Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame: Special Achievement Awards

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Special achievement awards are for
state, national, or international recognition.

Year	Awardee	Sport	Town	Special Achievement
2023	Terry Francona	Coaching	New Brighton	American League Manager of the Year
2022	Joseph Roth	Swimming	Riverside	2022 PIAA Class 2A Gold Medal Champion 100-Yard Backstroke
2022	Colby Belzyk	Track and Field	Riverside	2021 PIAA Class 2A Gold Medal 800m Run
2022	Cyair Clark	Football	Aliquippa	2021 PAFootballNews.com Coaches Class 4A Player of the Year
2022	Sean FitzSimmons	Football	Central Valley	2021 PAFootballNews.com Coaches Class 3A Player of the Year
2022	Tiqwai Hayes	Football	Aliquippa	2021 PA Football Writers Class 4A Player of the Year
2022	Payton List	Softball	Beaver	2021 Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association Class 4A Player of the Year
2022	Mark Lyons	Coaching	Central Valley	2020-21 National Federation of State High School Associations Coach of the Year for Pennsylvania and for Section 2 (Mideast Section of the U.S.), 2021 PA Football Writers Class 3A Coach of the Year, and 2021 PAFootballNews.com Coaches Class 3A Coach of the Year
2022	Mike Warfield	Coaching	Aliquippa	2021 PA Football Writers Class 4A Coach of the Year and 2021 PAFootballNews.com Coaches Class 4A Coach of the Year
2022	Ameer Dudley	Football	Central Valley	2020 PIAA Class 3A Football Player of the Year
2022	Andrew Cestra	Swimming	Beaver	2019 All-American, named by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association
2022	Marlin Devonshire Jr	Track and Field	Aliquippa	2019 PIAA Class 2A Gold Medal 100m Dash and Gold Medal 200m Dash
2022	Skyler Fox	Golf	Riverside	2019 PIAA Class 2A Gold Medal Individual Golf
2022	Sheldon Jeter	Basketball	Beaver Falls	2019 USA Men's Basketball 3-on-3 Gold Medalist Pan American Games
2022	Calvin Wetzel	Track and Field	Riverside	2019 PIAA Class 2A Gold Medal 300m Hurdles
2019	Marlin Devonshire Jr	Football	Aliquippa	Pennsylvania Football Writers Class AAA Player of the Year
2019	Jacob Ealy	Wrestling	Hopewell	PIAA AA Champion 138 lb Weight Class
2019	Kiante Irving	Boxing	Beaver Falls	National Golden Gloves Champion 165 lb Weight Class
2019	Mike Warfield	Coaching	Aliquippa	Pennsylvania Football Writers Class AAA Coach of the Year
2018	Nicole Bartoletta	Track and Field	Geneva College	2018 NCAA National Champion Division III Gold Medal 60 Meter Hurdles
2018	Anthony Daunte Milliner	Track and Field	New Brighton	2017 PIAA Class AA Gold Medal in the Triple Jump
2017	Christa Harmotto Dietzen	Volleyball	Hopewell	Bronze Medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics
2017	Terry Francona	Coaching	New Brighton	2016 American League Manager of the Year
2017	Anthony Daunte Milliner	Track and Field	New Brighton	2016 PIAA Class AA Gold Medal Triple Jump
2017	Domenic Peretta	Track and Field	Beaver Falls	2016 PIAA Gold Medals in Class AA 800 meters and 1600 meters
2016	Nick Lackovich	Coaching	Aliquippa	2015-16 Class AA Coach of the Year.
2016	Brendan McKay	Baseball	Blackhawk	Numerous All-American Awards and the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award
2016	Logan Palochak	Swimming	Hopewell	Gold Medal 2016 PIAA 100-Yard Butterfly Class AA Championship
2016	Domenic Perretta	Track and Field	Beaver Falls	Gold medals in 2014 and in 2015 in the PIAA Class AA Track and Field Championships, in the 800 and 1600 meter races
2016	Kaezon Pugh	Football	Aliquippa	2015 PIAA Class AA Football Player of the Year
2016	Lindsay Vrooman	Swimming	Ambridge	Gold medal in the Women’s 400 Freestyle FINA World Cup Meet in France. Gold medal in the Women's 800 Freestyle at the World University Games in South Korea. Gold medals in the Women's 400 and 800 Freestyles at the USA Swimming National Championships in Texas
2016	Shatori Walker-Kimbrough	Basketball	Hopewell	Helped her University of Maryland team win the 2015 Team USA Women's Basketball Silver Medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto
2015	Christa Harmotto Deitzen	Volleyball	Hopewell	Captained Team USA to a gold medal at the 2014 FIVB World Championship in Italy. Her team won a silver medal in the 2014 Montreux Volley Masters in Switzerland. Named the Dapper Dan Sportswoman of the Year at the 79th Annual Dapper Dan Auction Banquet
2015	Steve Lodovico	Coaching	Blackhawk	Pennsylvania Class AAA Basketball Coach of the Year for leading the Blackhawk Lady Cougars to a 28-3 record, Won both the WPIAL and PIAA titles this past winter. In 10 years at Blackhawk, Steve has compiled a 183-83 record, winning two state championships.
