LI Coach Honored With School Baseball Field Renaming

SAYVILLE, NY — A beloved Long Island high school baseball coach will be forever honored when a field is renamed after him this week.

Sayville High School's longtime coach and Vietnam War veteran, Barry Fitzpatrick, will be honored with a renaming dedication on Thursday, May 1. The dedication will take place before the Sayville Golden Flashes’ game against Mount Sinai as part of the team’s annual Salute Our Troops Day.

A proud veteran, Fitzpatrick served with distinction in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970, earning an honorable discharge as a first lieutenant.

"There is nobody more deserving of this honor than Coach Fitz," said Dr. Ryan Cox, Sayville’s director of physical education, health, and interscholastic athletics and a former varsity baseball head coach. "He is an incredible man who deserves recognition for all he has done for Sayville schools. One of the greatest honors of my career was sharing a dugout with him for so many years."

Fitzpatrick coached Sayville baseball for over 45 years, serving as varsity head coach from 1978 to 1999 and remaining on staff as an assistant in the years following. He is the winningest coach in Sayville history, with 316 victories and five league championships (1979, 1983, 1986, 1992, 1999).

Fitzpatrick was named League Coach of the Year during each of his title-winning seasons. He also coached ninth-grade baseball, wrestling, and soccer. In addition to his coaching career, he taught physical education from 1970 to 2003 across four of the District’s schools.

The Board of Education approved the renaming of the school’s baseball field in Fitzpatrick’s honor in January. A bronze plaque will be installed on the Golden Flashes’ dugout, and the scoreboard will bear a new field name sign—both donated by the Sayville Athletic Foundation and the Sayville Baseball Booster Club.

The pregame ceremony is expected to bring together more than 100 Sayville baseball alumni and 50 veterans.