06/28/202406/28/2024

Taunton Announces Inaugural Hall of Fame Class

Taunton Hall of Fame

Taunton recently launched its Athletic Hall of Fame which was established to “recognize and remember the outstanding accomplishments of student-athletes, teams, coaches, administrators, and contributors while participating in and contributing to the success of athletics at Taunton High School.” Below is a press release announcing the inaugural class for the THS Athletic Hall of Fame.

TAUNTON – The Taunton High Athletic Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the inaugural class of inductees. The class of 2024 includes eight student-athletes, one team, and one coach.

Inductees are nominated by members of the public and voted on by the Hall of Fame Committee.

The inductees for 2024 are:

Student-Athletes

• David Arieta: Football
• Eric DeMoura: Baseball
• Jeff Gallagher: Hockey
• Kendra Lund: Basketball
• Katlyn Mallette: Softball
• Scott Mitchell: Basketball
• Erin Wade: Softball
• Bonnie Yuen: Cross Country, Indoor & Outdoor Track

Team

• 1967 Football Team

Coach

• David Lewry: Softball

“The committee was truly impressed by the outstanding achievements of these student-athletes, team, and coach,” said Committee Chairman Mike Fox. “Their dedication to their respective sports has left a lasting impact on the Taunton High athletic community, and we are proud to honor them as our first inductees.”

David Arieta: Football, Class of 1981

Arieta was a member of the champion and undefeated 1980 Football Team. That year, the Tigers upset Lynn Classical in the Super Bowl. Arieta, who played as a wide receiver and a cornerback, was named Division Two Player of the Year by the Boston Globe. That season, he caught 20 passes for 520 yards and seven touchdowns. He also recorded 13 interceptions.

Eric DeMoura: Baseball, Class of 1992

DeMoura had an impressive three years for the Tigers at the varsity level, winning the 1991 Old Colony League Championship. The United States Baseball Federation and Topps named him the Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year in 1992. That same year, DeMoura was invited to the US Junior Olympic Team Trials. DeMoura was named to the All-Scholastic Team by the Boston Globe and Boston Herald in 1991 and 1992. During those same years, he was also named to the Old Colony League All-Star Team and the All-State Team.

Jeff Gallagher: Hockey, Class of 1994

Gallagher played four years of varsity-level hockey for the Tigers, totaling 69 games. Despite an injury-shortened sophomore season, Gallagher still racked up an impressive 139 points, averaging two points per game. He holds the record for the most points in a season, 64, the most assists in a season, 42, and is the school’s all-time leading scorer, 36 goals, and holds the record for most assists, 103. Gallagher is a two-time All-Scholastic from both the Taunton Gazette and the Brockton Enterprise.

Kendra Lund (Drake): Basketball, Class of 1999

Lund holds the school scoring record for girls’ basketball, racking up 1,437 points over the course of four varsity seasons. She is a four-time Old Colony League All-Star and was named Old Colony League MVP in 1999. The Taunton Gazette and Brockton Enterprise also named her a first-team All-Scholastic from 1996-1999. In addition to her impressive performances on the basketball court, Lund also won a State Softball Championship in 1997.

Katlyn Mallette (Gauthier): Softball, Class of 2003

Mallette is the 2003 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and was a key player in a dominant Tigers team in the early 2000s. She holds the school record for lowest ERA, 0.19, fewest runs allowed, 19, and perfect games, 5. Mallette’s trophy cabinet includes four Old Colony League Championships, three South Sectional Championships, two City Championships, and two Division One State Championships. Mallette was also a mainstay in All-Scholastic Teams from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Taunton Gazette, and Brockton Enterprise.

Scott Mitchell: Basketball, Class of 1985

Mitchell scored a school-record 1,615 points in his four years of varsity basketball for the Tigers. He was twice named All-Scholastic by the Taunton Gazette and Brockton Enterprise and a second-team All-Scholastic by the Boston Globe. Mitchell was also a perennial Old Colony League All-Star.

