More Recollections of "Coach"

By Stephen Schempp

Editor's Note: Classmate Stephen Schempp is stationed in Afghanistan and sent this note of his recollections of Andrew Warde High School Coach Ed Bengermino.

One thing I remember about Benji was he had a great sense of humor. As much of a taskmaster he could be at times, once in a while he'd leave you in stitches. There are two moments in particular that I remember.

As a player, I was a pretty fair pitcher. We were playing Amity High School my freshman year, and I was pitching. It was a close game, and towards the end I was scheduled to bat. Benji decided to put in a pinch hitter for me. Someone asked him, "You're not going to let Schempp hit?" Benji replied, looking at me with this evil little grin on his face, "Schempp couldn't hit a watermelon if you rolled it up to the plate in a wheelbarrow."

The other time was sophomore year against Staples. We had something like a 4-1 lead, and I came up to bat with runners in scoring position. Benji was positioned at the third base coaching box as usual. Low and behold I managed to hit a hard liner to center driving in two runs. As I rounded first, I heard Benji yell in that raspy voice, "Schempp is now one for two years! Write that down in the scorecard. One for two years!" I stood on first embarrassed as hell, while the first baseman for Staples looked at me with this huge grin on his face, trying not to laugh.

To add to Tony's story, I was "umpiring" standing behind the Notre Dame pitcher when Bob hit that shot. That kid and I turned and watched it go over the fence. When I turned back around and looked at that pitcher, he looked at me and said, "Man, that was something, wasn't it?" Even the kid that threw the pitch was impressed.

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Reminiscing on the "Coach"

By Tony Procaccini

Although many classmates knew him as Bengie or even Mr. Bengermino, his players called him "Coach." And we continue to do this, as I noticed at our 30-year reunion last year. (Include me in that group.)

My most vivid memories of Bengermino come from the JV Baseball season of 1974. The team had great talent, in both the pitching and batting areas. Some of the Warde 1976 class members were also playing part-time on the Varsity level, as I remember: John Varholak and Greg Aiello. Pitcher Paul Liptak, a Warde class of 1975 member, did the same. (Paul, a true gentleman and a scholar, and I have remained great friends.)

The team ended its season with a very impressive record of 12-4. The season is detailed next to the team photo which appeared in the Flame 1974 Supplement. Just one black and white photo, which unfortunately is missing some key players: Bob Henry, Kevin Shay, Frank Fekete and Joe McCormack. Looking at some of the hair styles (Tim Kelly, Steve Schempp and Tony Procaccini stick out) brings back fond memories, too!

OK, let's rewind to the pre-season. Notre Dame of Fairfield was our opponent, at the Warde home field, on a gray day. Bob Henry, who in the very next season (as a junior) would hit 5 HR's, waited patiently for a good pitch. After a few tosses, he swung at a fastball down the pipe.

Well, I remember catching the swing just as it happened, then seeing a towering "moon shot" go toward straightaway centerfield, which at that time was not closed in by a fence. Very few could believe this had really happened. A home run out of the park, at a major league distance. None of us ever saw that again in the same place. If asked, Coach will verify the event.

In both the pre-season and during the regular season, Bengie was a drillmaster, and kept us in tip-top shape. The most taxing drill was the sprint. At any point of a practice, Coach would call for gloves down, and we'd line up. "Sprint!" meant go toward a spot about ten yards away at full pace, where we'd wait for the "Back" order. And we never knew when this would end. We were all exhausted after practices, but the training (physical and mental) resulted in a well-trained and successful team.

Though we dreaded the drill, I think we all learned to appreciate Coach Bengermino both then and in later years. His success in other sports during our times and afterward (women's volleyball, men's basketball and Varsity baseball) come as no surprise.

Tony Procaccini
Warde 1976 30-year Reunion Committee President

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Opening of Track Season Stirs Memories of Our Senior Year

The Fairfield Warde High School boys' outdoor track team begins its season in two weeks. The Mustangs open the campaign at Danbury against the host Hatters, Harding Presidents, and Norwalk Bears on Tuesday, April 10. One week later, Tuesday, April 17, the squad hosts Brien McMahon, Staples, and Trumbull at 11:00 in the morning during school vacation week.

Naturally, I'm reminded of the outstanding individual performances the track team had during our senior year at Andrew Warde High School. Although it's been 31 years, the memories of that Crimson Eagles' squad are still quite vivid.

