Fred Fusaro, 83, has returned to coach the offensive and defensive lines at his alma mater, Huntington High School, for a second volunteer season with the Blue Devils.
The Long Island football lifer spent 34 years as head coach at Sachem North, where the varsity field now bears his name, before a 19-year stint as an assistant at John Glenn High School under former player Dave Shanahan. Fusaro told The Post he has more than 200 career victories and estimates over 150 of his players reached the college level across 55 years on the sideline.
Four of his athletes made it to the NFL, most prominently Giants Super Bowl champion John “Jumbo” Elliott during Fusaro’s Sachem tenure. The coach’s influence extended well beyond those who played past high school, though. “By pushing you hard, by holding you accountable, he prepared you not only for the game of football, but for the great game of life,” Shanahan said.
Fusaro’s own path began in the 1960s as a varsity lineman at Huntington, where he first fell for the sport through the staff he played under. That led to playing at Ithaca and coaching stops at St. Lawrence and Hofstra before he found his true calling in high school ball.
“The camaraderie you develop with kids is where it’s at,” Fusaro told The Post. “If you get involved in coaching, you’ve got to love it … and I love these kids.”
Shanahan, who helped lead Sachem to a 1986 Rutgers Trophy, brought Fusaro to John Glenn in 2004 after becoming head coach there in 1995. What Fusaro figured would last a couple of years stretched to nearly two decades. The pair captured back-to-back Long Island championships in 2010 and 2011, with Glenn’s 2010 squad posting the island’s only undefeated season that year and taking home a Rutgers Trophy.
“He had excellent schemes — he’s a true technician,” Shanahan said. “The kids loved him because he was such a hard worker.”
Fusaro called Shanahan “one of my best players,” and both men acknowledged their relationship wasn’t without friction. The coach built his program on tough love that players learned to accept.
“If they know you care about them,” Fusaro said, “you can pretty much do whatever you want.”
The impact Fusaro left on the profession itself may rank as his most lasting legacy. He told The Post at least 50 of his former players became coaches themselves. “You like to think that you’re doing something right,” he added.
That reach was visible this past summer when Fusaro was inducted into the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in Buffalo. “I had 25 players come up to Buffalo for the induction,” he said.
John Glenn boys soccer coach Lou Hanner, overhearing Shanahan discuss Fusaro, interjected to call him “first class.” Shanahan himself described Fusaro as “a humble man” who “was always behind me and my decisions he thought were good for me” since Shanahan’s youth.
Fusaro stepped away from Sachem in 2002 not because he was done with kids, but because he was ready to stop dealing with parents. His return to Huntington came after Shanahan retired from coaching in 2025, with Fusaro deciding it was time to go back where it all began.
The Blue Devils currently sit at 2-1 on the young season. For Fusaro, the homecoming has stirred old feelings. “It brought back a lot of memories being here,” he said. “I’ve been blessed, truly blessed, to have the kids that I had and the dedicated coaches that I had over the years.”
Huntington’s next game is at home against West Babylon.