Masters steps down as football coach in Simsbury

Dave Masters, shown in 2019, has resigned as football coach in Simsbury after 10 seasons leading the Trojans.

After 10 years of leading the Simsbury High football team and 32 years coaching high school football, head coach Dave Masters is stepping away from football. He resigned in January.

“It has been the honor of my professional life to be a part of Simsbury football,” Masters said in an email to players, parents and friends of the program. “The memories are my most treasured and the privilege of being the head coach has never been lost on me.”

Masters came to Simsbury in 2003 as an assistant coach under Joe Grace and Jeff Osborne before taking over the program in 2015.

The most successful season, on the field, came in 2019 when the Trojans went 9-1, qualified for the CIAC Class LL tournament and won the first CIAC tournament game in school history with a 17-14 win over Cheshire.

He coached his son, Jackson, who set a multitude of school records throwing the ball in 2017. That season, Simsbury won the final six games of the season after a 1-3 start. His overall record is 39-53.

“It was time, honestly,” he said. “It had turned into an all-year long activity. That’s my fault. But if you’re not doing it, everyone else is.”

It will be a different experience for Masters next fall. He played football as a youngster in Pennsylvania and at Springfield College. Once he graduated, he was an assistant on the staff of Hall of Fame coach Frank Robinson, Jr. at Hall beginning in 1993.

His teams in Simsbury were always large. A year ago, there were 150 kids in the program. This fall, it was in the range of 110 players.

That’s been a blessing and a burden for the Trojans, who played in the largest division in the Central Connecticut Conference (Tier 1) for most of Masters’ career, in part due to the number of players in the varsity, junior varsity and freshman programs.

“We are super proud of what we did here and the kind of program we ran,” he said. “We took everyone and we treated everyone the same.

“We really focused on building a good person,” he said. “Football is a crucible of life and it builds character. We really felt that was important for our program. We tried to develop leadership skills, academic skills.”

And winning football games. But in the end, it’s the people, the memories and relationships that stand out.

“When I think back on stuff, it is really about people,” he said. “I would not trade one memory or experience for another.  The adverse times have made the great ones even better.  Among the most important lessons I hope will be carried forward is that goals might not always be achieved but the effort to pursue them is always worth the effort.”

Simsbury High coach Dave Masters. (Photo courtesy Scott Kerr)

There was that night in 2016 when receiver Danny Deitz caught a touchdown pass against Enfield a little more than a year after receiving a heart transplant.

In 2017, Jackson Masters set new single-game school records for touchdown passes (4), yards (342) in a blowout win over Avon and threw a school-record 34 completions in a win over South Windsor the same season. He also set single season records for passing yardage (2,305), touchdowns (19) and completions (189).

In 2019, the Trojans beat Hall in overtime in the season opening game, 9-3 and slipped past Glastonbury, 14-7 in November. In the state tournament, Simsbury beat Cheshire before falling to eventual Class LL champion Newtown, 17-0 in the semifinals. Simsbury tied a program record with 10 wins.

“That 2019 run was something special for sure,” he said. “We had the right players and we had the right coaches that cared and worked hard. And players that could play. You have to have the right combination. Kids who love each other and put other kids above themselves. There were no selfish players on that team and that made a difference.”

The 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trojans have been rebuilding every since.

Football hasn’t been Masters’ only sport. He coached baseball at Hall and Simsbury (2011-19). He has also coached boys hockey at Simsbury and Hall, where he was the varsity coach for several years. He has coached freshman lacrosse at Hall, too.

Masters, a physical education teacher at Hall, is looking forward to spending some time on the links as the boys golf coach at Hall.

Sean Penney (17) celebrates with Simsbury coach Dave Masters after Penney recovered a fumble to stop a drive against East Hartford in 2016.