Strahowski Named CT College Coach of the Year by American Legion Baseball

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MCC Head Baseball Coach Chris Strahowski was named Connecticut College Coach of the Year at the Connecticut American Legion Baseball Ninth Annual Hot Stove Banquet at the Aqua Turf in Southington on January 15th.

Past Award winners include NCAA Division III National Champions Bill Decker (Trinity College) and Bill Holowaty (Eastern Connecticut) along with Jim Penders (UConn), Roger Bidwell (UConn at Avery Point) and Central Connecticut’s Charlie Hickey.

“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized, especially with the achievements of the prior winners,” Strahowski said. “Those are coaches whom I’ve tried to model myself after, especially Roger Bidwell, who I probably have taken the most from, regarding game preparation and building a roster.”

Strahowski was presented his award by WTIC-TV’s Rich Coppola, who was Master of Ceremonies of the event. Former MCC Baseball Coach Gene Spaziani, who still teaches at the college is the Hot Stove Chairman and gave the welcome speech.

Also honored were the 2009 American Legion State Champions from Berlin (Senior Division) and Ridgefield (Junior Division) and Oakland Athletic outfielder Rajai Davis (CT American Legion Alumnus/Major League Player Award). Davis, who played at UConn-Avery Point before being drafted in the 38th round in 2001 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Davis hit .305 in 125 games with 41 stolen bases for the A’s in 2009.

“American Legion baseball is an opportunity for the best high school players to showcase their skills at a very high level,” Strahowski added. “It also gives the players a sense of community, that they are representing their town…coming from a multi-high school town, we took a little more pride in coming together as athletes and representing our town, after competing so fiercely against one another throughout the school year.”

Strahowski has a career record of 161-125-3 and will open his 11th season at the school with a double header vs. Dean College scheduled to be played at Cheney Tech on February 28th. Strahowski’s team represented New England at the NJCAA Division III World Series in Tyler, TX in 2008 and 2009 after winning back-to-back Region 21 Championships.