Leominster High to inaugurate Athletic Hall of Fame
It will be a special night for Leominster athletics on Oct. 3 when 14 individuals and three teams will be inducted into the inaugural Leominster High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. at the Leominster Lodge of Elks, 134 North Main St.
“We have some very worthy individual inductees and we focused on some state championship teams for this first induction,” said Hall of Fame vice-chairman Bob Healy, who along with chairman Frank Steffanides and a dedicated committee organized the event after two years of planning.
With Leominster High’s rich, century-old tradition of outstanding athletic teams and individual players, it was not an easy task for the committee in terms of selecting the inaugural class.
Mr. Healy said that all members of the previously created Blue Devils football and baseball Hall of Fame classed will be included in this all-sports Athletic Hall of Fame.
“All the plaques for each inductee will be housed in a separate area of the school, near the gymnasium,” Mr. Healy said.
The Blue Devils’ 1978 state champion boys soccer team, the 1987 state champion softball team and the undefeated 1959 swim team will enter the Hall of Fame.
Inductees in the inaugural class are:
• Jane Gorham Bergeron who excelled in four varsity sports in her outstanding high school career.
• Henry St. Cyr, a basketball and baseball star who was named to the North Worcester County All-Star team in the early 1960s.
• Blue Devils’ swimmers Bruce Willard and Amanda Kirouac.
• Champion wrestler Ben Sanchez and champion golfer Mike Elliott.
• Baseball star Mike Marchand.
• Raymond Auger, who set Leominster track and field records in the early 1970s.
• Tennis champion Danielle Lund, who was unbeaten at Leominster and went on to become one of the best at the University of Michigan.
• Bobby Johnson, who led the Blue Devils to North Worcester County Basketball Championships in 1958 and 1959 and went on to become the NAIA national leading scorer at Fitchburg State University, averaging 39.1 points per game.
• Track star Carl Baker, who went on to become the first Leominster boys cross-country coach and girls track team coach. In the early 1950s, Mr. Baker was undefeated in the mile event in every high school dual track meet throughout his high school career.
• Pat Pothier, who coached field hockey and softball for decades and taught physical education classes at Leominster High from 1951 to 1971.
• The late Leominster coach and director of athletics Ted Damko, who was on the staff at Leominster High for 39 years.
• The late Bob Cosseboom, an outstanding, civic-minded person and loyal supporter of Leominster High for many years. He was the president of the LHS Class of 1945.
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