Spievey headlines Middletown Sports Hall of Fame class

MIDDLETOWN — Former NFL defensive back Amari Spievey, former Los Angeles Dodgers minor league pitcher Mike Fiala and the undefeated 1969 Wesleyan University football team headline the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame’s newly announced 2020 selectees.

The Hall of Fame’s 26th class, recently revealed by president David Gallitto, also includes Chris Brown, Jim Foley, Hal Guy, Sandy Hoffman, Tony Pulino, Marty Ryczek, Frank Shekosky, Maggie Smith and the 1980 Xavier High baseball team.

The inductees cover a range of athletics — football, baseball, soccer, track and field, field hockey, martial arts, and officiating. While Spievey reached the highest level of his sport, others excelled in college and the minor leagues or distinguished themselves at the national level in their chosen pursuits.

Let’s get down to the nittygritty of these accomplished sports persons, who will be inducted Jan. 23 at the Red Lion Hotel in Cromwell:

** Spievey finished his Xavier High career as the Falcons’ alltime leading rusher, a key figure in their run to the 2005 Class LL championship and a twotime AllState selection.

After graduating, Spievey spent one year at Iowa Central Community College (he is a member of that school’s hall of fame) before catching on at the University of Iowa. After a redshirt year, he became a star cornerback and was selected secondteam AllBig Ten as a sophomore and firstteam AllBig Ten as a junior, the season ending with a Hawkeyes victory the FedEx Orange Bowl.

Spievey left Iowa, where he was a starter in each of the Hawkeyes’ 26 games, a year early for

the NFL. The Lions drafted him in the third round, 66th overall, in 2010. He played two full seasons as a starting strong safety, while his third was cut short after five games because of a concussion.

Spievey was released by the team before the start of the 2013 season. He started 26 of 35 games for Detroit, with one playoff appearance, five career interceptions, 140 tackles and one sack.

** Brown, a 1996 Xavier graduate, has an extensive resume as an elite thrower in indoor and outdoor track in the shot put and hammer.

In his senior year as a Falcon, Brown was a Class LL and State Open indoor champion in the shot and a Class LL and state outdoor champion in the shot and hammer. He matriculated at Purdue University and became an AllAmerican thrower there, repeating as Big Ten Conference champion (indoor and outdoor) in the hammer and 35pound weight throws.

As a senior in 2001, Brown set the school and conference indoor record in the 35pound throw, as well as the school record in the shot put. He also set the Purdue outdoor record in the hammer and later competed in the Olympic Trials.

** Fiala played for outstanding Xavier teams from 197881, the best being the 1980 Class L title team. In the Falcons’ first game of the 1980 season, the righthander struck out 14 Hand batters. He ended that season with a 60 record and 1.93 ERA. Fiala’s career record was 110.

Fiala also a major role in the success of the great Post 75 squads of 1979, ’80 and ’81 that went 8817 in those three summers (Middletown won the state title in ’79 and two Zone 3 crowns in that span). He went on to a distinguished college career first at Brandeis and then at Princeton — he also pitched in the Cape Cod League — and was taken by the Dodgers in the 11th round of the 1985 amateur draft. Fiala spent two summers pitching for the Dodgers’ rookie team in Great Falls and Class A team in Bakersfield. He had a 96 overall record.

** Foley was an outstanding wing player for the great Xavier soccer teams of the midtolate 1980s. He was a varsity player for four seasons, a rarity in that era, and spent his sophomore year in 1985 setting up scoring opportunities for Jeff Bagwell. Xavier won 17 matches in a row and was still unbeaten when it lost in that year’s Class LL semifinal round. Bagwell believed Foley was the best player on that team.

Foley went on to finish his career as Xavier’s alltime leading scorer (65 goals, 47 assists) and later played at Division I Stetson University in Florida. He later played in the profes

sional U.S. International Soccer League and has coached at the college level.

** Guy, who played for John DeNunzio’s Middletown High Tigers, was a threeyear starter and threetime AllNorthwest Conference shortstop. He was the first player under DeNunzio to bat .400 (.408 in 1978) and was chosen to play in the Connecticut AllStar Game as a senior. Guy also was a threeyear starter for the Tigers’ soccer team and was an AllNWC midfielder as a senior.

With the American Legion Post 75 program, he was a threeyear starter for the teams that won three straight Zone 3 titles and the state championship in 1979. Guy was the team’s rookie of the year in 1978 and ranks among the program’s alltime leaders in hits, runs, walks and onbase percentage.

** Pulino distinguished himself in cross country and track first at Middletown High and then at UConn. At MHS, he ran the mile in 4:33.2, breaking a record that once stood for 26 years. In 1964, he was considered one of the top runners in the state and proved it at the Hartford Invitational, where he placed first in the mile and twomile runs and was part of the winning 880 relay team. Pulino competed for UConn from 196567.

** Ryczek was a threesport standout athlete at Nathan HaleRay in the late 1960s before hooking up with Post 75 in Middletown. He played on manager Bill Pomfret’s powerhouse teams — the 1968 squad won the state championship — and spent several seasons with the Middletown Collegians program. Ryczek was a scholarship player at Stetson University in Florida, where he exceled as a shortstop, and eventually signed a professional contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, spending 1975 and ’76 in Class A ball. He also was a longtime coach and athletic administrator who currently is the athletic director at HaleRay.

