New wrestling room in Enfield dedicated in honor of Ben Aleks

Enfield High’s new wrestling room was dedicated to Ben Aleks in a ceremony earlier this week. (Photo courtesy of Megan McNally)

ENFIELD, December 16, 2019 – A few days before the 2019-20 season gets off to an official start, the new wrestling room in Enfield was dedicated as the Ben Aleks Wrestling Center.

The room will be the home for the Enfield High wrestling program and the Enfield Eagles youth wrestling program. The training room is the first dedicated room for the Enfield wrestling program in the team’s history.

It is the old band room in the former Enrico Fermi High School. The town of Enfield closed Fermi in 2016 and Enfield High is now the lone high school in town.

Aleks was the head coach at Fermi High from 1983 through 1994. Since retiring from Fermi, he has stayed involved in wrestling as a volunteer assistant, first with the Fermi and now Enfield High School, for the past 25 years. He was also instrumental in helping revive the Enfield Eagles youth wrestling program, which had been dormant for nearly 30 years.

Aleks contributed time, energy and resources to convert the old band room at the Fermi building into a practice center for the high school and youth teams.

In April, he will be honored with a John Wentworth Good Sport Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance at the 79th Gold Key banquet in Southington for unselfishly devoting his time and energy to the promotion of athletics in Enfield.