Sheila McCabe-King, who coached a variety of sports at Berlin High – including girls basketball for the last 22 years – retired last week from coaching after 43 years.

McCabe-King had retired from teaching physical education at Berlin, which she had done for 35 years, four years ago.

“I felt like I made just about all the difference I could make, coaching in Berlin,” she said. “It’s great to look back at the success the program has had. I think that’s a good time to leave, when you can look back and be happy about what you’ve done and what you’ve created.”

McCabe-King coached girls basketball the longest and had a 314-195 record. Her 2009 team advanced to the Class M state championship game, which was held for the first time at Mohegan Sun Arena, but lost 55-53 to Bacon Academy on a last-second shot.

McCabe-King was a runner and basketball player at New Britain High, where she graduated in 1979. She ran track on scholarship at UConn for coach Betty Remigino-Knapp.

When she graduated in 1983, Berlin High offered her a job as a coach and wanted her to start the girls soccer program. She had never played the sport growing up because it was not offered in New Britain.

“I said I did not play,” she said. “They had followed my track career. They said ‘That’s OK, do you know (UConn men’s soccer coach) Joe Morrone?’ I said I had him for class. They said that’s great, good enough.”

She didn’t have a job teaching in the school but was a permanent sub. Her first soccer team had 10 girls because there weren’t any programs in the area for girls to learn how to play.

McCabe-King got a PE job at the school eventually and coached track and coached girls basketball at the middle school and was an assistant girls basketball before taking the head coaching job in 2004.

“Some of my favorite memories are probably the early days, when the opportunities were still very new for the kids,” she said.

Under McCabe-King, Berlin advanced to the state semifinals four times, the last in 2023-24. This season, the Redcoats went 9-11 in the regular season and lost in the first round of the Division II tournament to Notre Dame Prep, 44-31.