The
down-to-earth nature of Plainville’s sports heritage is shaped to some extent by
the town’s geographical distinction – a village bookended by much larger
municipalities.
When Byron J.
Treado III and his group of selected sportsmen crafted a means of preserving the
legacy through the Plainville Sports Hall of Fame, he touched a chord that for
14 years has emotionally moved men and women whose colorful athletic exploits
once buzzed through the community.
The
13th induction dinner held Saturday night that filled Nuchie’s
Restaurant in Forestville served as stirring testament to how Plainville’s
sports heroes scattered across the nation can revel in reuniting in celebration
of bygone triumphs.
Perhaps the
greatest of those triumphs came on November 27, 1971, when a Plainville High
football team that hadn’t beaten Southington in 23 years broke through with a
giant-killing moment, an 18-14 victory in the Blue Knights’ lair.
The conquering
hero was quarterback Jeff Palmer, son of the late, long-time Plainville
coach/educator/administrator Charlie Palmer and a member of the Hall of Fame’s
Class of 2006. Emotions overtook Jeff as he revisited the camaraderie of a great
moment frozen in time with former teammates and townsfolk who reveled in his
accomplishment.
Joining Palmer
in this year’s class were former major league baseball player Earl Snyder, his
PHS teammate Brian Biskupiak, two-sport star Jeff Sengle, swimming and track
star Mary Boiczyk Westkott and lifetime athletic contributor Rich Buchanan. The
state championship baseball squads of 1983 and 1984 piloted by 2003
Hall-of-Famer Ron Jones were inducted as teams.
Palmer and
Snyder tugged on the crowd’s heart strings when their speeches came to a stop in
mid-sentence because they were overcome by sentiment. Biskupiak entertained with
the kind of deadpan humor that would have made George Burns snicker.
Buchanan shared
a poignant personal moment from nine years ago when he strived to prepare
himself mentally for undergoing colon cancer surgery, dipping into the lessons
he absorbed from Charlie Palmer and legendary basketball coach Pat Riera. Their
lessons, Buchanan noted, were reinforced by the famous speech by Jim Valvano,
stricken with terminal cancer yet pleading, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give
up.”
Boiczyk
Westkott took a similar approach, extolling the virtues of her late swim coach
George Choiniere and the role he played in shaping her life.
“He was not a
technician of the sport. He was not a conditioner of athletes. He made us want
to be fast, he made us want to be successful, he made us want to be a
team.”
Sengle, who
went on to a career with the United States Secret Service that included
protecting former President Bill Clinton, mixed a little humor with his memories
when he said, “I can promise you that my speech will have nothing to do with the
economy.”
Jones, as
spokesman for his two teams, dwelled on the “us against the world” mentality
that served as the centerpiece of his dynamic motivational skills.
Treado, who
stepped down as chairman of the dinner two years ago in favor of Keith J.
D’Amato, stitched it all together as toastmaster, keeping the honorees and
dinner guests alike on the edge of their seats with colorful perspective and
scintillating surprises.
For those who
missed it, or wish to revisit a memorable evening, Nutmeg TV (Comcast channel
95, AT&T channel 99) filmed the proceedings for 7 p.m. airings on October
17, 21 and 27.
PHS athletic
director John Zadnik kicked off the evening with the presentation of the Byron
Treado Founders Award to recent graduates Tom Dinda and Chris Kuzia, both of
whom were unable to attend because they were away at school.
Zadnik capably
cut through the din of a crowd still settling in when he said, “I’d like to ask
you for a moment of silence, please … for the Boston Red Sox.” The Yankee fans
chuckled and the Sox fans hissed, but there was no doubt that Zadnik got their
attention.
Jones, a
lightning rod for criticism during his coaching tenure due to his fiery nature,
explained how his antics were all part of the plan as he led up to the induction
of the 1984 team. The season came to a head with the Devils playing Berlin for
the championship before a huge crowd at Beehive Field.
“[The Berlin
people] were all over me from the first pitch and I was loving it,” said Jones,
his blistering rhetoric still very much a part of him nearly 30 years later.
“I wasn’t
playing. That crowd could yell anything they wanted at me. They weren’t going to
rattle me and my players that night would be able to do what they did best –
above the pressure of any crowd and that was to play the Plainville way – hard,
clean and aggressive, blue collar. …
“What a night!
I won an Oscar and our program had secured back-to-back
championships.”
Snyder played
briefly for the Cleveland Indians and Red Sox after a brilliant career at the
University of Hartford and an excellent minor league stint in the Mets system.
But it was his time winning championships at PHS, with close friends and fellow
Hall of Famers Biskupiak and Brian Edge by his side, that he said he cherishes
the most.
Treado built up
toward Sengle’s induction with a personal letter of congratulations that he
secretly procured from Clinton himself.
Biskupiak kept
the gathering in stitches with his Letterman-like list of secrets of success.
His third rule to live by was, “Don’t wait until your junior year in high school
to get braces. ... Do yourself a favor. You don’t want a metal-filled prom
picture to surface on Facebook.”
