{"id":1404,"date":"2026-04-01T09:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1404\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:55:06","slug":"berlin-coach-retires-after-43-years-after-difference-i-could-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1404\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin coach retires after 43 years. After ‘difference I could make’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sheila McCabe-King, who coached a variety of sports at Berlin High<\/a> \u2013 including girls basketball<\/a> for the last 22 years \u2013 retired last week from coaching after 43 years.<\/p>\n

McCabe-King had retired from teaching physical education at Berlin, which she had done for 35 years, four years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I made just about all the difference I could make, coaching in Berlin,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to look back at the success the program has had. I think that\u2019s a good time to leave, when you can look back and be happy about what you\u2019ve done and what you\u2019ve created.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, but lost 55-53 to Bacon Academy on a last-second shot.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I did not play,\u201d she said. \u201cThey had followed my track career. They said \u2018That\u2019s OK, do you know (UConn men\u2019s soccer coach) Joe Morrone?\u2019 I said I had him for class. They said that\u2019s great, good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t have a job teaching in the school but was a permanent sub. Her first soccer team had 10 girls because there weren\u2019t any programs in the area for girls to learn how to play.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my favorite memories are probably the early days, when the opportunities were still very new for the kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheila McCabe-King, who coached a variety of sports at Berlin High \u2013 including girls basketball for the last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,1302,1308,1306,1307,1305,1301,1309,1300,1304,1303],"class_list":{"0":"post-1404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-berlin-high-school","10":"tag-connecticut-news","11":"tag-connecticut-sports","12":"tag-ct-news","13":"tag-ct-sports","14":"tag-girls-basketball","15":"tag-hartford-courant","16":"tag-high-school-sports","17":"tag-local-news","18":"tag-local-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}