Sports

'Everywhere You Go, You See Jack' [Video]

Longtime youth sports coach recognized for 40 years of service.

Everyone has hobbies, Jack Shpunt says. His just happens to be coaching.

Having spent much of his later teenage years without a father, who died when Shpunt was 13-years-old, he was influenced by an uncle who worked as an athletic director and later pressed into helping raise his younger brothers, attending their games and eventually coaching their teams.

More than 40 years later, Shpunt's longtime devotion to youth sports recently was recognized by fellow coaches as well as the governor and state legislators, such as Rep. Chris Lyddy (D-106).

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"I always say that a true leader should not necessarly be measured by what or how much a person is able to accomplish but rather what and how much one is able to help others accomplish," Lyddy said to Shpunt during a ceremony last week. "If you look around the room tonight, this gym is filled with people that you have helped accomplish great things, not only on the court but off the court as well."

While the 63-year-old coach was honored for his volunteerism in youth boys basketball, Shpunt also has longtime ties to youth football, and at one time or another coached Little League baseball, softball and lacrosse, a mix of sports that in and of itself makes him a prolific figure in a town that values sports.

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"Everywhere you go, you see Jack," Nighthawks boys basketball coach John Quinn said.

Shpunt has volunteered for so many years, he is not only known by so many children, but their fathers, and in at least one case, a grandfather who can claim him as their coach.

"I'm on to my third generation," Shpunt said.

But more than his contributions toward coaching teams to victory is his commitment to the town, according to First Selectman Pat Llodra, whose grown son was coached by Shpunt in Pop Warner football in 1975, which has convinced more than a family that it's "nicer in Newtown," an often-repeated town slogan.

"That experience was a very positive experience and it affirmed our decision as a family that Newtown is the kind of place that we want to stay," Llodra said. "It's a good place to raise children and a good family oriented community – a lot of that is because the quality of experience that we had with Coach Shpunt."

Quinn described Shpunt as a humanitarian who frequently attends charity benefits.

"With Jack, it's never about Jack it's always about the kids," Quinn said. "I run a benefit tournament here for some families that need some help and the first guy there is always Jack and the last guy to leave is always Jack and the guy who spends the most money is always Jack."

Shpunt was born in Flushing, N.Y. but his mother's family has longtime ties to Newtown, at one point owning the Sandy Hook Hotel prior to it becoming the infamous site of a . Shpunt said he, in fact, had been in the bar the day before the shootout.

Shpunt also was in town for the Great Flood of 1955 when part of Sandy Hook Center, including the bridge on Church Hill Road, was submerged in water.

Shpunt started coaching in Newtown in 1969 after one of his younger brothers – Shpunt is one of seven children – wanted to play in a new basketball league forming at . He said his mother urged him to get involved so that his brother would have a better chance on the team, though Shpunt said as a recent graduate of Western Connecticut State University, he also wanted to get involved in coaching.

"He loves sports and he loves teaching kids," his brother, Jim Shpunt, 61, said. "To me, he would have been a great teacher if he had gone into that field."

Jack Shpunt has inspired more than a few would-be coaches in his time.

"He started becoming a mentor to me because I really like how he handled the kids," said Kevin Kline, 52, also a longtime youth sports coach. "His style is on the softer side of coaching kids. He never yells."

As a soft-spoken coach, Shpunt used to lower his voice when talking to rambunctious football players as a technique to calm down the players and get their attention, Kline said.

"In all of the stuff that he does in youth sports, it's always about putting a positive spin," Kline said.

Shpunt said one of his proudest accomplishments in youth sports was to write a policy mandating equal playing time for children that would ensure no one would sit idly on the sidelines.

"It bothers me to see a kid not playing," he said. "That's something I learned over time...You want to keep them all playing."

Jim Shpunt said he was happy to see his brother get recognized for his time as a coach and youth sports administrator. Such honors are typically showered on volunteers once they have left the scene. But sometimes, it's nice to have the recognition while the person can still enjoy it, Shpunt said.

"It's about time it happened and it's about time people are honored when they are still alive," he said.

Shpunt, who works as a maintenace manager at a private tennis and swim facility in New Canaan called The Lake Club, never got married – though he was close one time – and doesn't have children of his own, though it doesn't feel that way, he said.

"I feel like I have many kids," Shpunt said.


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