George Crouse has a friend, Doug Chapman, who is a fellow longtime tennis coach. Whenever Crouse or Chapman receive an award, they joke that they have bragging rights over the other.

Crouse, for instance, is the only one with his own rock, a giant stone located next to the tennis courts at Stonington High School. The rock bears a plaque dedicating the courts to Crouse, the longtime girls' tennis coach for the Bears.

On Tuesday, Crouse received another honor, as it was announced he will be the recipient of the prestigious Gold Key Award, to be presented by the Connecticut Sports Media Alliance at the organization's 80th annual dinner, Oct. 16 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.

Crouse, who has 833 career victories coaching boys' and girls' tennis at Stonington, will be joined by fellow Gold Key recipients Chris Dailey, the associate coach of the UConn women's basketball team for 37 seasons under head coach Geno Auriemma; former Major League pitcher Rob Dibble; College Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tom Penders and professional golfer and past PGA of America president Suzy Whaley.

"I'm very honored," Crouse said Tuesday. "To me, it's a very prestigious award. Not too many coaches of tennis, I think, have ever been mentioned for this. I'm pretty modest but this is pretty good. I'm kind of at a loss for words, which I'm usually not. For me to be in this group is appreciated and it's something I will hold dearly the rest of my life."

Crouse, whose team is currently 5-0 overall, 3-0 in Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I play, graduated from Stonington in 1960 and began coaching there in the fall of 1973. He was 304-114 coaching the boys' tennis team before girls' tennis moved from the fall to the spring along with the boys, forcing him to make a decision between the teams.

He is 529-107 coaching the girls, beginning with the 1987 season. The Bears won three fall state championships, then reached eight straight Class S tournament championship matches in the spring from 2006-13, winning the 2013 title over Weston.

Crouse was named the 2019 National High School Coach of the Year, the first-ever Connecticut coach to win for girls' tennis.

He is the former Stonington First Selectman and taught in the social studies department in the Stonington school system for 37 years. He and his wife Ann live in Old Mystic and have four children, Maggie, Liz, Ann and George, all of whom played tennis for Crouse at Stonington.

Crouse thanked all his former players throughout the seasons — "I'm sort of proud of them for getting me here," he said.

Dailey, an assistant coach for all 11 of UConn's national championships, was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2018. Dibble, a Southington High School graduate, was drafted in the first round by the Cincinnati Reds in 1983 and was the Co-Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series for the Reds in 1990.

Penders, a Stratford native, played basketball and baseball at UConn before coaching college basketball from 1971-2010, winning 649 games and guiding the University of Texas to the Elite 8 in 1990. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.

Whaley, the former Farmington resident, won the 2002 Connecticut Section PGA championship, qualifying her to play in the 2003 Greater Hartford Open. In 2018, she became the first woman to serve as president of the PGA of America. Whaley was inducted into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame in 2021.

Tickets for the Gold Key Dinner are $75 and may be obtained by contacting CSMA president Tim Jensen at tim.jensen@patch.com or (860) 394-5091. The proceeds will go to support the Bo Kolinsky Sports Media Scholarship.

v.fulkerson@theday.com