By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
The Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame will add seven inductees Jan. 27, most of them with extensive state high school ties.
Included are John Blomstrann, Carlos M. Carlos, Paul Duffy, Tom Nevers, Victor Santos, Ans Swanson and David Vaudreuil.
Blomstrann has been the coach at E.O. Smith-Storrs since 1980 and has a 415-68-27 record with five CIAC state championships. He also played at Smith and was a three-year starter at the University of Connecticut.
Carlos also was an outstanding player at UConn and in regional professional leagues and has Grade 5 USSF referee status.
Duffy has been a presence in youth soccer and also is a certified USSF and high school official.
Nevers, a high school all-America at E.O. Smith and a college star at UConn, played professionally in the MSAL and Major Indoor Soccer League.
Santos coached Wethersfield High School to the top national ranking in 1991, when it won a state championship. He also played professionally and currently is the Connecticut Junior Soccer Association Olympic Development Program director and coach.
Swanson started girls' soccer programs at Southington and Cheshire high schools, is an official and has been president of the Southington Soccer Club for 20 years.
Vaudreuil was a high school all-America player at Canton and played at Princeton before a professional career with DC United and the Colorado Rapids.
They will be honored at the Farmington Marriott at 5:30 p.m. Tickets for the event are $40 and are available to the public by calling (860) 676-1161.
Another organization with an induction soon is the New Britain Sports Hall of Game which will add nine members March 22 at the St. George Social Center.
Included are John Bagdasarian, a track and football athlete in the 1940s; Bob Barrows, a football and baseball player in the 1950s; Jim Gardner, a three-sport athlete who went on to fame as a soccer coach at Lyme-Old Lyme High School (the soccer field is named in his honor and his teams won four CIAC state titles); Dan Gorman, an all-around athlete in the 1930s; Joe Murphy, a three-sport athlete who played baseball and basketball at Gonzaga; Mike Prairie, who went on to an all-Ivy football career at Brown and is in the Brown athletic Hall of Fame; Mark Reimer, who played football and baseball in high school and was a college all-America in baseball at Eastern Connecticut State University and Hermie Schmarr, a pre-World War II athlete at New Britain High.
Conard High School-West Hartford, honors its 1978-'79 girls' basketball team Saturday (Jan. 20) The team was recently inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
Conard, under coach Pam Moffo, went 24-0 that year and won the CIAC Class LL state championship.
Team members included Kathy Cermola and Donna Fiedorowicz (also inducted into the NEBHoF as individuals), plus Lynn Carlson Coleman, Kristen Dahlmeyer, Cathy Foto, Eileen Griffin Komanecky, Patty Dalton McElligott, Anne McKernan, Paula Clough Matta, Becky Rahn, Leslie Skenderian, Ellen Greene Tisdale and the late Cathy D'Apice.
Brittany Dickinson of Bunnell-Stratford, has been selected as the Gatorade Player of the Year in girls' volleyball.
Dickinson led her team to a 25-0 record and the CIAC Class LL state championship, averaging 8.5 assists, 3.8 aces, 1.2 blocks and 3.0 kills per game. Bunnell did not lose a single game in the state tournament.
Dickinson also has a 3.47 grade point average.
Windsor High School is the latest Connecticut Sun girls' high school team of the week in basketball.
Windsor improved to 12-0 with wins over Weaver-Hartford, 61-42, and previously unbeaten Manchester, 64-52.
Brittany Huggins had 23 points in the Warriors' win over Weaver while she and Cierra Baker had 17 each against Manchester.
Windsor, which is the top team in both the New Haven Register poll and the Hartford Courant team rankings, is one of five unbeaten teams in the state.
