifone, who coached many of the players since they joined the Darien Junior Football League’s third-grade teams.
“It’s as good as it gets, and I mean that,” Trifone said of this year’s group. “They’re like sons to me, and they literally treat me like a dad. Like my own son, I’ve been able to see them go from being 8-year-olds to middle school, kind of awkward, to being freshmen and the low men on the totem pole, and now to young men. When you can see that kind of evolution in the young men that you’ve coached, it’s a wonderful thing.”
Trifone has been with the Darien football program for 15 years, joining as an assistant coach in 2005 and then taking over as head coach in 2007.
Trifone was inducted into the FCIAC Hall of Fame in 2014, and has also been named Coach of the Year 16 times, including two times by the National Football Foundation, one by the CT High School Coaches Association and four times by the FCIAC.
He was inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Bengermino was also a successful volletball coach at Warde and perenially led his Crimson Eagles to the league title and state championship game. His favorite squad featured senior Kathy Anderson, who led the team to an undefeated season and berth in the state championship match which the Eagles lost to Maloney. He is a member of the Connecticut Women's Volleyball Hall of Fame.