STAPLES SOCCER QUICK FACTS -- AMAZING BUT TRUE (continued)

• The teams have won 11 state championships (1963, ’67, ’69, ’70, ’71, ’72, 73, ’78, ’81 and ’93). In addition, they finished as runnersup 5 times (1962, ’68, ’92, ’96 and '06). The 5 consecutive state titles (1969-73) is a state record.

• The Staples boys have won a remarkable 24 FCIAC championships. From 1961-69, the only 2 teams in the FCIAC finals were Staples and Brien McMahon.

• The Wreckers have captured a phenomenal 29 FCIAC divisional titles. The first came in 1961; the most recent was in 2006.

• There has never been a season in which the Wreckers were undefeated and untied. The closest they came were 18-0-1 (1972), 13-0-6 (1974), 18-0-2 (1981) and 16-0-3 (1982). The 2000 team went undefeated and untied through all 16 games of the regular season, the first time they played a 16-match schedule.

•The 1971-73 teams played 43 straight games without a loss. Equally remarkably, the Wreckers went from 1966 to 1975 without losing a single game at home. Twice, they reeled off 39 regular season games without a loss (1966-70, 1980-83), while the 1999-2001 squads won 27 consecutive FCIAC matches.

• The 1970 squad compiled a remarkable statistic: they surrendered only 2 goals the entire season. Both, even more amazingly, were to Nyack, N.Y., in the 2nd game of the season. So they went all year without being scored on by a Connecticut team. (Still, they shared the state championship, thanks to a 0-0 tie in the finals.) And the 1970-71 teams rolled to 25 consecutive shutouts.

• The Wreckers have had only 4 head coaches – and 1 served only 1 year. Albie Loeffler began the program in 1957, and retired after the 1977 season. In 1969, while Mr. Loeffler was on sabbatical leave, Frank Henrick was interim coach; in 1970 Mr. Loeffler suffered a heart attack prior to the season, and he and Jeff Lea served as co-coaches. Mr. Lea was named Mr. Loeffler’s successor in 1978, and served as head coach through the 2002 season. Dan Woog was named his successor on February 14, 2003. Mr. Loeffler now lives in retirement in North Carolina, while Mr. Lea splits his time between Connecticut and New Hampshire.

• Over 200 graduates of the Staples boys program have gone on to play college, and more than 50 have been elected captains of their college teams.