Participated in cross country, track and basketball 10 deep varsity jacket from 1975-79 ... Member of four WCC championship teams and two Class M state championship cross country teams ... Won the 1978 WCC individual cross country championship ... Won the 1979 State Open championship in the mile run ... Currently holds the Bethel High record for the mile at 4:18.2 ... Graduated from Northeastern University as a four-year scholarship athlete ... At the age of 29 in 1990, won the 25th John Demille Bethel Firecracker road race.
Third-highest winning percentage for football in the state in the 1980s ... The football teams he coached at BHS went to six WCC championship games and won five titles ... First coach in the history of BHS to take a team to the state finals ... The Fairfield County Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame was renamed the Ralph DeSantis Chapter ... The stadium at Bethel High School varsity letterman jackets was dedicated to the late Ralph J. DeSantis.
Only four starters -- seniors Evan Lee, Rushil Naik, and Nate Cook, and junior Jimmy Papadimos -- returned for 2011. That foursome, and the rest of the Titans, had to play for a new coach on short notice. Weisenberg resigned just weeks before the start of the season, and was succeeded by Tim Concannon, a Rochester, N.Y. native and former Bowling Green State University player (1991-95) who had no prior connection to St. John's.
"You have to give the credit to the kids," Concannon said. "They lose a coach and then they have to get used to me. That's not easy because there's a different mindset. It's been a leap of faith, and everybody just decided to trust each other. At every turn, the kids stayed positive and kept varsity school jackets to the game plan."
Adding to the adjustments, St. John's was installing a new field-turf surface on campus for its sports teams. The process reduced the availability of the Titans' soccer practice area.
