By Kim J. Harmon

After nine years, athletic trainer Tim Crowley has taped up his last ankle.

Following the annual Blue/Gold football game last Friday, Crowley bid farewell to Newtown High School, all its athletes and coaches, and all the friends he has made over the past decade as he and his wife, Christine, and their four children head to Missouri to begin a new chapter in their lives.

“I’m really excited,” said Crowley, 35, who will be going to seminary in Springfield, Missouri to begin a new career as a youth minister. “But I’m not excited about leaving here.”

It was back in September of 1998 that Crowley, a 1994 graduate of Southern Connecticut State University, joined the Carlson Therapy network in Bethel – this after two years at the University of Connecticut as a graduate assistant, a year as an athletic trainer at Norwich Free Academy, and a year as an athletic trainer at Windsor High School.

Soon after, a network office opened at Church Hill Physical Therapy & Sports Rehabilitation and he came here.

Crowley wrestled, played football and baseball, and ran track at Waterford High School and knew he wanted to do something related to sports. In a perfect world, he would have loved to play football and study to be an athletic trainer at college but, in the end, he chose SCSU for its outstanding program.

At SCSU he was a student trainer, working with the different teams, and as a sophomore – while the trainer assigned to men’s basketball was unavailable one particular weekend – he started traveling. And like here in Newtown, he quickly became a fan.

“You pour a lot into the people you’re working with,” he said, “with coaches and kids, and it’s real easy to become a fan. I’ll always remember that first Thanksgiving (football) game in the mud with coach Murphy (of Masuk) and coach Zito (of Newtown), a couple of state championship soccer teams, and some of the individuals who were on those teams.”

Last Friday, a few hours before the Blue/Gold game, Crowley was feted at a gathering of Newtown High School coaches, athletes and general well-wishers as the athletic program, as a whole, bid farewell to him and his family.

“Tim did so many of the little things that weren’t in his job description, believe me,” said Newtown athletic director Gregg Simon. “I couldn’t count all the hours he has spent sweeping that gym because he cared so much that the kids wouldn’t slip and hurt themselves on a wet or dusty floor. When people think of the athletic department here, they think of Tim and we’re going to miss him.”

Student-athletes like Joe DeVellis, Scott Nichols, Rachel Maley and Erica Vacaro spent a few minutes thanking him as did coaches John Quinn, Brian Micena, Jen Huettner, Dave Foss, Steve George and Newtown High principal Arlene Gottesman. Jay Edwards served as the host.

“When I got hurt,” said George, the newly-named head coach of the Newtown High football team, “I wanted Tim to treat me instead of going to my own doctor because I know how much time he puts into it and how much he cares.”

Crowley will be caring in a somewhat different way – now that’s he’s heading west. Always an active participant at the Christian Life Church in Berlin, he will be attending the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri. Classes begin in August.

“I have had a great time here,” said Crowley, “and Gregg (Simon) has been a great A.D. to work for. I got used to the people here and the parents and it’s going to be weird.”

It will indeed.