Coach Lou Marinelli

In 2025, Lou Marinelli will begin his 44th season as Head Coach of the New Canaan Rams. In 2017 Coach Marinelli won his 332nd career game, making him the winningest coach in Connecticut High School Football history.

Lou Marinelli was born in Tarrytown, New York and graduated high school from the New York Military Academy. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Springfield College where he also lettered four years in football and two in lacrosse.

He served as a Graduate Assistant Coach for Springfield while earning his Master’s before leaving to become the Head Coach at Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck, New York in 1976. From 1977-1978 he was an Assistant Football Coach at Boston College. In 1979 he left Boston College to become the Head Coach at Yorktown High School in Yorktown, New York. He was 15-3-1 in his two seasons, including a New York State Sectional Bowl Victory.

Lou came to New Canaan High School in 1981 when the once-proud football program was struggling, having gone winless over the previous thirty games. In only his second season, Coach Marinelli led the Rams to a State Championship title.

Lou Marinelli has won a total of 15 State Championships (1982, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023 and 2024). He has also won the FCIAC Championship seven times (1993, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2013, 2021 and 2024). His total career record is 405 wins, 114 losses and 7 ties. His record at New Canaan is 386 wins, 107 losses and 6 ties, good for 64% of all the wins in the history of New Canaan High School football. His record against archrival Darien is 31-17-1. Since 1982, Coach Marinelli has never had a losing season at New Canaan High School.

Coach Marinelli has been recognized several times by his peers as FCIAC Coach of the Year, National Football Foundation Coach of the Year, and Hall of Fame Coach of the Year, Walter Camp Football Foundation’s Connecticut Coach of the Year and was named 2022 Connecticut High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year.

He has won the Gerald R. Ford Award for Outstanding Coaching by the All-American Football Foundation, the Legendary Coach Award by the MSG Network and has been a finalist for the National Coach of the Year by the National High School Coaches Association on four separate occasions (2007, 2010, 2016 and 2023). He has also won the National Football League’s Coach of the Year (2008). In November 2009, he was inducted into the Connecticut High School Hall of Fame and in 2013 he was inducted into the FCIAC Hall of Fame. In 2016 Coach Marinelli was inducted into the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame and a year later he was a recipient of the prestigious Gold Key award from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance.

In 2019, it all came full circle for Coach Marinelli as he was honored by his alma mater with an induction into the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame. And after winning his 14th CIAC State Championship, Lou was named 2023 National High School Athletic Coaches Association Football Coach of the Year – one of the most prestigious honors in the country.

Lou and his wife, Frances, have three children, Francesca, Anna, and John — all NCHS graduates — as well as six grandchildren.

Coach Marinelli Records