2015	Brendan McKay	Baseball	Blackhawk	2014 Gatorade PA Baseball Player of the Year. His streak of 72 and 1/3 scoreless innings that started in 2013 ranks third all-time in U.S. high school history
2015	Chassidy Omogrosso	Basketball	Blackhawk	PA Class AAA Girls' Basketball Player of the Year. Set the all-time Beaver County scoring record with 2,686 points and holds the Beaver County's single season record with 838 points. Won two straight Player of the Year awards and two straight WPIAL and PIAA championships
2014	Macky Fouse	Golf	Central Valley	Brilliant performer on four consecutive WPIAL championship teams. Led the Warriors to the most recent two PIAA Division II titles. Won the WPIAL and PIAA individual championships
2014	Terry Francona	Coaching	New Brighton	American League Manager of the Year
2014	Mark Javens	Coaching	Lincoln Park	Led Lincoln Park to the WPIAL and PIAA men's basketball championships. Class A Pennsylvania Coach of the Year
2014	Steve Lodovico	Coaching	Blackhawk	Pennsylvania Class AAA Coach of the Year for leading the Cougar ladies to a 28-2 record, winning WPIAL and PIAA titles this past winter
2014	Brendan McKay	Baseball	Blackhawk	Gatorade Player of the Year for Pennsylvania
2014	Chassidy Omogrosso	Basketball	Blackhawk	Junior year ended with a State Championship. Class AAA Pennsylvania Player of the Year
2014	Maverick Rowan	Basketball	Lincoln Park	PA Class A Player of the Year. Won a Class A State Championship his sophomore season
2014	Lauryn Williams	Bobsled	Rochester	Won a Silver Medal at the 2014 Olympic Games. Became the fifth person to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Games, and became the first American woman to do so
2012	Kelly Burak	Gymnastics	Hopewell	Won the PIAA Gold Medal in the vault, beam, and floor exercises, and won the individual championship for the second consecutive year. Won the individual title at the WPIAL championship meet all three years of her varsity career. This year, won four events at the WPIAL event, winning the vault, beam, bar, and floor exercises in addition to the all-around
2012	Rushel Shell	Football	Hopewell	Holds the national record for consecutive 100 yard games with 39 games and the Pennsylvania state career rushing yards records with 9,078 yards. In his senior year alone, received the PAA Mercury Award, Mr. Pennsylvania Football, PA All State Football 1st Team and AAA Player of the Year, Sports Illustrated All American and 2nd Team Offense, USA Today 1st Team All American, Pittsburgh Tribune Review Player of the Year, and Post Gazette Player of the Year
2010	Lindsay Vrooman	Swimming	Ambridge	Gold medalist in the 200 and 500 Freestyle at the PIAA Swimming Championships, setting a new state record in the 500 of 4:43:93
2009	Mark Stepanian	Swimming	Blackhawk	2009 WPIAL and PIAA Class AA Swimming Gold Medalist. All American in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle
2009	Jon Szakelyhidi	Swimming	Riverside	2009 WPIAL and PIAA Class AA Swimming Gold Medalist. All American in the 100 Breaststroke
2009	Lindsay Vrooman	Swimming	Ambridge	2009 WPIAL and PIAA Class AA Swimming Gold Medalist. Won the All American 200 Freestyle and 500 Freestyle swimming events
2008	Terry Francona	Coaching	New Brighton	Led the Boston Red Sox to their second World Series title since 1914 with a four game sweep, raising Terry's record in the World Series to 8-0
2007	Kayla Kelosky	Diving	Riverside	Diving champion at the WPIAL (443.90 score) and PIAA levels (393.30, 23 points ahead of the runner up), winning a state gold medal in Class AA girls' diving
2007	Lindsay Vrooman	Swimming	Ambridge	Won PIAA Gold medals as a swimmer in the 200 yard freestyle (1:50:98 seconds, winning by three seconds) and 500 yard freestyle (4:53:22 seconds, winning by eight seconds). Won both events at the WPIAL level. Set two meet and pool records in the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle at the MAC Swimming Championships at Moon
2006	Allyn Laughlin	Track and Field	Center	Recognized as one of the top shot putters in the nation. As a high school sophomore, placed sixth in the event at the PIAA state meet and won the event as a junior. With a throw of 47'-9½", won the shot put event
2005	Terry Francona	Coaching	New Brighton	Led the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series title since 1914
2005	Christa Harmotto	Volleyball	Hopewell	First team All American member of the Gold Medal Junior National Volleyball team. In 2012, named to the US women's volleyball team to compete in the London Olympics. Christa and her team won a silver medal.
