Between their time playing and coaching for Danbury High School, Shaun Ratchford and Harry Trohalis have more than 50 years involved with Hatters athletics.

That kind of dedication to student athletes made the Danbury Old Timers Association take notice, and honor the two Hatters at its annual banquet this fall.

Both were among eight recipients of the 2015 award.

Trohalis was a successful softball coach at Danbury High, where he tallied a 51-29 record.

He encouraged the girls that he coached, and helped many of them live successful lives.

When asked if he could remember his greatest coaching moment, Trohalis said, “Coaching my daughter’s softball team during her senior year was special. Many of the girls I coached,went on to play college softball.”

Not only was Trohalis a successful coach, he was also a Division I college baseball player, and a high school player of the year.

In 1968, he was the All-FCIAC shortstop and the All-Area pitcher. Later, at UConn, he played in the College World Series and finished fifth in the nation.

When asked about his greatest athletic achievement, Trohalis said,  “Winning a College World Series game in 1972.”

Ratchford has also seen a great amount of success during his years here at Danbury High.

As varsity baseball coach, he won a state championship in 2004, and won an FCIAC division title in 2012.

When asked about his top coaching accomplishment, Ratchford had this to say: “There is not one true treasured moment, but instead very many. I don’t remember the games as much as the generations of athletes I helped coach.”

The truly amazing part about the careers of both Trohalis and Ratchford is the fact that even after all of their years, the betterment of their athletes is still their top priority.

Both have had outstanding athletic careers as well as coaching ones.

Kevin Best, a stats and data teacher, had this to say about the two of them: “Both Ratchford and Trohalis are excellent examples of men with honor, integrity, and the pure love of sports.”

Editor’s note: The print version of this story, and an earlier web version, contained errors on Trohalis’ college athletic career. It wrongly said he also played football and basketball. He played baseball. We regret the errors.