By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
The Middletown Sports Hall of Fame conducted its 14th annual induction recently and one of the highlights was the introduction of the 1974 Xavier High School state championship football team.
Then-coach Larry McHugh, who became president of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association and today is president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce (one of the most vibrant Chambers in the nation) introduced 31 of the players from that team, plus a variety of assistant coaches, to a crowd of over 500.
Xavier was ranked as high as sixth, nationally, in one publication and McHugh calls the club his best ever. Among the players on that team was quarterback Jim Hofher, who went on to become a head coach at Cornell and the University of Buffalo. He and all-star running back Anthony Brown were among the attendees.
Others among the inductees also had distinguished high school careers in Middletown.
Included were all-state basketball player Maureen Trigo DeRing, whose husband, U. S. Army Captain Joe DeRing, is on active duty in Afghanistan after a tour of duty in Iraq;
Long-time golf coach (and founder of the girls' golf program as well as the girls' state tournament), basketball coach, and soccer official Denis Guimares; Hall of Fame softball coach Lou Milardo (Nathan Hale-Ray High in Moodus); Rick Misenti, an award-winning high school administrator in Florida and a former local high school standout; Stan Stachura, an assistant coach with the afore-mentioned Xavier team as well as a head coach at Plainfield High School; Xavier and Stetson University baseball star Fred Tremalgia, who went on to a successful girls' basketball coaching career at Ledyard High School.
Plus Ron Milardo (prep and Brown University ice hockey star), Salvatore Scripo, Jr. (motorcycle racer), Ed Wilcox (local youth baseball icon and chronicler), the late Lawrence Cacciola (a high school standout and later a state representative and deputy state comptroller) and the late Bill Pike, whose baseball pitching career included a 411-169 record with 110 shutouts, five no-hitters, 16 one-hitters and 5345 strikeouts in the Middlesex County League and Hartford Insurance League.
The Southern Connecticut Conference and SportsCenter of Connecticut have announced the selection of November athletes of the month for the league. Some 16 student-athletes from eight of the conference's 23 member schools were selected.
From Daniel Hand-Madison were Mike Bagnoli (baseball, football, top 10-percent of his class) and Brittany Jackson (soccer all-stater, basketball starter);
Derby, Kailee Hyde (basketball, softball) and Thomas Izzo (football, wrestling, top 15-percent of his class);
Fairfield Prep, Brian Wooley (soccer) and Kevin Lincoln (cross country, track, top one percent of his class);
Jonathan Law-Milford, Cori Hannon (three-sports captain in volleyball, gymnastics, track, 4.12 grade point average) and Marc Gosselin (football, 4.05 grade point average);
Lyman Hall-Wallingford, Ismail Orabi (cross country, track, ranked 15th in his class) and Megan Ramsey (swim school record-holder, ranked fourth in her class);
North Haven, Matt Capozziello (football, lacrosse, eight in his class) and Rachel Hurwitz (swimming, cross country, tennis, ranked fourth in her class);
Wilbur Cross-New Haven, Orlando DeLarosa (soccer and lacrosse captain) and Laura Visochek (swimmingm, ranked fourth in her class); and
West Haven, Kristen Anderson (volleyball, swimming, softball, ranked 14th in her class) and Michael Bova (soccer and lacrosse captain, ranked in top 15-percent in his class).
Norwich Free Academy pole vaulted Jessica Sullivan has broken her own state record, soaring 11-feet at the Southern Connecticut Conference Coaches' Invitational at the New Haven Citywide Field House.
It was the third time this winter Sullivan had set a record. She did 10-6.5 at the Jack Long Invitational in New Haven and broke that with a 10-9 hop at the Hartford Public Invitational at Wesleyan University in Middletown.
Career Magnet School in New Haven is the latest Mohegan Sun high school girls' basketball team of the week.
The Panthers, ranked eighth in the latest state coaches/media poll, are 12-2 after wins over Cheshire, 67-61, and state power Mercy-Middletown, 78-74 in overtime.
Against Cheshire, Gabby Oglesby led the way with 29 points while in the win over Mercy, Oglesby had 22 and Anisha Wilson added 24. Mercy had been ranked eighth in the state but dropped out of the top 10 after consecutive losses to Hand-Madison, Hillhouse-New Haven and Career.