Erin Wade (Hernandez): Softball, Class of 2008

Wade holds an impressive number of school records, including wins, 67, strikeouts, 942, no-hitters, 12, and innings pitched, 588. Wade was impressive at the plate, too, with a career batting average of 388, 11 doubles, 14 triples, four home runs and 61 RBI. Throughout her four-year career, the Tigers won 10 championships: one Division One State Championship, one South Sectional Championship, four Old Colony League Championships, and four City Championships. Wade is the 2007 & 2008 Boston Globe Player of the Year, the 2007 Brockton Enterprise Player of the Year, and was named to 12 first-team All-Scholastic Teams, including the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Taunton Gazette, and Brockton Enterprise.

Bonnie Yuen (Belfield): Cross Country, Indoor & Outdoor Track, Class of 1985

Yuen was a dominant runner, holding school records in several distances for both indoor (600m, 800m, 1,000, and mile) and outdoor track (500m, 1,500m and mile). 800m was her specialty, and she won three consecutive championships at that distance at three different levels: Class A, All-State, and New England. A six-time Boston Globe All-Scholastic, she was undefeated in the 800m for three consecutive years. She placed second at the US Junior Nationals, qualifying her for the US Junior Team in 1985.

1967 Football Team

The 1967 Football Team won Taunton High School’s first state title, winning the Class C Championship. The team was undefeated, outscoring opponents 221-81 in nine games. Head coach George Hemond led the team to the City Championship and the Bristol County League Championship.

David Lewry: Coach, Softball

Lewry’s incredible coaching career at Taunton High spans 20 years. His 407 wins is a Taunton Softball record and qualified the Tigers for the playoffs every year. Under his leadership, Taunton won four Division One State Championships, multiple South Sectional Championships, and several League Championships. Lewry was named Northeast Sectional Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 2003, Boston Globe Division One Coach of the Year (2001), Hockomocksports.com Coach of the Year (2014 & 2015), Taunton Gazette Coach of the Year (2007) and Brockton Enterprise Coach of the Year (2003).

The induction ceremony will take place on November 9 at Taunton High School. Detailed information about the ceremony will be released later this summer.

“On behalf of the Taunton Public Schools, I want to congratulate the inductees for their tremendous achievements and well-deserved recognition,” said Superintendent John Cabral. “I’d also like to thank retiring Athletic Director Mark Ottavianelli and the entire Hall of Fame committee for their time, dedication, and hard work to bring this first class to fruition.”

The Hall of Fame will be located in the hallway connecting the Joseph Rabouin Field House to the athletics wing and will include plaques honoring each inductee.

There are six categories for induction into the Hall of Fame: Student-Athlete, Team, Coach, Administrator, Contributor, and Classic. Each category has specific criteria for consideration, including a five-year waiting period. Other criteria may include league, sectional, or state championships, win-loss records, and individual awards and records.

Nominations are considered for five years from initial submission. Nominees who were not selected for induction this year will be eligible for the next four classes. At that point, nominations will need to be resubmitted. For more information about the Taunton High School.

For more information about the Taunton High School Athletics Hall of Fame, please contact thshalloffame@tauntonschools.org

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05/01/2020

Teams of the Decade: Top Playoff Runs

Over the past couple of months, our staff has reviewed hundreds of championship-caliber Hockomock League teams from the past decade (Fall 2010 through Winter 2020) and selected its Top 20 “Teams of the Decade.” During that process, we came across so many talented teams that accomplished so much. Below is a list of teams that just missed out on the final list but stood out for their postseason performances.

