Dave Danko has played, coached and worked at Fairfield Warde High School — formerly known as Andrew Warde High School and Fairfield High School— since his arrival as a freshman in 1982. He is now nearing 500 career wins as the head coach of the Fairfield Warde girls’ basketball team, recently completing his 30th season.

Stacey Porrini Clingan is described by her collegiate coach Joanne P. McCallie as “a warrior of character in all ways.” The former Stacey Porrini, a 6-foot-4 center, played for the women’s basketball team at the University of Maine from 1993-97, where she finished with 1,128 points, 929 rebounds and the first three NCAA tournament appearances in Black Bears history, but more than that McCallie remembers her as a leader, fiercely loyal to the program and the very definition of character.

Paula Fitzgerald is part of the history of girls’ basketball in Connecticut, serving as an assistant coach at Westbrook High School when the team won six straight Class S state championships from 1982-87, and she’s continued her dedication to Westbrook athletes ever since.

When the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference chose an All-Century Girls’ Basketball Team, listing the Top 25 players of all-time in the state, Tracy Stolle’s name was among them. Stolle, who finished with 1,924 career points, carried Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield to the 1995 Class S state championship with a 27-0 record, earning Most Valuable Player honors for the title game with 33 points, seven rebounds and four steals in a 49-47 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas.

Kelly Coleman was a member of the Portland High School girls’ basketball team which came up short — on a buzzer-beater, no less — in the 2010 Class S state championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena. Coleman thought at that time the chances of making a return trip to the Sun the following season were slim.

Although Vickie Fulkerson is an avid collector of baseball memorabilia, it’s her passion for women’s basketball by which she’s developed an even greater collection — an expanse of stories that documents and celebrates decades of athletes.