By Dominic Konareski
Voice Writer
Mid-November 2025 featured a new career opportunity for West Haven native Simon Mathews in Major League Baseball. Mathews, a former minor league player himself, was hired by the Washington Nationals to be the team’s next pitching coach.
Mathews grew up in West Haven, Connecticut, but attended Hopkins School in neighboring New Haven, where he was their team captain and pitching star for the Hilltoppers. While in high school, the 6-foot-1 standing right-hander had All-Fairchester League honors in his junior and senior years, along with being named as a member of the New Haven Register All-Area Team.
When not playing high school ball, Mathews pitched in the West Haven Twilight League, which saw him grab Pitcher of the Year honors. The 6-foot-2 standing righty graduated from Hopkins as part of the school’s 2013 class. He would pitch for Temple University but would transfer to Georgetown after Temple discontinued their baseball program after his freshman year.
Mathews would end his collegiate career with Georgetown while pitching to the tune of a 5.12 ERA his senior year.
Overall, Mathews would be just the sixth West Haven native to be playing professional baseball in the minors. When signed as an undrafted free agent in 2017 by the Los Angeles Angels, Mathews joined the likes of Ken Strong, Harry Conlan and Tommy Lawrence to be in the minors. So far only one Westie has made it to the majors as a player, and that was Art Ceccarelli, who made his major league debut in 1948 and was in the league for over a decade.
After several years of bouncing through the minor leagues, Mathews decided to end his career as a player and immediately begin a coaching career after being released in 2019.
“I wasn’t a very good pitcher, certainly at the end of my professional career,” said Mathews in a press release, who also said how becoming a coach made his love for the game grow. Now, just a little over a half-decade later, the once-release minor league arm is at the helm of the Washington Nationals bullpen.
A more recent headline of a West Haven native moving up in the sports world was made just before New Year’s Day when Sean Goldrich was named head coach for the University of New Hampshire.
The University of New Hampshire, commonly known as just “UNH” often gets mixed up with the University of New Haven, which also is known as “UNH.” But for this Westie in Sean Goldrich, he is taking his talents that were molded in West Haven to New Hampshire and Division I football.
Goldrich was Notre Dame-West Haven’s standout quarterback when he attended high school. Now, he is the 21st head coach in UNH’s history.
After leading NDWH to a 2009 Class L championship, Goldrich graduated in high school, attended the University of New Hampshire and led the team to multiple CAA Football championships and four NCAA tournament appearances, which included two national semifinals. Overall, as a Wildcat, Goldrich assembled more than 7,500 passing yards and 67 total touchdowns, all while leading the University to their best four-year win total (37 wins) in its 130-season history.
Overall, this coaching move marks the second player from the 2009 NDWH ‘09 championship team. Mark Powell just completed his first season at interim helm of the newly formed DI University of New Haven, with an announcement late in the season that the college would keep him on as head coach.
The Westie brings eight years of coaching experience into the head coach’s seat. Goldrich began his coaching career back where he made a name for himself: Notre Dame-West Haven. The NDWH alumni was the co-OC and QB’s coach. He would also spend time at Yale before shifting his sights as a QBs coach and pass game coordinator, along with head recruiting coordinator at the University of Delaware.
“Following a national search with an extremely competitive field of finalists, it is my pleasure to name Sean Goldrich our new UNH Head Football Coach,” University of New Hampshire Director of Athletics Allison Rich stated in a UNH Wildcats news release shortly after the hiring was announced.
“I’m incredibly excited for the opportunity to lead this football program,” Goldrich said in the press release.
Sean Goldrich will enter the 2026 college football season on the road against the University of Albany.