Former Cheshire High School girls swimming coach Ed Aston has been inducted to the National High School Hall of Fame, the NFHS announced late last month.
The name might not be immediately familiar to all of our readers, though most have heard the story of his successes. Aston is the coach who won 25-straight Connecticut State Championships on the girls’ side, 18 state championships on the boys’ side, and set the National Record with 281 consecutive dual meet victories from 1986 to 2011. That included surpassing 400 wins just a few years before his retirement. Aston retired in 2011, in the same season where his team lost their first meet in 25 years.
Among others honored in this year’s class are basketball player Chauncey Billups, who was a three-time Mr. Basketball in Colorado and later an NBA champion; Joe Thiesmann, who led the South River High football team to the New Jersey State Championship in 1966 and later went on to be named MVP of the NFL; Harrison Dillard, a two-time Olympic Track Champion from Cleveland East Technical High School; and Kristin Folkl Kaburakis, a two-sport star from St. Louis-St. Joseph’s who went on to help Stanford to three NCAA Volleyball titles and two NCAA basketball final fours.
