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Health & Fitness

H-ton Founding Girls' Lax Coach Mary Paar to be Honored

J. Taylor Finley Middle School physical education teacher Mary Paar, who founded the Huntington High School girls’ lacrosse program and later took the Blue Devils to the state championship, will be honored by the Huntington Booster Club at a gala dinner on Friday, October 18 at the Huntington Crescent Club.

Mrs. Paar will be recognized along with Huntington football coaching legend John Paci, Jr., who developed many college players over his long career. Tickets for the event are still available and on sale for $125. The evening will run from 7-11 p.m. and feature a cocktail hour, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, dessert, music and dancing. For additional information, contact Karen Dwyer (karen@meetah.com or 516-578-9533) or Tim Pillion (tpillion@optonline.net or 631-275-3264).

Many of Mrs. Paar’s players, including some of the biggest lacrosse stars in Huntington history, are expected to attend the dinner, along with the exceptional coach’s teaching and coaching colleagues, friends and family members.

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“Considering all the great coaches that have passed through Huntington, it really is an honor to be recognized by the Booster Club,” Mrs. Paar said. “But, credit for every bit of success we had as a lacrosse program has to go to my players. They practiced and played hard and gave the sport everything they had. They put us on the map.”

Born in Skaneateles, New York, southwest of Syracuse, Mrs. Paar moved to Huntington in 1962 and attended Southdown and Flower Hill elementary schools, Finley Junior High School and Huntington High School, where she graduated with the Class of 1974. She went on to obtain an undergraduate degree at Roanoke College and a master’s degree at Adelphi University.

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Mrs. Paar attended Finley before the growth of junior high school interscholastic athletics programs for girls. Instead, she participated on what was then known as Finley’s “honors teams” through ninth grade at the school. The future Blue Devil coach played field hockey, basketball and softball and was involved in “gym show.”

At Huntington High School, Mrs. Paar was on the field hockey and softball squads and served as the boys’ varsity basketball statistician for two years.

While at Roanoke College in Virginia, where she majored in health and physical education, Mrs. Paar played on the field hockey team. She learned her lessons well.

Upon her college graduation, Mrs. Paar returned to Huntington, where she was promptly hired as an athletic coach by Ray Deren, the district’s longtime director of physical education and athletics. She coached volleyball, softball and cheerleading at Finley in 1979/80, boys’ lacrosse at Finley and Robert K. Toaz Junior High Schools from 1980-86, junior varsity field hockey at Huntington High School from 1979-89 and varsity girls’ lacrosse at the high school from 1988 to 2002.

Under her tutelage, the Huntington girls’ lacrosse program rapidly ascended into the ranks of the elite in Suffolk, Long Island and the state. A perennial power, the Blue Devils routinely churned out some of the most recruited players in the country, including Tricia Martin, a multi-time NCAA Division I All-American and one of the best players in Duke University history.

In addition to her work as Huntington’s head coach, Mrs. Paar served as president of the Long Island chapter of US Girls’ Lacrosse. She coached the Long Island School Girls’ Lacrosse national team and the Long Island Empire Girls’ lacrosse team.

Mrs. Paar worked as a teaching assistant at Finley until September 1985 when she was hired to teach physical education in the district. She spent many years at Washington, Jefferson, Southdown and Flower Hill Schools before serving a three year stint at Finley. She worked at Huntington High School for two years and then returned to Finley in 1996, where she has been ever since. She will retire from teaching next June.

The wife of Mark Paar, a 1972 Huntington graduate who was an All-Long Island lacrosse and All-State football player, Mrs. Paar stepped aside from coaching so she could watch her son, Charlie and daughter, Sarah play for the Blue Devils.

Charlie led Huntington to the state lacrosse championship in 2005 and was an All-American goalie in high school. He went on to pace Stony Brook University to the 2010 NCAA Division I tournament, winning America East Conference tournament MVP honors along the way. Sarah is currently nearing completion of an undergraduate degree at Towson University in Maryland.

Charlie Paar was a volunteer assistant with the Blue Devil varsity boys’ lacrosse team last spring, helping the squad reach the Suffolk Division II finals. This year he is a member of the paid staff.

“The Huntington community and the Huntington School District have been very good to me and my family,” Mrs. Paar said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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