Senior Floyd Scholz and senior co-captain Pete Hellfach both broke school records in 1976. Scholz shattered the high jump record with a jump of six feet, two and three quarters inches, and he broke the triple jump mark by going 42 feet, five and a half inches.

Hellfach threw the discus 153 feet, 10 inches, bettering the previous mark by about 10 feet.

In addition to breaking school records, the team defeated Roger Ludlowe High School, 84 to 61, and it placed seventh out of 16 teams in the FCIAC championships.

Hellfach placed second in the discus and third in the shot put at the league championships. Scholz placed third in the triple jump and fourth in the high jump and 330-yard intermediate hurdles.

Pat Fideles also helped the team in the FCIAC championships by placing third in the long jump and fourth in the 440-yard run.

After the FCIAC meet, Scholz, Hellfach (seen at left), and Fideles participated in the state class LL championships. Hellfach took second place in the discus, Fideles finished fourth in the 440, and Scholz took fifth in the high jump and sixth in the triple jump.

Other seniors who contributed to the effort in 1976 included co-captain Steve Trifone, Tom Fairfield, Marc Joseph, Mike McKernan, Mark Rasmussen, Brian Pander, Mike Petraglia, and Chris Chatlos, who also qualified for the state class LL championships in the pole vault.

This year's squad at Fairfield Warde High School can gain inspiration from its predecessors of 31 years ago.

Share your memories of the track team and individual performances in the "comments" link below.

Paul

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Junior Jukebox Memories

Let's take a look back at the last week of March, 1975, and remember the Top Ten songs in the nation during our junior year at Andrew Warde High School. The songs are listed in order of popularity, courtesy of Musicradio 77 WABC's Web site:

1. Have You Never Been Mellow by Olivia Newton John
2. Lovin' You by Minnie Ripperton
3. My Eyes Adored You by Frankie Valli
4. Lady Marmalade by LaBelle
5. Black Water by The Doobie Brothers
6. Once You Get Started by Rufus (featuring Chaka Khan)
7. Shame, Shame, Shame by Shirley and Company
8. What Am I Gonna Do With You? by Barry White
9. No No Song by Ringo Starr
10. Lady by Styxx

Which one of those was your favorite song? I'd vote for Frankie Valli's My Eyes Adored You. Let me know what you think in the "comments" link below.

Paul

Class of 1976 alum Mark Waxman writes, "As far as Olivia Newton John goes, yes, beautiful. I actually saw her at Sikorsky Airport in 1978 I believe. I was working at Sikorsky Airport while going to school at UB. I worked for Bridgeport flight service back then, part time.

"I drove a fuel truck, moved airplanes around. I drove the fuel truck over to the terminal to fill up a few learjets, one of which was unmistakably hers. It had Olivia Newton John in script, in a red lipstick color on the side of the plane. After refueling, she walked out to the plane (I also got to actually meet Bob Hope and Paul Newman at Sikorsky when I worked there)."

Veteran Educator Still Going Strong

Ed Lominsky is still educating Fairfield's high school students.

"I teach Summer school, and it's still enjoyable," he told me by telephone this evening from his home in Fairfield. "In fact, I just got my letter in the mail," said the former Andrew Warde High School athletic director. Lominsky, who started at Warde in 1967, retired as a full-time educator in June of 2000. He said he's been teaching Summer school "eight or nine years."

Lominsky returned to coach the boys' tennis team at Fairfield Warde for three years before stepping down last year. "I actually was never away from coaching," he told me. "I went to Fairfield High School (after consolidation) and coached there."

Have the students changed all that much since we went to Warde over 30 years ago?

"On the high school level, kids are going to get away with what they're going to get away with," he admitted. "They haven't changed."

Longtime Warde teacher and tennis coach John Honey was actually responsible for recruiting Lominsky to the Melville Avenue campus 40 years ago. "John asked me to do him a favor," Lominsky said. "He couldn't find anybody to take the JV (tennis) kids. I had just graduated a senior class from Stratford High. I started my teaching and coaching career at Andrew Warde in 1967."

Lominsky remained at the high school following the consolidation of Warde and Ludlowe over 20 years ago. The transition from two high schools to one magnified the rivalry between both sides of town. Through it all, he remains partial to Warde and is still very much a Crimson Eagle.