** Hoffman was a distinguished, respected umpire and basketball official at the local and state levels. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High in 1969. In baseball, he worked numerous high school state championship games, conference championships and the Little League World Series in Williamsport. In basketball, he was a regular on the CIAC’s tournament officials list, working many championship games.

** Shekosky, who is owner and master instructor at Cromwell Martial Arts, was inducted into the International Modern Arnis Hall of Fame Foundation in 2015; the United State Martial Arts Hall of Fame as weapons master of the year; and the World Karate Union Hall of Fame as Kenpo Karate Master Instructor of the Year.

Shekosky holds seminars throughout New England and was named a senior

student in Modern Arnis under legendary Grand Master Remy A. Presas. According to his bio, Shekosky is ranked seventhdegree black belt in Kenpo karate, sixthdegree black belt in Okinawan weapons and eighthdegree black belt in Shaolin Kempo.

** Smith was a versatile athlete at Mercy High from 197982, playing field hockey, basketball and softball. Before that, she was a Title IX warrior as the first girl to play Little League Baseball in East Hampton (and becoming a twotime All Star) and the first girl to play on her junior high school’s boys soccer team.

At Mercy, Smith was a cocaptain for all three teams and, as a senior, was an AllState selection in field hockey and softball. She earned a partial scholarship to play softball at the University of Rhode Island, where she started as a freshman in 1983. The Rams reached the College World Series that year, meeting UCLA in the first round, and Smith was an alltournament team pick.

** Wesleyan’s 1969 undefeated football team, captained by Jeff Diamond and coached by Don Russell, vanquished, in order: Middlebury, Bowdoin, Coast Guard, WPI, Amherst, Hamilton, Williams and Trinity. In addition to being Little Three champions, the Cardinals were the UPI New England College champs and the Lambert Cup cowinner with the University of Delaware.

The team’s staff is a who’s who of Middletown Hall of Famers: Russell (2005), Norm Daniels (1994), trainers Steve Witkowski (1994) and Walt Grockowski (1995) and players Sandy Tucci (2013) and Mike Mastergeorge (2018). Also on staff were Pete Kostacopoulos, Bill Macdermott, Herby Kenny, Norris Clark, Gene Reilly and Jerry Martin.

More on this squad and the 1980 Xavier baseball team in a future column.

THIS AND THAT

** HaddamKillingworth won the Shoreline Conference’s boys and girls cross country team titles on Friday. Senior Liv DiStefano of East Hampton and junior Matt Jennings of HK were the individual champions.

** WCNXRadio.com will broadcast the XavierShelton football game from Palmer Field on Friday night (kickoff at 7). Xavier has mojo, having won three straight after an 02 start and showing improvement on both sides of the ball. The Falcons’ defense will have to contend with a Shelton Oline that checked in in the preseason at 280, 281, 260, 280 and 304. After its bye week, Xavier moved up to eighth in the Class L point rankings.

** Middletown comes off the bye for a CCC divisional game at Farmington on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Blue Dragons will then have a shorter week to prepare for their Nov. 1 road game against Wethersfield (41).

** In case you missed it, Part I: Aaron Faiella threw for a Coginchaug coop schoolrecord 338 yards in the team’s last game, a 5319 loss to Rockville. The Blue Devils play HK on Friday at HK’s complex. The start time has been moved to 4 p.m.

** In case you missed it, Part II: Dalton Modehn has been recognized as HK’s alltime leading rusher (2,283 yards). The senior broke his collarbone in the season opener, and the Cougars are holding out hope that he can return before the season is over.

** Area soccer teams to keep an eye on in November: Xavier, Mercy, Portland girls, Coginchaug boys and HK girls. And the Cromwell boys are 842 and riding a fourgame winning streak under new coach Angelo Morello, who played for Bill Siebert at Woodrow Wilson High.

** HaleRay’s volleyball team has all but secured the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Shoreline tournament after sweeping Cromwell on Sunday (2514, 2516, 2513). The Noises are 121 in the Shoreline (141 overall) and were led by Brianna DellIacono with 14 kills, four aces and 18 digs. HaleRay holds its annual Dig Pink Game fundraiser Monday, when it plays Old Lyme.

** If Portland High’s Rick Borg managed the Yankees, he might have taken Edwin Encarnacion aside after Game 5 and intoned, “Edwin, you had your run, it’s been fun, but now you’re done.” Encarnacion in five starts in the sixgame ALCS: 1 for 18, 11 strikeouts. Let’s not overlook Gary Sanchez, either. Take away his meaningless threerun homer in the Yankees’ 83 Game 4 loss and his postseason output was 3 for 30, one run, zero extrabase hits, 16 K’s.

** Three goto places for doughnuts: Neil’s in Wallingford, Whole Donut in Berlin, Lyman Orchards.

** Following the death of Democratic U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, James Cummings recalled one of his first memories of his older brother, telling the Baltimore Sun that Elijah used a quarter to buy him a used baseball glove off a cart on the site of the road. Elijah, he said, later taught him the proper way to field a ground ball. “To this day, I can tell you who was on the starting lineup for the Orioles in the ’60s,” James said. “I memorized it to impress my older brother.”

** Finally, condolences to the family of Cleon Francis, who last week died far, far too young. Cleon was a Middletown Blue Dragon and a pretty good basketball player (he was on the team at Central Connecticut). At ESPN, Francis worked for 26 years in the graphics, creative series and post production divisions. He was an easygoing guy with a huge smile and a smooth, effortless leadership style. He was always willing to help others. Many, many people loved Cleon. R.I.P.