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07/24/2016 12:00 AMThe Branford Senior American Legion baseball team has reached unprecedented heights with Rich Balzano as its head coach for the past 12 seasons. Last week, Balzano announced that this summer would be his last with Post 83 as Balzano retired from his head coaching position.
Balzano has enjoyed guiding Branford to a ton of victories, while forming many great relationships throughout his tenure as Post 83’s skipper, but he felt that now was the right time to leave the program and get in a little more rest and relaxation during the summer.
“It’s just time,” Balzano said. “I’m going to be 61 and we’ve had such a great run and a great time, but I want to spend a little more time working and vacationing in summer months, which is hard to go when you’re playing eight weeks from the middle of June through the end of July or the beginning of August.”
Playing into August became a tradition for Branford with Balzano in the dugout. Post 83 won both the state and Northeast Regional championships four times in Balzano’s run as head coach, claiming those titles in first year in 2005, as well as 2007, 2010, and 2013. Branford thus qualified for the American Legion World Series all four years and Balzano is the only head coach in the history of Connecticut American Legion baseball to guide a team to the World Series on four occasions. Branford’s best finish came in 2005, when Balzano’s bunch finished in third place. Branford also reached the final of the State Tournament in 2011.
In Balzano’s career as the Branford Senior Legion head coach, Post 83 claimed seven Zone 2 crowns, including six in a row before this year, and won 250 games in zone play. Branford went 27-0 in Zone 2 en route to the state and Northeast titles in 2013 and put together a 52-game win streak in contests against Connecticut opponents between the 2013 and 2014 campaigns.
Prior to taking over the Senior Legion team, Balzano coached a Branford 14-U Sandy Koufax squad to a state title in 2002, a 16-U Mickey Mantle team to the state championship the next year, and then guided the Branford Junior Legion team to the state crown in 2004. All totaled, Balzano won 375 games as a head coach in the Branford American Legion baseball program, including non-zone and postseason games.
“We’ve had great players come through the program and, no matter how good of a coaching staff you have, if you don’t have great players, you can’t win baseball games. That’s all there is to it and we’ve had a ton of incredible players the whole time I’ve been here,” said Balzano. “We came up with idea of what we wanted the program to be and it actually worked. We implemented it, the kids executed it, and it worked. We knew that if we had the right players and the right system that we could win baseball games and our kids did a great job of following the script.”
Balzano will surely miss watching his players succeed on the field each season, but says that what he will miss most is giving the boys a chance to better themselves and open up new opportunities through playing the game of baseball.
“For me, the wins and losses are very important. I love to win and I love to see the happiness the kids get out of winning. Losing isn’t fun. Winning is fun,” he said. “But what I will miss is the opportunity to get kids into school and play baseball in tandem. Maybe a kid wouldn’t have gone to college if not for baseball and so it’s the marginal student who has good baseball talent that we help get to the next level and leverage baseball into an education.”
Balzano concludes by thanking his team manager Chet Santoro, assistant coaches Frank Forgione and Kyle Heins, plus former assistant Doug Papuga for their help through the years. Balzano also extends gratitude to team sponsor Massey’s Glass for its unwavering support during his time with Post 83.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work with so many great guys,” he said.