Donald B. Lawrence<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When 2004 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Donald B. Lawrence left his hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1959, at the age of eight, little did Branford know who or what they were getting.\u00a0 Some 45 years later and with many contributions to the athletic community, it is clearly evident what was Portsmouth\u2019s loss has been Branford\u2019s substantial gain.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s inductee attended Branford High School from 1967 to 1970, where he played football and baseball for four years and basketball for two.\u00a0 As an offensive and defensive end on the Hornets squad, Donald played under head coach, Bill Simon, on a team that finished with a record of 6-3, good enough to place third\u00a0 in the Housatonic League.\u00a0 During his playing career at Branford, he played with fellow inductees Joe Roberti (\u201999), Gary Lipkvich (\u201901), Dennis Swirsky (\u201902), George Lepre, Jr. (\u201903), and fellow inductee Ron Washington.\u00a0 His coaches at the time were Tom Murray (\u201992) and Joe Farina (\u201993).\u00a0 In baseball, \u201cCoach Don\u201d was a gritty catcher on the high school team for four years.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Following graduation, he attended Northwestern Community College in Winsted, Connecticut.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His love for sports, his community and the youths of Branford, drew him to his impeccable accomplishments in baseball.\u00a0 In the early 1970\u2018s, Don coached Branford Little League with his dad, a coach in the league for 16 years.\u00a0 In 1977, Don became involved with Branford Little League again as a head coach.\u00a0 He not only took over the team his father had coached, but also the team he played on when he was in Little League.\u00a0 In the 23 years Donald was head coach, he coached his favorite team \u201cEchlin- The Green Machine\u201d. During these 23 years, he also served as a Board Member, Commissioner, and was the Little League President his last year.\u00a0 He was the league liaison with Recreation Director and Hall of Famer Joe Trapasso (\u201988) for many years.\u00a0 He was involved in the building of the Sliney 1 Little League field, the building of the original concession stand and he spearheaded the addition to the concession stand as well.\u00a0 Don was also the co-founder of the Branford Little League fall league.\u00a0 In the past few years, tonight\u2019s inductee has been involved with coaching Babe Ruth and has assisted in coaching Mickey Mantle, Junior Legion and Connie Mack.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Branford Junior Basketball was how he spent his winter months often coaching two teams from 1992 through 2000.\u00a0\u00a0 He was Co-President of the Branford High School Basketball Booster Club from 1997 to 1999 and served as Secretary of the Baseball Booster Club from 1999 through 2001 and as Vice President.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starting in 1988, Don has been an active volunteer parent at St. Mary\u2019s School and for the last seven years has served as the Athletic Director.\u00a0 He is also the East Shore Deanery Director to the Archdiocese of Hartford.\u00a0 He serves as Board Member of the Greater New Haven Parochial Basketball League and is in charge of scheduling for the league.\u00a0 He also helped to put together the soccer program at St. Mary\u2019s and surrounding schools to form the Greater New Haven Parochial Soccer League.\u00a0 In 1999, he was honored by the Archdiocese of Hartford as a recipient of the HOPES Award which recognizes those who give time, talent, and support of Catholic Education.\u00a0 He was the assistant baseball coach for St. Mary\u2019s in 2000 when they won the State Championship.\u00a0 In 2002, he had the St. Mary\u2019s School Sportsmanship Award named in his honor and was inducted into the Knights of the Round Table at St. Mary\u2019s School.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s inductee has been employed as Product Manager at Navtec Inc. in Guilford, Connecticut for the last 12 years. Navtec is a world leader in the manufacturing of rigging and hydraulics for sailboats.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Married to his wife, Betty, Donald\u00a0 is the father to two sons,\u00a0 Chris and Justin. <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":651,"template":"","class_list":["post-650","inductee","type-inductee","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductee"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}