An era has ended and unless you follow high school football on Long Island, it may have flown under your radar. Following the completion of his third decade helming the Garden City Trojans football program, Coach Tom Flatley hung up his whistle. With his .849 winning percentage being the highest in Long Island history and 264 wins ranking second behind only Bethpage’s Howie Vogts, the Hall of Fame coach’s legacy is firmly embedded. Along the way, Garden City won an unprecedented 18 Nassau County titles, seven undefeated seasons, five Long Island Championships and four Rutgers Cups. Flatley’s coaching acumen also found him being the only coach to date to have won a Long Island Championship in both lacrosse and football.
Consistency has been at the heart of his football program as evidenced by the fact that Assistant Coach Rich Smith has been on the sideline for 50 years. And while the winning has been impressive unto itself, one of the most lasting testaments of the coach and his staff’s efforts are the discipline and pride he’s instilled in his players that carried over to the classroom and their post high school lives. Flatley fave and Trojans 2012 quarterback Brett Stewart is currently playing at Princeton, making him one of the many athletes who suited up under the East Meadow native’s tutelage and went on to greater victories in life. It’s an important chapter in the historical record that Tom Flatley is leaving in his wake.
—Dave Gil de Rubio
