Jack Celeste is a beloved community icon and longtime coach whose foundational, fundamental leadership helped the Bulldogs set the stage for the school’s state softball championships in 2002 and 2007. 

A 1979 graduate of South High, Jack lettered in four sports for the Bulldogs, starring in baseball and basketball. He also played soccer for one season, and teed it up for the Coach Ron Lennox and the South High varsity golf team for one season.

Jack’s first coaching job was with Keith Whible and the late Mike Sullivan, coaching the South Glens Falls Little League All-Star baseball teams in the early 1980s. Among the players he coached were Garrett Bean, Donnie Bovair, Heath Goodspeed, Tom Myott and Mike Buttino, among others. A later team who advanced to the state semifinals included, among others, Joey Hougham, Bruce Potter and Brian McGuire.

“All of those guys I coached still call me Coach when I see them, and they all bring up the great memories,” he said. “They all turned out to be great people.”

He coached for three more years before starting a 26-year career with the New York State Department of Corrections, working mostly at Mount McGregor.

In 1997, he left the South Glens Falls Little League baseball and started the South Glens Falls Little League softball program, which became a feeder program of sorts for Coach Laurie Ciuffetelli’s high school program. 

He said the team he co-coached with Bob Harrington in 2001 that included Micah Truax Ryan, Beth Belair and his daughter Brittany, qualified for nationals in Oklahoma. He coached dozens of standouts including Katie Terry Chapman, Andrea Curley Coluccio, Ashley Weller Fazio and Sam Harrington Nelson, among others.

“I wanted to make South Glens Falls the best it could be, and make South High the best it could be,” he said. “The goal was always to make the kids better and to win state championships.”

In 2002, Jack started the Avalanche travel team that criss-crossed the country playing top competition. He also started coaching the South High modified team under Ciuffetelli.

“I learned a lot from Laurie,” he said. “And I was lucky to coach some great athletes. They wanted to be pushed. They worked hard and wanted to succeed.”

In the 2000s, Jack coached the modified girls’ basketball team at South High under Tom Utter. He then replaced Utter, coaching the varsity from 2010 to 2015, before spending five years as head softball coach at SUNY Adirondack.

Jack is quick to point out how lucky he was to be coached by people like Mike Nolan and Bob Bogdan and Bill Gough, Mike Sharrow and Bob Sheahan, Larry Smith and Ron Lennox.

“I took something from every coach I played for,” he said. “Mike Nolan meant a lot to me. He always supported me and pushed me to be better. He also coached Brittany at South High, and I took so much knowledge from him and brought it to my coaching style.”

The son of the late Ann and Jack “Custy” Celeste, Jack was an only child.

“I had great parents,” he said. “They taught me to treat people the right way and to be a good person. To be polite and have respect for your elders. I’ve tried to follow their lead.”

Now Jack operates the popular Coach’s Corner food truck with his daughters Mallory Normandin and Lindsey Fredette, assisted by daughter Kelsey Celeste when she is in town.

“I’m really humbled by this,” he said. “I was never looking for attention. This was never about me.

“There are so many worthy candidates, to be even considered is humbling,” Jack said.

Jack joins two of his daughters in the South High Bulldog Pride Hall of Fame. His daughter Lindsey Fredette was on the 2007 undefeated team that was inducted in 2023. Eldest daughter Brittany Smith was a member of the 2002 team that was inducted in 2010.

Jack and his wife, Beth (Bouton) Celeste, have four daughters and four grandchildren, with a fifth grandchild on the way!

John Vishneowski is a 1977 graduate of South Glens Falls. During his high school years he participated in football, wrestling and baseball, but wrestling would turn out to be his true love. He enjoyed a superb high school career in which he was fondly known as “The Polish Hammer” for his signature reverse cradle move that resulted in several of his wins.

John went on to attend Springfield College to further his wrestling career as well as his studies in physical education and math. It was at Springfield where he found his desire to coach and lead the next generation of talent. As he completed his rotations for student teaching, he made certain they included help with the school’s wrestling program. It was during this time that he found himself at Queensbury High School and studying under the great wrestling mind of Jack Labombard.

