Dave Goldshore is an intense coach.
In 4 years, he built the Staples High School boys basketball team into a Connecticut powerhouse.
On a Saturday night last month, the Wreckers were one game away from a momentous achievement: an undefeated (27-0) season, and the program’s first state championship since 1937.
It was a very intense moment.
Dave Goldshore reacts to a great play, in the state title game … (Photo/Ryan Allen)
But as overtime against West Haven began — with several thousand raucous fans packing the Mohegan Sun arena — Goldshore felt serene.
“I was calm,” the coach — who had spent all winter prowling the sideline, barking orders, displaying every emotion from joy to anger, encouragement to frustration, for all to see — recalled last week.
“Win or lose, this group — players, staff, managers — had done all they could. They were leaving everything on the table. I felt a great sense of pride and accomplishment.”
That overtime period ended with the teams still tied.
So did the second OT.
It took 3 overtimes — the longest in state basketball finals history — before the game was decided.
West Haven celebrated wildly. Staples — the team that had captured the town’s heart with their talent, grit and exciting, fun style of play — slumped in despair. They were one game shy of perfection; 3 overtimes away from the ultimate goal their coach had driven them toward ever since the final game of the previous year.
… and a different reaction, near the end. (Photo/Ryan Allen)
For the seniors, it was a goal Goldshore had set the day he was appointed head coach 4 years earlier, when they were rising freshmen.
Three weeks after this year’s heartbreaking loss, he called a team meeting. Just as the seniors were moving on, he would be too. After 9 years with the program — 5 as an assistant, the last 4 as head coach — Goldshore was stepping down.
Goldshore is a basketball guy, through and through. He captained his Horace Greeley High School team in Chappaqua, New York; served 3 years as a student manager (including key recruiting responsibilities) at the University of Michigan, then assisted as Somers High before moving to Westport.
He went into the technology staffing business with his father, but never lost the coaching bug. He joined Staples coach Colin Devine’s staff, then earned his “dream job” in 2022 when Devine began pursuing administrative options.
Goldshore instilled core values, like a culture of accountability. He worked with Westport’s youth basketball program. His very first year, he led the Wreckers to the state Division II, after a dramatic, last-second comeback in the semis.
The next year Staples lost in overtime, in the FCIAC (league) final. That was particularly poignant: Just 15 minutes before getting on the bus, Goldshore learned that his father had died.
Dave Goldshore, shortly after being named head coach.
Last season, the Wreckers opted to move up to Division I. Star player Sam Clachko was injured late in the year, but Staples captured a huge prize: their first FCIAC title since 1963.
This year — a season that galvanized the entire town — they made it 2 in a row.
Accomplishments like that don’t come easily. Staples coaches sign seasonal, 3-month contracts. But building and maintaining a program is a 12-month commitment.
Goldshore jokes that he had his own permanent table at the diner, for Sunday morning meetings with individual players. In addition to planning and preparation, constant communication with players throughout the off-season is essential for program-building, chemistry and success.
“Talking to kids is so important,” he notes. “It’s everything: making sure they’re doing their work, if everything is okay with school and girlfriends, mental health issues, college challenges …”
Other — but by no means all — tasks include going to youth games, building relationships with younger players and families, organizing camps — “doing everything possible to keep the Staples basketball culture alive and well.”
And once the season begins, the intensity ramps up exponentially. Goldshore says that from late November through March, he has 2 jobs: his business, from 8 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and basketball, from 2 p.m. to 10.
Coach Dave Goldshore (front, center), players and coaches celebrate their 2nd straight FCIAC championship. (Photo/Diane Lowman)
He also has a wife and family. His daughter is in college. One son is playing baseball as a freshman at Trinity College; the other is still at Staples. Personal sacrifices for them are real.
Goldshore began thinking about the future after this year’s Division I semifinal, when the Wreckers were headed to the championship.
After the heartbreaking defeat, he took time to finalize it. Goldshore wanted to be sure it was “the right choice, for the right reason — not an emotional one.” It’s time now, he says, “to make sure that my family — my nuclear family — is safe and well and healthy.”
Still, the emotional toll of his decision is real.
He will miss many things — and not just the practices and games.
“Being there for these kids, with no judgment and complete honesty … it’s so time-consuming. But in the most wonderful way possible.”
Goldshore has no plans to coach in the near future. But, he notes, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Coach Dave Goldshore, in action. (Photo/Ryan Allen)
He looks forward to watching the program “keep trending upward.” He is confident that administrators will hire someone with “very capable hands. There are plenty of great candidates on our staff who can do an amazing job — and even take it to new heights.”
It will be “difficult” for him when practice begins again next November, Goldshore admits.
“I love Staples basketball. The games are the hardest part, and in some ways the least enjoyable.”
He’ll miss “all the times with the coaches, laughing, crying, strategizing and learning.”
Most of all, he’ll miss the players.
“I’ve learned so much from them. This 50-year-old man became a better, more self-aware person because of 15- to 18-year-olds. I’ll miss all that, for sure.”
Goldshore says he is “excited about the future. I look forward to being a fan.”
And, this most intense coach — one who exudes energy on the sideline, runs demanding practices, and helped turn Westport into a basketball-crazy town — says, “I’m at peace with my decision.”
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