West Haven Football Promotes Tom Unger To Head Coach
- Dominic Konareski
- Mar 16
- 2 min read
After being named interim head football coach in August of 2025 by a last-minute surprise stepping down by Rich Boshea, the 2026 West Haven Blue Devils football team are now officially Tom Unger’s.
Unger has been a familiar face in both the classroom and field. A teacher by school day and a football coach when the dismissal bell rings. Unger brought over two decades of coaching experience to West Haven. He served as a D-line coach at Fairfield University in 2002, an assistant coach at Guilford High School from 2003-07, before being named Guilford’s head coach in 2008, where he would hold that position till 2014.
Tom Unger joined the West Haven coaching staff in 2015, and teaches math just a few hundred yards away from the field at the WHHS campus.
Unger, who carried a career head coaching record of 27-46 going into the season, would bring West Haven to an even .500% of 5-5, missing the playoffs. The Blue Devils missing the playoffs came after back-to-back state championship appearances, both of which ended in losses.
Despite prior dominance, Unger took the command of an entirely different West Haven team that saw 22 new starters, including at the quarterback position.
West Haven’s 5-5 record may seem like a downer, but factoring in nearly two dozen new starters and a schedule that saw the team face the No.8, No.2 and the Class L runner-up, then you get a much broader look. Despite being 5-5, West Haven was competitive throughout the season, which is why they finished 2025 ranked 19th in the state.
The official decision to elevate Unger from interim to head football coach came in early 2026, when the the West Haven Board of Education unanimously voted to remove the interim tag in January.
“This is an unbelievable honor and it comes with a lot of responsibility,” said Unger after officially being named head coach. “This is one of the top football programs in the state of Connecticut, and I always felt fortunate to have the opportunity to be an assistant here.”
Unger will go into the 2026 season as a full-time head coach for the first time in a decade.
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