2024 Guilford Coaching Staff

Nick Merullo

Varsity Head Coach

Nick is a graduate of Daniel Hand High School, where he was a two-time, All-State selection in baseball and football. He attended James Madison University on a baseball scholarship where he played four years of Division 1 baseball and was named team captain in his senior year. Following his college career, Nick played a season of minor league baseball in the Baltimore Orioles organization with the Gulf Coast Orioles and Aberdeen IronBirds.

Nick has since received his Master’s degree in Education from the University of New Haven and is employed as a 5th grade teacher in the Madison Public School System. Prior to being hired at Guilford, Nick served as an Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach at Daniel Hand for five seasons. During this time, the Tigers qualified for the CIAC tournament 4 times and made 5 appearances in the SCC tournament, including a championship birth in 2018.

Jeff Mainetti

Assistant

Coach Mainetti is a GHS Graduate and holds the record for the highest single-season batting average (.546) in the program's history. Jeff was a two time ALL SCC player at Guilford before continuing his playing career at Quinnipiac College, where he was a member of the 2005 team that made the D1 NCAA Regionals. Jeff is currently in his 13th year as a GHS Varsity Assistant.

John Foti

Assistant

John attended Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School (Burnt Hills, NY) where he played Varsity Baseball and was a 3-time recipient of the Spartan Team Leadership Award.

He received his Bachelors Degrees in Biology and Forensic Science as well as a Masters Degree in Education at the University of New Haven.

John is currently employed as a Science Teacher at GHS and has prior coaching experience at the high school and travel level in NY. Coach Foti is in his 3rd year as a GHS Varsity Assistant.

Ralph Russo

Freshman Head Coach

Coach Russo attended Notre Dame-West Haven High School where he was a member of the Varsity Baseball team. He was also an All State Hockey Player and a was part of a State Championship Hockey team while at ND.

Ralph received a Bachelor’s degree in History at Yale University and has received Post Graduate degrees from Wesleyan University and SCSU. He played both Varsity Hockey and Intramural Baseball during his time at Yale.

Jeff Letourneau

Pitching Coach

Jeff grew up in Grafton, MA and came to CT to pitch at the University of New Haven in 1990 and was named All-American in 1991.  Following graduation, Jeff was fortunate to play seven professional seasons with various independent teams, overseas in Amsterdam and with the New York Yankees and Montreal Expos organizations. 

Following baseball and in 1998 Jeff started his career in the pharmaceutical industry and is currently employed by Novo Nordisk, Inc.

Matt Merullo

Assistant

Matt graduated from Fairfield Prep, where he was an all-state selection in baseball and football.  Matt attended the University of North Carolina and played with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League as well as Team USA in between his collegiate seasons with the Tarheels.  Matt was selected in the 7th round by the Chicago White Sox following his junior season, and embarked on a 10 year professional career.  This included  6 seasons in the Major Leagues with the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins.

Following his playing career, Matt has remained involved with baseball as a private instructor.  He also spent time as an MLB scout (Arizona Diamondbacks), and has coaching experience as a minor league manager (Baltimore Orioles) and division one college coach (Fairfield University).