By Kim J. Harmon

The season-ending banquet is a time to celebrate the successes of the season just past and Newtown High School head football coach Ken Roberts took it as an opportunity to drop a little bombshell on his players.

Coach Roberts, who took over in 1999 for Bob Zito, announced that he will be stepping down.

In his eight years at the helm, coach Roberts guided the Nighthawks to a 46-34-4 record and one appearance in the CIAC Class L playoffs in 2000. Over the last three years, coach Roberts led the ‘Hawks to a 27-7-2 record while, last year, earning the South-West Conference Coach of the Year Award from the Fairfield County Chapter of the National Football Federation.

“It’s become very difficult trying to run my own business in the time it takes to be a head football coach,” said Roberts, “without one of them taking a hit.”

Roberts runs a landscaping business while his wife, Lisa, is the owner/operator of Kidsfirst Learning Center. The couple has three children – Kyle (10), Nicole (8) and Jake (5).

“This is not something I wanted to do,” he said. “It was something I had to do. If I was in the (school) building, it would have been a different story.”

Roberts actually made the decision to step down right before the Sunday banquet; his wife was not even aware of it. But Roberts will be tying up loose ends for a while, helping players with their recruiting prospects while getting things ready for the changeover.

Roberts was a defensive coordinator under coach Zito before he moved on to Stratford in 1999.

Roberts was a linebacker at Shelton High School, graduating in 1986. Upon graduation, he became an assistant under head coach Bob Riggio and spent the next nine seasons as an assistant (three years) and defensive coordinator (six years) under Riggio, Tony Branca and Joe Benanto, becoming part of two state championship teams.

Roberts left Shelton in 1997 to join coach Zito at Newtown.