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- Category: Past Issues
By Ron P. Coderre
This week’s RPC sporty hello goes out to Putnam Rotary Club President Paul Pikora. Although his athletic background is somewhat mysterious, his love of sports is right up front. He’s known to travel great distances to see a good game.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. In 2010, Tourtellotte Memorial High School officially started its Athletic Hall of Fame. In three years, the hall has inducted 26 individual athletes and four teams. In bringing on 10 inductees each year, the Hall is catching up with the many years of outstanding performers in the history of the school.
On Saturday, October 20 Woodstock Academy has joined this recent tradition by holding its initial Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The Academy brought in seven individuals and one team during the ceremony.
The Class of 2012 included coaches Ken Beatson, Doug Peck and Celia Ingraham. The first class of athletes featured Lauren Anderson ’63, Patrick O’Brien ’97, Joe Patrone ’80 and Rollie Sheldon ’54. The 1976 girls’ softball championship team was also inducted.
Among the inductees the three coaches, four athletes and the team all were most deserving. Beatson, Peck and Ingraham are names that echo around the halls of the Academy whenever legends are mentioned.
Sheldon is probably the most noted of the individual inductees, though memories of his heroics at the Academy, UConn and with the New York Yankees have faded somewhat with those that aren’t true sports historians. Patrone is remembered for his high jumping exploits and O’Brien for his prolific scoring prowess on the hardwood. Anderson, who was a standout all-around athlete at Woodstock, reached her fame while coaching and as an athletic director at the University of Rhode Island.
One thing is certain; Saturday evening on The Hill woke up the echoes.
Running Her Way to Fame…
Mention the name Angela Girardin around Tourtellotte Memorial High School or in Thompson and the stories of her running exploits fill hours of discussion.
Girardin posted three solid school years as a cross country, indoor and outdoor track star in the years 1992, 1993 and 1994. Girardin was such a great performer her fame continued on for four years at the University of Rhode Island.
While at Tourtellotte, Girardin led her teams to three championships, the prestigious Windham Invitational, Quinebaug Valley Conference cross country title and runner-up in the State CIAC Championships.
She is the holder of records at Tourtellotte, the QVC and the Central Massachusetts Indoor Track League. In 1995 she was the State Heptathlon champion as well as the New England 500-meter champ.
Moving on to the University of Rhode Island Girardin became an integral part of the Rams relay teams as well as running as an individual.
She competed in such meets as the Atlantic 10 Conference, the Duke Invitational the New England Collegiate championships.
Even today Girardin continues to hold records or rank in the top ten track performers for the Rams. In 1999 she set the school record in the 500-meter and was chosen URI’s Most Outstanding Senior Female Athlete.
Girardin was enshrined in the Tourtellotte Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame in the Class of 2011.
New AD in the ECC…
Woodstock Academy recently announced that the school has hired Aaron Patterson as its new director of athletics. Patterson comes to the Academy from Dean Vocational High School in Holyoke, Mass., where he’s served since 2006.
His athletic resume includes a stop at Elms College as director of Physical Education, and coaching stints also at Elms, as well as Western New England College and Springfield College.
His background appears to suit the needs of Woodstock Academy, which has gone from a rural high school to a regionally oriented school of more than 1000 students to a school that recently embarked on attracting international students.
Local Sports Medicine Doc Honored…
The Medical Director of Sports Medicine Associates of Danielson, Dr. Jeffrey D. Manning was recently honored by the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation for his commitment to education in the field of family medicine. He was selected to receive the 2012 Pfizer Teacher Development Award.
He was chosen based on his scholastic achievement and dedication to family medicine and will be honored at a ceremony at the Brown Department of Family Medicine.
Manning who is from West Hartford, received his bachelor’s degree from Williams College and earned his medical degree from Penn State College of Medicine.
He completed his residency at Brown University and a fellowship in sports medicine from the University of Massachusetts.
Manning, who is affiliated with Day Kimball Hospital is also an instructor at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the University of Massachusetts.
RPC’s Closing Thought For The Day: Goal setting is important ,,, Goal doing is more important.