Soccer Hall welcomes 11 on Friday

Two-time Olympic medallist Melissa Tancredi heads the list of 2017 inductees as the Hamilton Soccer Hall of Fame holds its induction dinner Friday at Michaelangelo’s Banquet Centre.

Tancredi won bronze medals with Canada’s women’s national team at the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Games.

Also honoured in the Players category will be Josip “Cicky” Dundovic, who was a star player with Hamilton Croatia and eventually coached the team and became president of the organization. He also played and recruited for Croatian teams in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.

Gerry Shaw, also being inducted in the Players category, was a key player for the 1981 Hamilton Steelers, and was a player and coach for the 1984 Dundas United team that won The Spectator Cup, the Ontario Cup and the Ontario Inter-City Soccer League.

The fourth player inductee is Herbert Pogson, who was born in England in 1896 but immigrated to Hamilton at the age of 17, served in the First World War and was a sergeant-major with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders in the Second World War. He played four international matches for Canada against New Zealand in 1927 and won The Spectator Cup in 1922, 1928 and 1929.

Builders to be inducted include Don Clowes, who helped start the Binbrook Optimist Youth Soccer Club and became its president; the late Gunther Schneider, who coached Saltfleet Go-Ahead, Legion 163, and S.C. Almenia; John McDonald, who built the Mohawk College soccer program and won the 1989 national championship as coach, and was secretary, coach and goalie of Dundas United; and John Brown, who was registrar of the Hamilton and District Soccer Association for four decades.

The 1981 Hamilton Steelers, owned by Mario Di Bartolomeo, will be inducted as the “Team of Distinction” for winning the National Soccer League triple crown (League champions, League Cup winners and playoff winners), and the Stoney Creek Proto SC goes into the Hall as the “Club of Distinction” for being “the flagship of the Hamilton and District Oldtimers Soccer League” and winning four Spectator Cups.

Carmen Dalia, a graduate of Cathedral and McMaster, co-coached provincial-champion powerhouse Cardinal Newman with Mark Kovacs and two-time provincial silver medallist Bishop Ryan, and convened four OFSAA tournaments. He will be inducted in the “High School” category.