Armory Coaches Hall of Fame welcomes Fred Singleton, Dan Doherty, George Febles, 3 others

NEW YORK − When Fred Singleton, a four-time coach of the year in Westchester County, glanced around during Saturday’s Armory Coaches Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he spotted a woman whose daughters ran for him several years ago.

He didn’t know she’d even known about his induction and was clearly moved she'd decided to attend.

From overall reactions, it’s safe to say the ceremony and showings of support also moved the other five inductees, Pearl River’s Dan Doherty, Fordham Prep’s George Febles Sr., Shaker’s Marbry Gansle, Benjamin Cardozo’s Ray James and Brooklyn Tech’s Leonard Malech.

Singleton, a 1970 Mount Vernon High graduate, who ran on the Knights’ track team when it was one of the all-time best in New York, and who was a state-champion hurdler, went on to compete on scholarship for four years at Penn State.

He has been an institution at White Plains. He taught history at its alternative school for 37 years, retiring in 2010, and has been a coach for 48 years.

Singleton, who still coaches cross-country, which he began doing in 2002, started coaching winter track in the winter of 1976-77 and only stopped doing so this season.

Singleton, whose own high school coach, Dave Rider, is still going strong at 93, marveled at how the years have passed.

“The idea I’m still working with 14- and 15-year-olds and the original people I worked with are about to collect Social Security is mind-blowing,” the 71-year-old said.

“It’s been a great ride and I’ve enjoyed just about everything — even those long days and nights at The Armory,” Singleton quipped.

Singleton, who said he has worked with "amazing people and in a district that has “always been pro-athlete,” has had a close relationship with his athletes, attending several weddings and remaining in touch with scores. One former member of his team, who was never a star, contacted him before the 2022 NYC Marathon to make sure he had an app to follow her in the race.

“It’s stories like that that keep me going,” said Singleton, who has no plans to step down from coaching cross-country and who continues to run the mammoth springtime Loucks Games meet, an udnertaking since his mentor and longtime friend, Nick Panaro, turned it over to him in 2001.

Singleton has kept the same, simple coaching philosophy since day one: “Let’s go out and try to get everyone to do their best.”

Referring to his fellow inductees, Singleton added, “Some of the coaches may have better resumes, but no one has had a better time.”

Fordham Prep and more

Febles might argue that point — at least about the last few decades.

At 83, he's still working to shave a split second here and there from his athletes' times.

Unlike Singleton and Doherty, who have had legendary careers at one school, Febles has coached at three.

But he’s not planning to add to the list after spending the last 30 coaching under his son, also George, the head coach at Fordham Prep.

The elder Febles, who has lived in Yonkers with his wife, Theresa, since 1973, is Fordham Prep’s hurdles coach.

He got his start in track running in CYO meets in The Armory in 1953. Later he ran on relays when needed for Bishop Dubois, although his main sports were basketball and baseball.

It was best buddy Ray Manning, a fine hurdler/half-miler at Dubois and future Manhattan College star, whom he credits in a sense with starting his coaching career, since, in high school, Manning would ask Febles to watch him hurdle and help him improve his technique.

Feb;es, who worked as a copy boy and teletype operator at the now-long-defunct New York Herald Tribune to pay his Manhattan College tuition, remained a fan of track, watching his school run at The Armory and Madison Square Garden.

After graduating, he started teaching Spanish at Xavier in 1965 and three years later then-head track coach James Scott recruited him to be one of his assistants.

It was a natural fit.

“I was always attracted to education, with a special sun-linear thrust toward student athleticism,” Febles said.

He excelled at highly successful Xavier, learning more about hurdling and overall better training techniques, to the point that in 1978 Scott recommended him for the head coaching job at Regis High School.

Febles, a Catholic High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame member, was perhaps understating things a bit in characterizing his 12-year run at Regis as being one of a “modicum of success in the (Catholic High School Athletic Association” with half-milers and hurdlers. “

In fact, his 4x800 relay teams qualified to compete at the Millrose Games five times.

His success didn’t go unnoticed, including by his son, George, one of his five children.

In 1993, he offered his dad the hurdles job, which he has held ever since.

“George’s innovative manners of coaching gave me new insights into overcoming challenges of the student/athlete. His techniques simply teach personal advancements with a sort of life-preparation byproduct,” Febles said.

No matter how much credit belongs to his son, the elder Febles, who also was the CHSAA cross-country chairperson from 1985 until 2000, has certainly been successful with the Rams.

Beyond countless top finishes locally, his teams have won two indoor national shuttle hurdle relay championships and finished second once. The Rams’ most recent national title in the event came just last winter.

Of the highlight of his career, Febles said, “Obviously, my last 30 years coaching with my son, George, has been an improvement over the previous 20.  Being a positive part of his great state CHSAA championships and his many national championships is the prideful icing on the cake of my sports/education career.”

An unmatched record

Doherty may have left coaching, but not track.

And, in fact, Saturday's ceremony was a bit of an interruption from his duties as a meet official.

His induction capped quite a year for him.

After the state cross-country championships, Doherty announced his retirement from coaching cross-country after a storied 46-year career.

It began when the 1974 Pearl River grad, who ran for Montclair State University, was a fifth-year senior and recruited to coach a season of girls cross-country at his alma mater.

What followed was not only those 46 years in cross-country but more than 30 seasons in both indoor and outdoor track and field.

His records may never be approached.

Doherty’s girls cross-country teams never dropped a home dual meet.

46 years.

Never.

And overall in dual meets, his cross-country teams won 341 times, losing just five meets.

Doherty produced eight state public school champion X-C teams and two Federation (all schools, all sizes) title winners.

Dan Doherty leaves Pearl River: After 46 seasons, demanding and record-setting Rockland coach announces retirement

His team’s titles and numbers in both cross-country and track are staggering and go on and on.

But maybe the one that jumps the farthest off the page is Doherty’s state-record 639 cross-country wins, although 52 consecutive Section 1 titles among the three seasons is also a statistic that bears repeating and repeating.

His brother, Tom, a former Pearl River coach, who was Pearl River’s athletic director during part of his younger brother’s time coaching there, looks at all the numbers and what they represent (including Dan's 41 times as Rockland coach of the year) and calls his brother's record “extraordinary.”

Of Dan's induction, which he attended, Tom said, “I was very, very proud of him. It’s his first ever hall of fame. First of, I think, many hall of fame inductions (to come).”

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: White Plains, Pearl River, Fordham Prep to Armory Coaches Hall Of Fame