2019 Taunton Baseball

Record: 21-7
Division 1 State Champions
The stars aligned perfectly for the Tigers when the postseason rolled around. Although Taunton finished in third in the Kelley-Rex division in the regular season (behind Super 8 selections Franklin and Mansfield), the Tigers took full advantage of their opportunity in Div. 1 South. At 11-7 midway through May, Taunton won four straight to finish the regular season at 15-7 for the fourth seed in the D1 South bracket. After dispatching Marshfield, the Tigers rallied to stun Catholic Memorial with a seventh inning rally, scoring the game-winning run off a bunt from Lucas Martins. Taunton followed with a shutout of Catholic Conference power Xaverian before taking down Hockomock rival Attleboro, 6-1, to win the South.

The magic continued for Taunton, head coach Blair Bourque, and its playoff hero Nic Notarangelo in the D1 State Semifinals. Against a powerful Lincoln-Sudbury side (21-2 entering the game), the Tigers fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning. Logan Lawrence had a huge game, hitting a two-run home run in the first and pitching four scoreless innings in relief. Notarangelo smacked a hard hit to right to score sophomore Ty Cali in the bottom of the ninth inning for the game-winning run. Taunton capped its magical run with a 5-3 win over Shrewsbury and 6’8 Boston College-commit John West. Josh Lajoie made his first start of the playoffs, senior Evan Melo put a cherry on top of a special individual postseason by driving in the game-winning run, and both Notarangelo and Lawrence – as they had done all tournament – made key plays in the final innings to help Taunton secure its first-ever Div. 1 State Championship.

2016 Franklin Boys Hockey

Record: 18-4-5
Division 1 State Champions
Just one year removed from a historic trip to the Super 8, and after graduating 21 seniors, Franklin showed off the depth in its program and erased its demons at the TD Garden, ending a three-decade wait for a second state title. A team without a true star, Franklin’s depth and its work rate were its greatest strengths. The Panthers were 12-3-5 and the fourth seed in Div. 1 when the playoffs began, but it felt like a wide open bracket. The tournament run began with a 2-1 win against Wellesley, followed by a 1-0 win against Walpole in a jam-packed Pirelli Rink.

After dispatching a third straight Bay State Conference team, Newton North, in the semifinal, Franklin avenged a late-season loss against highly-regarded Marshfield. In the state title game at the TD Garden, a place where Franklin and head coach Chris Spillane had come up empty three seasons in a row earlier in the decade, the Panthers led 3-1 heading into the third period against St. Mary’s (Lynn), a team that just missed out on a Super 8 berth. The game went to double overtime before senior Jake Downie assisted on sophomore Luke Downie’s dramatic game- and title-winner and secured a first state title since 1983.

2018 Franklin Baseball

Record: 21-5
Division 1A (Super 8) State Champions
It was a season that started with high expectations and ended in history, but it was hardly a straight and easy path for Franklin. Few will remember because of how the season ended, but the Panthers opened the season by being shutout by Foxboro, were swept by Taunton, and finished a game behind Mansfield in the league. Through it all, Franklin put together a good enough resume that it was selected for the Super 8 for the first time in program history. The Panthers (21-5) entered as the No. 7 seed, but once the playoffs began everything seemed to fall into place.

Thanks to the dynamic duo of Jake Noviello and Bryan Woelfel and a lineup filled with clutch hitters, Franklin beat Wachusett in the opening game and then proceeded to beat St. John’s Prep and Central Catholic (twice). The final three games were all one-run wins. In the Super 8 finale against the Raiders, head coach Zach Brown brought Noviello into the bottom of the eighth in a tie game with runners at second and third. He struck out three of the next four batters (hitting one in between) to somehow keep it tied and in the top of the ninth Evan Wendell’s perfect suicide squeeze plated Steve Luttazi with the title-winning run.

2016 Foxboro Girls Tennis

Record: 19-2
Division 2 State Champions
The third time proved to be the charm for the Foxboro girls’ tennis team. After coming up short in the state final in 2014 and 2015, the Warriors took a 3-2 decision over Wayland to clinch the title. The Warriors dropped two matches all season, both 3-2 to eventual Davenport division champion Sharon, as Foxboro finished second in the division at 14-2. The sister combination of Diana Prinos at first singles and Sophia Prinos at second singles gave Foxboro a huge advantage while junior Lexi Nelson was such a steady presence at third singles.

