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2023 STAFF | ||||||
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| John Stratton Coach, Director of Player Development |
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| John Stratton, a 2022 Selectee to the USA (ASA) National Hall of Fame, begins his 46th year as a member of the Brakettes softball family, but in a new role, that of Coach and Director of Player Development. Since 1995 he has served as the field manager and has done a great job of keeping the team's reputation for excellence alive and thriving. Lauren Pitney will assume field manager responsibilities in 2023. John began his affiliation with the team as a bat boy. He later played for both the Raybestos Hawks and the Cardinals, the touted men's fastpitch team. Stratton also performed with the Stamford Shippans and several other area teams, both as a pitcher and slick-fielding third baseman. He joined the Brakettes in 1971 as coach for Hall of Fame manager Ralph Raymond of the Raybestos Brakettes, where he was a part of an unprecedented string of eight straight National ASA championships from 1971-78. When Raymond was ill during the 1976 season, the year after Raybestos lost virtually its entire team to the fledgling Women's Professional League, Stratton was called on to lead the Brakettes to their most unlikely National title at Raybestos Memorial Field. During his managerial tenure, Stratton guided the Brakettes to 17 National championships, five ASA and 12 Women's Major Softball crowns. He also guided the team to one runner-up finish and five third place finishes. During that span he has carved out a 1,492-141 record, a 91.3 winning percentage, which included perfect seasons in 2011 (63-0) and 2013 (68-0) and a 168-game winning streak from 2010-2012. A graduate of Stratford High School and the University of Bridgeport, Stratton is a retired physical education teacher in New Canaan, CT. In addition to running numerous youth programs in various sports in Fairfield County, Stratton has been one of the country's top pitching authorities for over 50 years. He has developed many outstanding high school and collegiate pitchers in his career. John spent 10 years at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL, as the pitching coach for Owls head coach and Brakettes Hall of Famer Joan Joyce. John is also a member of the Connecticut ASA and Collegiate Halls of Fame. His late wife Rosemary 'Micki' (Macchietto) Stratton was the first Brakettes player inducted into the National ASA Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. John's son Jay, a former minor league catcher in the Boston Red Sox organization, is married to a former Brakettes catcher Keri McCallum and they have two children. Jay is an assistant coach with the Brakettes. In 2006 he piloted the team to the ASA National title in Buffalo as his dad was leading the Connecticut Brakettes to runners-up finishes in both the regular season and championship playoffs in their only season of play in the National Pro Fastpitch league. |