By Steve Bigham

Since 1985, the Pomperaug-Southbury High School field hockey team has caputred four state titles, 10 league titles and the hearts and minds of the community. Behind it all has been former Newtown residetn Linda Dirga, who has put her heart and soul into every second of ever practice and game.

To date, the legendary coach has compiled an incredible record of 236-25-21 and has been bestowed just about every coaching honoir a person can receive. This week, she is honored once again as a new member of the Newtown Bee sports hall of fame.

Fifteen years ago, Linda Dirga took a job at Rochambeau Middle School in Southbury and took ovewr what had been an up and down program at the hiogh school. Six months ago, she was listed as one of the top seven high school coaches of the 20th Centry in Connecictucut.

Dirga believes her success as a field hockey coach has simply been further fullfilment on what had already been a very special life. But Dirga admits shge still harbors some resentment over the fact that she was unable to reach her full potential as a female athlete growing up. The stigmas of days gone by labeled female athletes as tomboys.

“I do have very strong feelings about gender equality. I resented that I could not compete as hard as I would have liked. That’s a lot of who I am today,” she said.

Of course, those days have long since passed thanks in part to Title 9, which helped change the face of women’s sports by … Most importantly, however, it is the work of people like Linda Dirga who have allowed young women the opportunity to make the most of themselves. The records? Well, those are great. Afterall, it’s all about winning and losing, but more importantly, it’s about the people and Dirga is indeed a people person.

“It’s all about teaching them to commit and to take themselves to the limit,” she said.

As for that most memorable moment in her career, Dirga says there are simply too many special moments to count.

“I guess every year at the banquet saying goodbye and knowing I’ve done my job is the most special moment. All I remember is that even when we lost I felt like a winner,” Dirga said.

And those losses have come few and far between. In fact, Pomperaug has only lost () games over the past () years. During that span, it has also won three state titles and every South-West Conference title.

Dirga grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts where she excelled in both basketball and field hockey. She then took her game to Arnold College (Bridgeport University) where she would play for the Angela Poisson – the woman who Dirga said has had the most influence on her career. Posson was the captain of the national field hockey team and arrived in Bridgeport as the school’s new head coach. Dirga traveled the country with Poisson playing club matches and meeting some of the sport’s finest athletes. Along the way, she met Constance Applebee, founder of field hockey in the United States. Then in her 80’s, she told the talented Dirga, “you would be a very good player if you would run more.”

Soon after college, Dirga would marry her husband, Fred Dirga, and would soon start a field hockey program at Bethel High where she taught. She also coached the Bethel girls’ basketball team, which lost just one game during her team year stay there.

By the late 60’s, however, Dirga started a family and her sports life was put on hold for the next 12 years. First came (), then () and finally Rick. During this time, she coached some youth sports and taught tennis, but her days as a big time high school coach were put on hold…until the late 1970’s when she was hired as a physical education teacher at Newtown High School. Working besides female coaches like Deanne LeBeau and Pam Northrop, the kind of people who knew what winning was all about. In fact, Dirga led the Newtown girls’ track team to a league title during her only year as head coach ().

Soon after, however, Dirga lost her job due to budget cuts and Newtown said goodbye to a woman who would go on to become a coaching legend. Today, however, Dirga harbors no ill feelings about the Newtown school system, saying they included some of her fondest memories. Her one disappointment was that Newtown’s ever-improving girls’ sports prgrams lost ground due to budget problems. It should be noted that Newtown has never defeated a Pomperaug field hockey team in all 15 of Dirga’s seasons.

Dirga landed a physical education job at Rochambeau soon after that and soon took over the field hockey program. She would win her first league title in 1986 and first state title in 1989. Sinc ethen the title have continued to roll in, but like anything, the success has not come without hard work and Dirga’s unwavering attention to detail. Dirga describes herself as any aggressive coach who tell her players like it is.

“I treat them as women athletes,” she said, pointing her pictrures of her former players on the wall. “There two are playing at UConn, these two are playing at Providence, she’s playing at Colgate, she’s at Virginia…..”

Dirga knows most of the country’s college field hockey coaches and they usually come a runnin’ when Dirga goes a callin’. You see, Dirga has seen enormous talent pass through her program so college coaches know they’re not wasting their time when they go to see a Dirga girl.

Dirga exposes field hockey to girls as young as fifth grade through her annual Future Stars Field Hockey Camp in the summer. Many of these young athletes have grown up on soccer and Dirga’s job is to teach them the game and to inform them of the future sucdesses they can enjoy as a Pomperaug field hockey player. Tradition goes a long way and so does the potential for a college scholarship.

“I guess we all have to have purpose. If you have a purpose then you’ll have a great life. I’ve had the best of both worlds, a wonderful family and an extended family which included hundreds and hundreds of young women, who if nothing else, took from Dirga that they can become the best at whatever they set out to do.

“It’s a program. We don’t look at it as a team. The program is successful, not the team,” she explained.

By exposing youngsters

These days, Dirga is living in Middletown after spenmding 33 years in Newtown.