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Carl Brewer, a Greenwich Youth Sports Coaching Legend, Dies at 86

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Carl Brewer passed away on July 29, 2016 in Foxborough, Mass.
Carl Brewer passed away on July 29, 2016 in Foxborough, Mass.

Carl R. Brewer, born June 21, 1930 in Larchmont, N.Y., grew up to attend John Hopkins University for two years before entering the U.S. Marine Corp and serving in the Korean War. After he and his wife, Shirley A. Ehrman, married on June 1, 1957, they moved to Old Greenwich.

Brewer worked as a salesman for the Foxboro Company, but had a special passion for coaching youth sports. For years Brewer was a staple in the Greenwich community as the former baseball coach of the Binney Bruins (1958-70) and the Hoyt Bruins (1966-76) and also the football coach for the Binney Bears (1963-73) and the St. Clements Vikings (1973-76).

Coach Brewer is remembered by his former players as a coach who wasn’t overly talkative during practices or games, but yet was never too busy to teach. Those teachable moments, they say, came with the same quiet but attentive demeanor, win or lose.

Coach Brewer had a toughguy look with “his square build and buzz cut,” as one former player of his recalled. He’d know every name and jersey number on his roster, along with small and important stories of all his players.

“He was a friend to all of his players for life,” said Mark Hatter, a player under Brewer for many years. “He was a coach, but it evolved into a friendship. He wanted to see you and he wanted to help you.”

In a different era of coaching, when Brewer smoked his Salem cigarettes on the sideline and had beer stocked after the games for the coaches (and soda for the kids), it was his timeless methods of teaching and guidance that set him apart from the rest.

“We all grew up with a lot of moral foundation and character because of all the coaches,” said Hatter. “But the way they coached, you can’t really coach like that nowadays. But the way Carl coached, you could. He coached then and he could coach now.”

*

Coach Brewer would take his company car to practices, filled with papers, meeting reports, and other work-related items. But at a moments notice, it could be turned into the team bus.

As a football practice began one day at Binney Park, the skies opened up and rain poured down. Coach Brewer told his assistant coaches to grab a few kids each and take them home.

After his second trip back from dropping kids off, Brewer saw one last kid waiting under a tree with his bike. He put the bike in the trunk and proceeded to drive the kid home.

Once there, Brewer asked the kid where his brother was, since they were both at practice.

The kid replied, “He went home with my mother. I’m too pissed off at him and I didn’t want to ride in the car with him.”

*

When Coach Brewer had something to say, his players listened.

He may have not been leading the drills in practice or been the most vocal in games, but when he did pull a player aside, it was always a teachable moment. Even when he was silent, his methods of teaching stuck with his players for life.

As head coach of the Binney Bears football team, Coach Brewer once noticed that one of his better players had missed practice all week long, but was ready come game time. He let the kid play, but watched as he fumbled the ball twice in the game.

The following week, the same kid missed practice again for the week; Coach Brewer didn’t say a word about it until minutes before the start of the next game. He let the kid think he was playing all the way up to it.

As the player started to put his helmet on, Coach Brewer stepped in and said, “Sit down over here where you can’t fumble the ball.”

The kid never missed a practice or fumbled the ball again, the story goes.

*

Although Coach Brewer never got a chance to coach his own kids due to his aging knees, he was a neighborhood father figure in more ways than one.

“He had a true gift of making the most mediocre ball player feel so good about himself,” said Pete Catanzaro. “I don’t know if there is a more important aspect of coaching than building self-esteem and confidence, which inevitably will make that individual succeed in any aspect of life.”

Pete and his older brother, Harry Catanzaro, grew up playing on the Binney Bears and hosting team pool parties, and over the years it would be Harry who would follow in Coach Brewer’s footsteps as a mentor and a coach.

The two would go on to coach the Binney Bears team before they created the St. Clement’s Vikings football team.

In the late 1970’s, a priest from the St. Clement’s Church asked around town if any coaches would be willing to coach a football team for a group of kids from the housing projects in Stamford behind Bongiorno’s.

“To say this was a rough group of kids is an understatement,” said Peter Catanzaro. His brother Harry and Coach Brewer would take on the task of coaching the kids, who often grew up in difficult circumstances.

The highly rewarding coaching experience for both coaches came in the form of respect they received from the players from the mix of Old Greenwich, Riverside and Stamford kids.

“I would go and watch their practices,” said Peter Catanzaro. “The respect, over time, these kid gave to Carl and Harry was tremendous. I’m willing to say that may have been the most love these kids may have ever experienced in their childhood.”

In 1995, Brewer was honored by the Greenwich Old Timers Athletic Association and was presented with the Coach’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“He was so caring and such a good person,” said Harry Catanzaro. “Coaching, to me, is something you not only want to do, but it’s just what you do. Singers sing, dancers dance, musicians play, and coaches coach. It’s just what I do.”

Coach Harry “Cat” Catanzaro went on to coach in the Greenwich Youth Football League and served as the head coach of the BANC Raiders. He had several coaching stints at Stamford High School, Blind Brook High School and Darien High School before arriving at New Canaan High School in 2013.

Since taking over the defensive line in 2014, New Canaan has won back-to-back state titles.

Coaching is so much a part of Catanzaro’s life that he named his son after the late college football coaching icon Paul “Bear” Bryant.

“Carl taught me to put kids in a position where they are going to succeed,” said Harry Catanzaro. “He also taught me as a coach to not to have a lot of rules. The only real rules were, don’t be late for practice and don’t embarrass the family.”

In 2011, Catanzaro was named the recipient of the Coach’s Lifetime Achievement Award for the decades of time spent to coaching youth football in Greenwich.

Today, Coach Brewer’s coaching legacy can still be felt throughout the youth leagues of Greenwich to the elite ranks of Fairfield County high school football.

“Carl would always say that tomorrow is a new day, said Harry Catanzaro. “He’d say, ‘Let’s get after it tomorrow.’”

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