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Date: 10/17/2023
HOLYOKE — The Holyoke Athletic Hall of Fame has announced its 2023 induction class, which will be honored and enshrined during a Nov. 4 banquet at Holyoke’s Wycoff Park Country Club.
The Holyoke Public School Athletic Hall of Fame was created in 2017 to honor the achievements and contributions to Holyoke Public Schools athletics. A Hall of Fame banquet takes place each year to honor these inductees, with all proceeds used to support Holyoke Athletics. Member of the group Rick Lajoie told Reminder Publishing after seeing other communities create this way of remembering and honoring the athletes of a community’s past, it only made sense for Holyoke to start their own.
“Holyoke has such a rich history in sports, it goes back so many years. Because of the rich tradition of Holyoke, we started to do the same. There are so many possibilities and so many great athletes that have come out of Holyoke High and Dean Tech,” Lajoie said. “This is an effort to really not just recognize the greats, but to identify some role models and some people that the younger groups will emulate and hopefully mirror in some way.”
The 2023 class features six athletes, two coaches, one team and three legends. The athletes include 1995 Holyoke High School basketball standout Willfredo Cabrera, 1979 Holyoke High School girls sports pioneer Ann Lavelle Mann, 2000 Western Massachusetts Outstanding Softball Pitcher Laurin Maruca, 1973 Holyoke Trade School basketball 1,000-point scorer Robert Morneau, 1991 Holyoke High School football running back Mike Westbrooks, as well as 1968 Holyoke High School soccer and swim star Victor Zwirko.
The coaches to be recognized include two-time MIAA Division 1 Basketball Coach of the Year and 2023 Massachusetts State Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame Inductee Thomas Brassil and MIAA Boys Division 3 Coach of the Year and longtime Dean Tech coach James McGrath. Also to be inducted is the 2011-12 Holyoke High Western Massachusetts girls Division 1 champion basketball team.
One of the “legends” to be inducted include Donald Graf, 1950 Peanut Bowl running back, co-captain of the 1951 basketball Valley League Champions, and starting catcher of the 1950 Holyoke High School state baseball championship team. The other two legends being honored are Joseph Hohol, an All-Western Massachusetts selection in football, hockey and baseball, and Charles Szostkiewicz, a multi-year all-star in soccer, basketball and baseball.
To qualify as a “legend,” nominees must be a graduate for 65 years or longer, according to Lajoie. Lajoie explained nominations are solicited from the public by the Hall of Fame Committee, who then decide the honorees for each year.
“I’ve been around for awhile, I graduated in ’71. I know a lot that happened in the 60s and 70s on, but a lot of the newer people maybe can find a way to identify with those athletes in the 80s and 90s and so on,” Lajoie explained about how student athletes of the present could reflect on the city’s history.
Lajoie continued, “I was talking to Dave Bennet last night, Dave was inducted a couple years ago. In our conversation he said he was so glad that Don Graf was being recognized this year because Graf was his idol growing up. It is kind of neat when you look at it and see the great athletes have their own heroes so there’s a pattern there. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing it, too, is to hope that some of these athletes have really respected some of the other athletes before them.”
Tickets to this year’s ceremony are $35 and can be purchased at eventbrite.com by searching, “Holyoke Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2023.” Lajoie said tickets usually sell out and each inductee will be identified and introduced before giving an acceptance speech during the ceremony.
Lajoie said the Hall of Fame Committee is always looking for public input in putting forth potential nominees as they are a small committee and encourage any one to bring up a name that might be just under the radar of recognition to this point.
“We are doing the research but it’s always good to get somebody that we think that may have fallen through the cracks and say, ‘oh yeah, let’s look at him or her,” Lajoie added as an example of why they are always accepting input with so many potential candidates from over the years.
Lajoie added there has been great positive feedback from the community on the hall and hopes this year’s class and ceremony can continue the tradition of celebrating Holyoke’s best athletes of the past.
“It’s been great coffee table talk and it does get the people thinking of their own history, and that’s a positive thing. There was so much good that went on for the last 150 years the city has been around, and sports has been a super, super part of it,” Lajoie said. “The city is rich with golden gloves and rich with a sports history, and this gives use something to all identify as, not just in sports, but in our own people and that’s a good thing.”