Fiorillo to coach East Lyme High School girls' basketball team
Sal Fiorillo graduated from East Lyme High School in 1986. Hired as the school’s new girls’ basketball coach, he calls coming home “the dream job for me.”
“I bleed the maroon and white,” Fiorillo said Saturday after being hired recently to replace former coach Colleen Hardison. “I’m so ecstatic that I’m back there. It’s tremendous. It made my whole family happy, including me more. My whole family still lives there.
“It’s where I’ll retire as a coach.”
A Clinton resident, Fiorillo is the head coach of the Morgan High softball team which will take part in this week's Class M state tournament. He was the assistant girls’ basketball coach at Morgan under head coach Joe Grippo for nine seasons.
Fiorillo teaches physical education and special education at West Haven High School.
He captained the football and basketball teams at East Lyme, proud of the fact the football team was 10-1 his senior year under head coach George Williams. Fiorillo also came back to coach football at East Lyme under former head coach Mike Devanney.
“Two people I learned a lot from,” Fiorillo said.
Fiorillo also said that Grippo, with whom he made two state basketball championship game appearances, is “dear to my heart.”
“Grip is a mentor to me, a true friend of mine. We’re on the phone at 5:30 in the morning, 6 o’clock in the morning every day,” Fiorillo said. “If he isn’t one of the best coaches in the state … I’ll say he is. He’s the guy that taught me a lot of things.”
Fiorillo was online Saturday searching for maroon and white apparel.
The Vikings, 10-14, return several players who were underclassmen last season.
Said Fiorillo: “It’s a well-written book that I’m back there now.”
v.fulkerson@theday.com
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