SEYMOUR – Former Seymour High School Coach Paul “Spoony” Sponheimer is scheduled to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
A “Breakfast of Champions” ceremony is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. March 14 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville. Click here for ticket information.
Sponheimer, 74, was not available for comment due to health issues, his daughter, Deirdre said.
She and her sister, Callah Adelino, will be attending the ceremony to accept the award on their dad’s behalf.
“It’s really bittersweet. As I’ve gotten older, I started to realize the magnitude that my dad’s impact had on Seymour, Connecticut football and athletics as a whole. Football has been his whole life, and it became our whole life, too,” Deirdre Sponheimer said.
Sponheimer retired in 2008 after nearly 30 years coaching the Seymour High School varsity football team. His legacy includes winning four state championships, achieving 210 career wins, and twice being named “Coach of the Year” by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. He is a 2026 inductee of the Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame.
A Seymour High School Class of 1969 graduate, Sponheimer was an All-Housatonic player during his Wildcat days.
In his day, he was one of the best players in the state, and went on to play four years as linebacker at the University of Kentucky.
He returned to Seymour to raise a family. He became a coach, and was a natural.
As football coach, 19 players earned first team All-State honors, 17 were selected as Hall of Fame Classic All-Stars, 43 earned Coaches All-State recognition, 22 earned Scholar Athlete awards and 207 of his former players went on to play college football.
In a 2010 interview with The Valley Indy, Sponheimer said his approach to coaching was to show respect toward his players.
“I respect them as people first and hopefully, they understand they are people first, and if they become good football players, great. I want them to be a productive part of society,” he said.
Reaction From Spoony’s Former Players
Seymour High School Class of 1987 graduate KC Sirowich played offensive line and defensive end for Sponheimer.
“Spoony is extremely deserving of this award and I’m happy for him and his family and everybody who was a Wildcat,” Sirowich said. “It was truly an honor to be able to play for a coach of that magnitude. He put every single thing about what was great about him and instilled that into all of us. With Spoony, you became family.”
Seymour High School Class of 1988 graduate Joe Stochmal played quarterback under Sponheimer before playing at Southern Connecticut State University.
Stochmal became Oxford High School’s first head football coach when the school opened in 2007.
“As I went through my life, I carried so many of the lessons he (Spoony) taught all of his players,” Stochmal said. “During my years playing at SCSU, to my years coaching at SCSU, Hillhouse, and Oxford, I implemented his philosophies into my coaching style. I tried to emulate the same values he stood for with my teams: family, loyalty, commitment, dedication and community.”
James Thomson is the founder of NFP Sports, the organization sponsoring Sponheimer’s award.
“Coach Sponheimer has been on our list of worthy candidates for several years,” Thomson said. “In addition to the tremendous legacy he established as a head football coach in the state, he has always been supportive of programs, events and initiatives that promote the game of football, including those run by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.”
The Walter Camp Football Foundation, according to its website, oversees the selection of the current year’s entries into the All-America team, which is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Thomson said the March 14 ceremony will include a video introduction with testimony from some of Sponheimer’s former players, coaches and friends. The ceremony also fetes high school players, teams and coaches of the year.
Sponheimer joins an impressive list of fellow football coaches, including Ansonia High School’s late football head coach Jack Hunt, who received the honor in 2012. Click here to see others who earned the lifetime achievement award.