The Snyder brothers (from left to right), Jay, Michael, Steve and Mark, all played sports at Bulkeley High, along with their sister Lynn, over a 20-year span from 1966-1986. The five siblings will be inducted into the Bulkeley Athletic Hall of Fame in October. (Photo courtesy of Mark Snyder)
By Lori Riley | lriley@courant.com | Hartford Courant | PUBLISHED:August 27, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT
Some time ago, people from the Bulkeley High School Athletic Hall of Fame approached Mark Snyder, who had a long successful career as a coach, athletic director and educator at Prince Tech, about entering the hall of fame.
Snyder, a 1971 Bulkeley graduate, demurred.
“I was nothing special, an average basketball player, a pretty good baseball player (at Bulkeley), but nothing out of the ordinary,” Mark said. “I think I was nominated 10 years ago because of what I did at Prince Tech more so than my athletic ability.”
However, Mark’s four siblings who followed him to Bulkeley High – Steve, Lynn, Jay and Michael – now they were the top athletes.
“They all have done great things in Bulkeley and out of Bulkeley, so I asked, ‘Can we just do the whole family together?’” Mark said.
It didn’t work out then, but this year, it has and all five Snyder siblings will be inducted into the Bulkeley Hall of Fame Oct. 11 at the AquaTurf Club in Southington.
Mark Snyder (with plaque) and his family at the naming of the Mark Snyder Gym at Prince Tech in Hartford. (Photo courtesy of Mark Snyder)
The boys played baseball, basketball and football at Bulkeley; Lynn was a runner, even though Bulkeley did not offer a girls track team at the time so she practiced with the boys team. Together, they collected 29 varsity letters at Bulkeley, captained various sports and won multiple all-conference awards.
Mark is 16 years older than the “baby,” Michael, who graduated high school in 1986. So there were 20 years of Snyders at Bulkeley, from 1966-86.
“There’s 10 years between my brother Mark and I so we covered a lot of ground at Bulkeley,” Jay Snyder said. “We are all super proud of our roots growing up in the South End of Hartford. And we’re all incredibly close.”
There was a basketball hoop in the backyard and plenty of neighborhood kids around who wanted to play sports. Their father Leon played football at Weaver and boxed in the Navy; their mother Carmella played six-on-six basketball at Hartford High. Both parents were supportive of their children’s athletic endeavors.
“During all those years, I don’t think they missed a game, maybe one or two,” Mark said. “They always supported us.”
Mark, who is 73 and lives in West Hartford, is the oldest. He played baseball and basketball at Bulkeley, graduating in 1971. His wife Susan was a cheerleader at Bulkeley; they just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Mark coached Prince Tech boys basketball, where the gym is named after him, and also coached cross country, tennis, boys soccer, baseball and volleyball and was a PE teacher and the athletic director for 40 years at the school and he started many of the girls sports teams. He retired in 2015.
Steve, who lives in Newington, is 16 months younger than Mark. He remembered winning the Capital District Conference title in baseball his senior year and he had the best batting average and the most stolen bases on the team as a left fielder. He was a shooting guard in basketball.
“I still haven’t gotten an assist in 71 years,” he joked. “They said I was a gunner, but I just listened to the coach; he just told me to shoot.”
Steve Snyder (22) shoots the ball during a Bulkeley-Weaver game in the early 70s. Snyder is one of five siblings who will be inducted into the Bulkeley Athletic Hall of Fame in October. (Photo courtesy of Steve Snyder)
Lynn Snyder Vasquez, who graduated in 1975, was next. She loved to run and growing up, she ran in AAU and Hershey track meets. But when she arrived at Bulkeley in the fall of 1971 – before Title IX – there was no girls track team. Undaunted, she went to Graham Martin, who coached the boys team and asked him if she could practice with them. He said yes.
However, when she raced against girls in state meets, she said she would get disqualified.
“I would win, however – it’s funny how times have changed- they would disqualify me because they said it wasn’t fair because I was practicing with the boys,” said Lynn, who is 69 and lives in Newington.
“It bothered me. I loved it and I was proud of my school. I didn’t understand the whole concept of that – who cares who I’m practicing with.”
Lynn Vasquez and Jay Snyder are two of the five Bulkeley High siblings who will be inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame in October. (Photo courtesy of Mark Snyder)
Vasquez, who set an AAU age group record in the 100 yard dash when she was 14 years old. is still running. Despite having a knee replacement, she ran a 5K in Newington this summer.
Jay, a 1981 graduate, was the fourth Snyder to go to Bulkeley. He remembered running through the streets of the South End with Lynn while dribbling a basketball to practice his ballhandling skills.
Baseball was his best sport; he went to the University of Alabama to play but said he missed his mom’s Italian cooking and ended up leaving after a year, although he went on to get a degree in computer science at Central Connecticut and a masters from Harvard.
At Bulkeley, he was an all-conference player his junior and senior years in baseball and the team MVP his senior year. He was also the point guard for the basketball team that went to the Class L state semifinal game and lost to a St. Bernard team led by Harold Pressley, who went on to help Villanova win the NCAA title in 1985 and play in the NBA.
“Playing basketball with your older brothers make you tougher,” Jay said. “They push you; they don’t give an inch. I think it’s why my younger brother and I were able to be successful.”
Michael was the last of the siblings to go to Bulkeley, graduating in 1986.
“I started Bulkeley in 1982 and everybody already knew about the Snyders,” Michael said. “A lot of the teachers knew me, a lot of the coaches knew me. I loved Bulkeley. I loved my time there.”
The Snyder brothers, who played a variety of sports at Bulkeley over a 20 year period and will all be inducted into the Bulkeley Athletic Hall of Fame, from left to right, Jay, Mark, Michael and Steve. (Photo courtesy of Jay Snyder)
Michael, 57, is now a cybersecurity manager who lives in Newington. He played baseball for four years and football and basketball for three. He was the quarterback his junior and senior year and played second base in baseball, where he was an all-conference player.
As the youngest, he said, he always had the desire to prove himself, both to his family and everyone else. Coaches knew him; they remembered him crawling around the bleachers at his older brothers’ game.
“It gave me an advantage,” he said. “But once you’re on the field, you have to prove yourself.”
His older siblings, he said, were his idols.
“They still are my role models in so many ways, not just in sports,” he said.