Behind interim head coaches CJ Neely and Jon Montanaro, the Warriors earned the fourth seed in the Division 2 South bracket and survived an early scare with a 3-2 win over Westwood. The second doubles team of Michaela McCarthy and Morgan Krockta helped the Warriors knock off a strong Hingham team in the quarterfinals and Foxboro swept singles action in both the sectional semifinals and finals to defeat previously unbeaten and top-seeded Apponequet and Hopkinton, respectively. After dropping a singles match in the state final, the Warriors had to show off their depth as a team and the first doubles pairing of sophomore Kayla Prag and freshman Julia Muise pulled out a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 win to secure the title.

2012 Sharon Football

Record: 10-3
Division 3 Eastern Mass. Champions
It’s hard to think of a more special individual season than the one the Sharon football team had in 2012. To put things in perspective, the Eagles had just won seven games over a seven-year span in the previous decade and its last winning season came in the late 1980s. Head coach Dave Morse led Sharon to four wins in his first year in 2011 but that turned out to be just a preview of what was to come. The Eagles had a special group of players come together and accomplish something a lot of people thought they would never see: bringing a Super Bowl title back to Sharon.

While it wasn’t a perfect season, the Eagles got it done against division foes. Sharon knocked off Canton in overtime, scored with under a minute left to stun previously unbeaten Stoughton, and used a gutsy fourth-quarter fourth-down conversion touchdown to secure a win over Foxboro and clinch its first Davenport division title. In the playoffs, the Eagles held on for a 7-6 win over Pembroke when the Titans’ two-point conversion with a minute to go fell short. In the Super Bowl, senior running back Sean Asnes capped a terrific season with a pair of touchdowns as Sharon notched a 12-3 win over Wayland in a freezing cold game at Bentley University.

2018 Mansfield Boys Basketball

Record: 27-2
Division 1 State Champions
Mansfield’s playoff run during the 2017-2018 season was as close to perfect as you can get in basketball. The Hornets were very good during the regular season, but they were close to unstoppable once the state tournament rolled around. Mansfield suffered two setbacks during the season, one in December to BC High and a 15-point loss on the road to rival Franklin in January. Head coach Mike Vaughan has said that second loss might have been the spark that ignited one of the most impressive playoff campaigns of the decade. With seven seniors (John McCoy, Tyler Boulter, Ryan Otto, Nick Ferraz, Alex Ferraz, Justin Vine, Sam Hyland) and a trio of talented juniors (Damani Scott, Tommy Dooling, Khristian Conner), the Hornets made the most of the playoff opportunity.

The top-seed in Division 1 South, Mansfield rolled through the bracket — and we mean rolled. Mansfield beat all four of its opponents by double figures, dismissing Newton South (76-49) in the first round, avenging its loss to BC High (71-58) in the quarterfinals, eliminating a very good Newton North (70-50) team in the South semis, and beating a talented Brockton (79-65) squad to win the South championship. The momentum continued as the Hornets secured a spot in the state final with an impressive win over Everett (73-65) at the TD Garden. In the D1 State Championship, the Hornets capped a terrific postseason run by taking down rival Franklin (67-54); the matchup marked the first time a pair of teams from the same league met in the D1 final.

2017 Franklin Boys Basketball

Record: 22-5
Division 1 State Finalists
This Franklin boys team might not have won it all, but it packed some of the most memorable games into its great postseason run. The Panthers were good throughout the regular season, and they certainly had their fair share of impressive wins including one over league champ Mansfield, one over a very good Cardinal Spellman team, and concluded the regular season with arguably its best win, a 70-53 decision over a good Tech Boston team. But there were five losses too, including on the road at Canton, and early season tilts against Malden Catholic and Catholic Memorial.

