Athletic Hall of Fame
June 3, 2017 – Ron and Sue Nentwig are the first couple to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Their Brewster careers spanned 16 years. Sue taught history, worked as assistant in the Office of College Counseling, was a dorm parent, and coached basketball, soccer, tennis, and softball, while Ron taught math, served as dean of students, coached soccer, hockey, and baseball, and was a dorm parent.
In her acceptance remarks Sue said: “Coaching was a very humbling experience for me. Unlike Ron whose is a gifted, talented, extremely competitive athlete, and a natural born coach, I had to learn my way. Unlike teaching where you control the environment, the players on the field are the ones in charge. You practice, you train, and you prepare, but during the games, it’s pretty much out of our hands.”
“I‘ve had the opportunity to work with some amazing, gifted, and talented co-coaches but even more amazing student athletes: Julie Trask, Jennifer Schleppi, Beth Aronosian, Sage Daly, Julie Dembrosky, Sarah Runstadt, Lauren Thomas, Lauren Malken Olson, and Sarah Chalmers, just to name a few.
“Of course I remember the Lakes Region Champions in soccer, basketball, and softball, but I think the fondest memories and smiles come from when I remember the team practice and bus rides. Sliding in the mud, who could go the furthest; running up and down the hill at the boathouse; playing dodgeball with basketball and winning at horse; Krista Abear making sure I was warm enough and protected enough during softball games (at that time I was six months pregnant); the flat tire we had venturing to Tilton School and the very nice farm family that helped us; playing tennis dodgeball, that didn’t really help our tennis skills, but it was a lot of fun. I don’t know as I really did any of these student athletes justice as a coach but they certainly taught me much more than I taught them. I feel very fortunate to have crossed paths with them, on the field as well as in the classroom and in the dorm.”
Ron talked about the rewarding experience of working at a boarding school and impacting so many lives. “Our 16 years here were a lot of fun. We worked hard but played hard too. We had fun at our jobs. Bottom line,” he shared. “I started off teaching math, coaching varsity soccer and varsity baseball and running a senior dorm, talk about fun. Down the road we started a club hockey program, which developed into a junior varsity program, and finally a full-fledged varsity program in 1991.”
He would become the dean of students, which he referred to as a different skill set than teaching students in the classroom but a position he found complementary to coaching. “Being totally immersed in the day to day life of the students gave me a feel for the athlete’s character. This insight assisted me in knowing how far I could push certain athletes.”
“I can talk about our successes in the athletic department, games won, banners won (not many), goals scored in the last minute of play to win a game, and many more winning experiences, yet I can’t remember the years in which these things happened, however, what I do remember … tough kids playing soccer in the horizontal snow coming off the lake, players playing hurt that would not stay on the bench, players getting checked over the boards, we had no roof, no sides, just boards; I remember someone pitching almost a no hitter; I remember a player breaking his leg during a soccer game and breaking the same leg again during a lacrosse game. I remember players giving 110 percent, playing with passion and heart. These are the things that I want to remember. … There was a time when I thought winning was everything but as you get older … you realize that it is not the most important thing as a coach; everybody is going to win or lose. Yet I do remember one special soccer season, an undefeated season. As we were coming back from Vermont Academy, we rounded the bend at Weston Auto, we saw all these flashing lights … the police were there to give us an escort to the Academy. We were met by the majority of the students and faculty. It was a great feeling to see the school to come out and support our exceptional season.”
