For Huntington’s Blue Devils, Fred Fusaro has long been a guardian angel on the football field.
Now 83, the celebrated offensive and defensive line coach remains a fixture in Long Island football. After more than five decades spent mentoring young players, Fusaro’s influence stretches far beyond the field.
“The camaraderie you develop with kids is where it’s at,” Fusaro, a former Huntington nose guard, told The Post.
“If you get involved in coaching, you’ve got to love it … and I love these kids,” said Fusaro, who is volunteering for a second season at his alma mater as a super senior.
Known as a godfather of Long Island football, Fusaro has helped send four players to the NFL, including Giants Super Bowl champion John “Jumbo” Elliott during his lengthy tenure as Sachem’s head coach. He estimates that more than 150 of his players went on to play college football during his 55 years in coaching.
Today, Fusaro can look up at the Sachem North varsity field and see his name displayed there — a tribute to his two Rutgers Cups, numerous county championships and the character he helped build in generations of Flaming Arrows players during 34 years at the school, ending in 2002.
“He’s a humble man,” said former Sachem running back Dave Shanahan, who helped the program win a Rutgers Trophy in 1986.
“Since I was a young man, he was always behind me and my decisions he thought were good for me.”
Fusaro and Shanahan acknowledge that their relationship was not always easy. Like many influential coaches, Fusaro often relied on tough love, and his players learned to understand where it came from.
“If they know you care about them,” Fusaro said, “you can pretty much do whatever you want.”
Winning isn’t everything
Wins and losses tell only part of Fusaro’s story, though he says he recorded more than 200 victories. His greatest source of pride may be the number of former players who followed him into coaching.
“I would say there’s a minimum of 50,” Fusaro said. “You like to think that you’re doing something right.”
When Fusaro left Sachem, he was ready to move on from dealing with parents — but not from working with young athletes. His next chapter came through Shanahan, who became head coach at Elwood’s John Glenn High School in 1995 and hired Fusaro as an assistant in 2004.
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“I figured I’d be with him for a couple of years — I was with him for 19 years,” Fusaro said.
Together, they captured consecutive Long Island championships in 2010 and 2011. Shanahan said Fusaro was “instrumental in” those accomplishments while directing the Knights’ defense.
“He had excellent schemes — he’s a true technician,” Shanahan said.
Glenn’s 2010 squad also produced Long Island’s only undefeated season, finishing with a Rutgers Trophy.
“The kids loved him because he was such a hard worker,” Shanahan said. Fusaro, in turn, called Shanahan “one of my best players.”
Calling the right plays
For Fusaro, football’s X’s and O’s were never the ultimate destination. The larger mission was preparing teenagers for life, whether or not they continued playing after high school.
“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.
“The kids really bonded to him.”
When John Glenn boys soccer coach Lou Hanner overheard Shanahan talking about Fusaro, he interjected to call him “first class.”
Fusaro was inducted into the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame over the summer — and had an entire first string of those he mentored right there with him for the honor.
“I had 25 players come up to Buffalo for the induction,” Fusaro said.
When Shanahan retired from coaching in 2025, Fusaro said he knew it was time to go back to where it all began for him: the Blue Devils, who are 2-1.
Fusaro found his love for coaching from the staff he enjoyed as a varsity lineman in the 1960s. It led him to play for Ithaca and later coach at the college level with St. Lawrence and Hofstra.
“It brought back a lot of memories being here,” Fusaro said. “I’ve been blessed, truly blessed, to have the kids that I had and the dedicated coaches that I had over the years.”