The wins over Spellman and Tech Boston to finish the regular season were a clear sign to head coach CJ Neely that this squad was ready to make some noise in the state tournament. Junior Jalen Samuels helped the hosts knock off upset-minded Acton Boxboro in the opening round and senior Connor Goldstein gave Franklin a needed spark in its semifinal win over St. Peter Marian. In the Central final against perennial power St. John’s Shrewsbury, freshman Chris Edgehill sank a huge three with just over a minute left in overtime and then hit two from the free throw line in the final seconds to help secure Franklin’s first sectional title. In the state semifinal against Springfield Central, the Panthers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with an improbable 8-0 run in the final 20 seconds to force overtime. Four minutes later, Franklin was on its way to its first state championship. Although the Panthers ran into a juggernaut in Cambridge, the run that the Panthers had leading up to that point was a very memorable one.

2018 North Attleboro Baseball

Record: 22-2
Division 2 State Champions
North Attleboro rolled through the regular season, finishing 14-2 in the league and 18-2 overall. Big Red ended a 12-year wait for a league title and took the top seed in Div. 2 South. North’s run to a first-ever state title was hardly a surprise, but the way that the Rocketeers rolled through the South bracket was more than impressive. North scored at will over the first three games of the tournament, out-scoring its opponents 41-4, including a 20-2 win against Dartmouth in the semifinal and a 19-2 win against Oliver Ames in the final.

Behind the pitching of Nick Sinacola and the clutch bat of Zach DeMattio, the Rocketeers were unstoppable heading into the final against Beverly and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the state championship game (all four runs driven in by DeMattio). The Panthers got to Sinacola for three runs in the fifth to cut the lead to just one run, but he settled down, with the help of his defense, to get through a scoreless sixth and seventh inning and becoming the second Hockomock League baseball team in a week to win a state title.

2018 Taunton Softball

Record: 26-2
Division 1 State Champions
Taunton had lost in the first round in each of the past two postseasons, both times on its home field and both times to league opponents (King Philip in 2016 and North Attleboro in 2017), but the Tigers put it all together in 2018 to erase those playoff struggles. Always one of the most feared lineups in the state, the Taunton offense exploded for 44 runs in six playoff games. The Tigers, under the guidance of legendary coach Dave Lewry, scored nine runs against Dartmouth and Bishop Feehan, six against Newton North, and 13 in the state final against previously unbeaten Wachusett.

The toughest, and arguably most memorable, game of the playoff run was the Div. 1 South final against KP. The Warriors won the league title and had also scored 21 runs in three games to get to the final. After rallying to tie the game in the fifth, Taunton scored the game-winning runs on a single down the third base line by surprise starter and No. 9 hitter Rylie Murphy. KP got the tying runs on base in the seventh, but freshman starter Kelsey White escaped the jam and the Tigers went on to win their first state title in 11 years in blowout fashion (13-2 over Wachusett).

2016 King Philip Softball

Record: 24-4
Division 1 State Champions
There is nothing unusual about King Philip softball going on a playoff run, after all this was the program’s third state title in seven seasons, but the Warriors entered the season as the No. 7 seed in Div. 1 South, had lost the Kelley-Rex title to Taunton, ending a run of nine straight league championships, and lost four times during the regular season. Once the playoffs began, the Warriors flipped a switch. Thanks in large part to a dominant run of games from starting pitcher Kali Magane, KP allowed only two runs in six playoff games and outscored opponents 29-2.

The Warriors beat Taunton in the quarterfinal, winning the season series against the Tigers, and avenged an extra-inning loss from 2015 by beating defending South champion Silver Lake in the final. Magane saved the best for last, striking out 13 and tossing a one-hit shutout in the state title game against Doherty. Magane finished the season by striking out the side in the seventh and closing out an unlikely championship campaign.