"This side of town had confidence in that we knew how to do the job, and we did the job," he acknowledged. "After consolidation, I had a parent on the phone from the other side of town every other day. This neighborhood had faith in us."

How did the consolidation affect the students? "The Warde kids were going to become Ludlowe kids. The Ludlowe kids were not going to become Warde kids," he told me. He said the Warde students would become influenced by the "button-down" society of the other side of town. However, "We weren't going to have an affect on the Ludlowe kids."

Nearly 20 years later, Fairfield High School split into Warde and Ludlowe once again. The two-high school system adversely affected Warde, according to Lominsky.

"One of my disappointments is that I felt there was a mass exodus of very good teachers to the other side of town," he told me. "They're (Ludlowe) getting very good because of the Warde influence. I don't know a single administrator at Andrew Warde." Lominski feels Ludlowe headmaster Nancy Larsen is most responsible for recruiting the top Warde educators to "the other side of town."

Lominsky told me he underwent a very difficult back operation in October of 1998. "Physically, I can't do what I want to do on the tennis court." The operation fused the third, fourth, and fifth lumbar discs in his back.

He is flying to Las Vegas Sunday, though, to play golf and visit with an old acquaintance for four days. He seemed very excited to be able to chat about his days at Andrew Warde, and his passion and partiality for "our side of town" was not lost on this typist.

"I feel well," he said to me. Mr. Lominsky, you sound well, too.

Share your memories of Mr. Lominsky in the "comments" link below.

Paul

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A Storied Teaching Career About to Close

After 26 years as the music director of the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra, former Andrew Warde High School Headmaster Robert Genualdi is retiring June 30. His final concert is scheduled for the third Sunday in May at the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport.

"It was actually wonderful for me," Genualdi told me by telephone this afternoon from his Park City home where he lives with his wife, Dorothy. "As a headmaster of a large high school, I had to leave the teaching field, and I didn't have the opportunity to interact with the children. It put me back in a teaching position working with children."

What is he most proud of over the last quarter-century-plus? "I initiated two unique opportunities for the children," he told me. "Every other year I enlisted a first-rate professional soloist to work with the children." Some of the soloists included Chris Brubeck, whose father is the legendary Dave Brubeck, and Genualdi's son, Joseph, of Chicago.

"I strongly believe in contemporary music and have kids interact with live composers," he added. "The other year we commissioned a work to be performed by living musicians." He said Mozart and Bach will always have a place when teaching children about great music, but working with a current composer is more meaningful to the students, he emphasized. David Gilbert, a composer and conductor from Bridgeport, was one of the musicians whom Genualdi had work closely with the students.

Genualdi also told me that when he took over the helm of the orchestra 26 years ago, there were 65 children in grades seven through twelve. Today, 260 children are involved ranging from fifth to twelfth grades, and there are four orchestras.

Genualdi served as headmaster at Andrew Warde and Fairfield high schools from the Autumn of 1975, our senior year, through the Spring of 1993. The transition from a single high school to the consolidation of Warde and Ludlowe wasn't as difficult as one might think.

"That went quite smoothly, except for the political process," he told me. "Charles Fowler (who was the superintendent) made me the headmaster for both schools for two years. Ed Shine, who was the headmaster at Ludlowe, moved. I was the 'shuttle' principal.

"I got to interact with with the staffs (from both Warde and Ludlowe) before we combined," he added, telling me that made it a lot easier for everybody. "And I got to work with the parents. It was a very smooth transition. We expanded our opportunities in music and sports."

Genualdi told me that it was a lot easier for him because the new high school was located at the former AWHS. However, it wasn't all "peaches and cream." "There were people who could not accept that either of the schools was closing," he said to me. The Ludlowe alumni, according to Genualdi, were the most vocal opponents to the consolidation at the Melville Avenue campus. "They resented having that school close. However, it went very, very well."

So, what are his plans now that he won't be leading the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra after the May concert? "I will devote time to arranging and conducting," he told me. "As long as my health allows, I still play with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra and the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra. My wife will remain as conductor with one of the younger orchestras."

Mark the third Sunday of May on your calendar. It would be a fitting tribute to attend the final concert directed by this fine man. This corner feels Robert Genualdi is a true "gentleman" in every sense of the word.

Share your memories of Mr. Genualdi in the "comments" link below.

Paul

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