2005	Lauryn Williams	Track and Field	Rochester	2004 Olympic silver medalist in the 100 meters run and a 2004 NCAA 100 meter champion
2003	Caleb Williams	Powerlifting	Beaver	2002 International Powerlifting Federation Sub Junior World Champion as Best Male Lifter. In the teenage group, Caleb has also set a world record and held seven different titles and was a national record holder in the with nineteen different titles. Junior Olympic Champion (2001), a three time national champion (2000, 2001, 2002), a three time state champion (2000, 2001, 2002, and a two time MAC Index champion (2001, 2002)
2002	Verquan Kimbrough	Boxing	Aliquippa	Won the 132lb National Amateur Boxing Title at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, then one week later won the National Challenge 132lb Title for the second consecutive year. No 1 ranked amateur US boxer in his weight class and represented the United States in the World Cup Championships in Kazakhstan in 2002. Four Pittsburgh Golden Gloves titles and a US Junior Olympic National championship
1997	Mark Javens	Basketball	CCBC	Led his Community College of Beaver County Titans to the 1996-1997 NJCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship with a 36-1 record. In 1997, the Titans under Mark also won the WPCC Division and the PCAA State Basketball title for the second consecutive year, as Mark compiled numerous awards, including WPCC Coach of the Year, PCAA Coach of the Year, Region XX Coach of the Year, NJCAA National Coach of the Year, and the Western Pennsylvania Official's Coach of the Year honors
1992	Essex Law	Football	Rochester	Set Beaver County football records for season scoring (276 points), season rushing (2657 yards), and career rushing (4330 yards). Named All State
1992	Dante John Calabria	Basketball	Blackhawk	All time Beaver County basketball scoring leader (2252 points). Led his team to the PIAA title. Pennsylvania's Player of the Year
1990	Carrie Bordas	Basketball	Aliquippa	Two time All American, second team All State, honorable mention All State, WPIAL Player of the Year, WPIAL All Conference, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous Five Team. Set records for Beaver County single season scoring (812 points) and all time WPIAL scoring (both boys and girls, 2658 points), and set marks for a single WPIAL title game (35 points) and for the three game Snowflake Christmas Classic (90 points)
1987	Jodi Figley	Golf	Hopewell	PIAA and WPIAL Golf Champion
1987	James Law	Track and Field	Rochester	1986 PIAA and WPIAL Track Champion in the 100, 200, and 400 meters and set state records in all three events
1979	Candy Young	Track and Field	Beaver Falls	1979 Sports Illustrated High School Athlete of the Year
1977	Bill Ross	Administration	Beaver Falls	A charter member of its executive committee, William A (Bill) Ross received a special posthumous award because he gave much of his time and energy to help make the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame a success during its first year. Bill had been athletic director of Beaver Falls High School since 1950 and before that had been a coach in various sports from 1947 to 1958. Bill was a 1938 graduate of Beaver Falls High School and attended David-Elkins College in West Virginia, until he entered the Air Force in 1942. As a bomber pilot, he flew 50 missions in Europe, including raids on the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania. After World War II, Bill completed his education at Geneva College, graduating in 1947. Bill served as assistant football coach and head baseball coach at Hopewell High School in 1948, and then became Beaver Falls Junior High School football and baseball coach from 1948 through 1953. He served as assistant grid coach at Beaver Falls High School for two years and then as head coach from 1956 through 1958. He also coached golf for one season and was assistant basketball coach for three years. Bill died of a heart attack at the age of 55 on June 11, 1976