Upon John’s completion of his college studies, he found himself at his first, and only, school, Ravena Coeymans Selkirk (RCS). The year was 1981 and John started in the RCS wrestling program with only 15 wrestlers and no modified program. This would not deter John. He put his hard work into growing the program and in fourteen seasons he compiled a record 127-68-4 which included eight seasons with over 10 wins. He also had 37 consecutive wins over a 5-year stretch that included three Colonial Council Team Championships in addition to four Section 2 Champs.

He has been a part of the RCS wrestling program for over 35 years, even coming out of his coaching retirement to help with the JV program during which his teams achieved great success including three more Section 2 individual champions and two NY State Qualifiers. In addition to coaching wrestling, John also coached football for nine years and softball for eight years, developing many young students.

Supporting RCS was not John’s only commitment to the sport of wrestling. For 14 years he served as the assistant Section 2 Wrestling Chairman under Marty Sherman and George Chickanis. For the past 8 years he has served as the Section 2 Chairman, devoting countless hours to the promotion of the sport he loves. He has also served as a committee member for the NYS seeding and current auto qualifier system used by NYSPHSSA as well as being one of the original members of the Friends of Section 2 Wrestling Board of Directors, serving as vice president for several years.

John is an inductee of the Section 2 Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022, the RCS Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023 and the South Glens Falls Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2023. He now takes great pride in joining his Father, Alex Vishneowski, in the Bulldog Pride Hall of Fame.

John retired from teaching at RCS in 2015 but he has continued to stay active by giving his time to wrestling whenever the need arrives. John lives with his wife Shelly in Glenmont, NY. They have two children – Kaitlyn and Tim – along with five grandchildren who keep them very busy.

      Cliff Winslow was a beloved math teacher at Oliver W. Winch Junior High for 35 years, positively influencing hundreds of students with his compassionate and effective methods.

       A standout basketball player at Hudson Falls under legendary Coach Tony Luciano, Cliff also was South High’s varsity boys’ basketball coach from 1968-71, replacing fellow Bulldog Pride Hall of Famer Ron Lennox.

      A 1962 graduate of Hudson Falls High School, Cliff was a big part of the Tigers team that won the Northern Conference championship. A terrific shooter, skilled passer and a student of the game, he finished his career fourth on the all-time scoring list. Cliff went on to play three years of varsity basketball at Plattsburgh State, where he held the career assist record for many years. His coach described Cliff “as one of the best shot-makers in the State University conference” and “the man that makes the Cardinal offense move.” He was twice an all-SUNYAC All-Star.
      Cliff began his teaching career as a student teacher at Beekmantown Central School so he could still play basketball at Plattsburgh State. He was beloved by the Beekmantown community, which held a Cliff Winslow Day, complete with banners, cheerleaders and the Beekmantown pep band, at a Plattsburgh State basketball game in 1966. A story in the Plattsburgh Press Republican said “never before in the history of local high school or college basketball has a student teacher ever been idolized with such force as Cliff Winslow…‘The Wizard,’ as he is known by his coach and his teammates, has taken the Beekmantown school by storm.”
      After graduating, he began a 35-year career teaching math at Oliver W. Winch Junior High School, also serving as South High’s varsity basketball coach from 1968 to 1971. One of his former students remembered him being “kind, thoughtful, caring and excited to teach, and he made all of his students excited to learn. He was always so happy to help me any time I would go to the teacher’s lounge, and even though he was on break, he never seemed annoyed I was bothering him. Instead, he was always happy to help me. He gave me a love of math that I still have.”

      To this day, many of his former students credit him for their love of math and their future success.
      It was clear Cliff had a special place in his heart for children. A member of Glens Falls Elks Lodge #81 for 28 years, he served as Youth Committee chairman and started the annual Youth Fun Day in the early 1990s. He was instrumental in countless activities to benefit area children, including a Giving Tree and Christmas party for children in foster care. He was honored as Elk of the Year in 1995, and received the Grand Exalted Ruler’s Outstanding Service Commendation in 2001.
      The son of the Clarence and Dorothy (Carpenter) Winslow, Cliff married the love of his life, Lucille Lydecker, on June 24, 1972 at the former South Glens Falls United Methodist Church. The couple renewed their vows in a backyard ceremony on their 25th anniversary in 1997.
      Cliff and Lucille had two daughters, Heather Walters and Sarah Winslow. Heather has three children: Hannah, Noah and Drew. Sarah and her wife Stephanie are the proud parents of Reeve and Laken.

      Winslow passed away in 2017.