DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — Eight new members were inducted into the Foxcroft Academy Athletic Hall of Fame during a ceremony held at halftime of the Ponies’ 66-13 homecoming football win over Hermon on Friday night.
Jack Anderson (Class of 1941) was the first 1000-point scorer Foxcroft basketball history, helped lead the football team to its first state title in 1939, and was a standout first basemen and hitter for the baseball team. Anderson went on to excel in athletics at Higgins Classical Institute in Charleston, Hebron Academy, Rhode Island College and the University of Maine.
Cliff Wiley (1941) was a four-year letterwinner for the Foxcroft football, basketball, and outdoor track teams. A dominant inside presence at center, Wiley led the 1941 basketball team to a 19-0 season and fondly recalls carrying firewood into the Dover-Foxcroft Town Hall so he and his teammates could practice warmly.
Gordon Engstrom (1964) led the Foxcroft football team to its second state championship in 1963, earning team MVP and Little Ten Conference first-team honors as a running back. He also led the baseball team to several Penquis League titles and went on to pitch at the University of Maine, where he earned All-Yankee Conference recognition after finishing sixth in the nation in earned run average.
Sue LaPoint Drowns (1993) played on a state championship Foxcroft field hockey team in 1991 and as a senior was named the Ponies’ Most Outstanding Player while also earning All-State status. That winter, Drowns was Most Valuable Offensive Player in basketball, then in the spring was named softball MVP for the second consecutive season en route to being chosen as Foxcroft’s 1993 female athlete of the year. She went on to star in field hockey and softball at the University of Southern Maine, where she was the school’s NCAA Woman of the Year in 1997.
Sarah Keenan Eluk (1997) starred in indoor and outdoor track, winning three Eastern Maine titles in the triple jump, three in the long jump and one in the high jump as well as two state championships in the triple jump. In the spring of 1997, she covered 37 feet, 5½ inches in the triple jump to set a Class B state record that still stands. Eluk was named to the All-State team that season and set 10 school records overall in track. She went on to Sacred Heart University, but her track career was cut short by a torn Achilles tendon.
Amy Kelley (2001) was named to the All-State field hockey team in 1999 and 2000 and was a three-time All-PVC selection. In basketball, Kelley was named to the 2001 Bangor Daily News Eastern Maine all-tournament team and to the All-PVC first team in 2000 and 2001. She also was part of the Ponies’ state-championship 400-meter relay team in 1999.
Brandon Hall (2004) began his track career at Foxcroft by setting the PVC freshman record in the high jump, and he went on to win seven state championships — three in the high jump, two in the long jump and two in the triple jump. As a senior, Hall went undefeated in all three jumping events, was the New England high jump champion, set a school record with 40 points in a meet, established a state record in the high jump with a leap of 6-10, and was named Male Track Athlete of the Year by the Portland Press Herald. Hall also was second team all-conference in football and basketball and went on to star in basketball at Maine Maritime Academy.
Dr. Richard Swett has served as Foxcroft’s pro bono team orthopedist since 1979, helping countless athletes with in-game injuries, treatment, and rehabilitation as well as inspiring other doctors along the way to do the same. He has made life much easier for FA’s coaches, who did not have a full-time athletic trainer to work with for 31 of the 35 years Swett has lent his support. Despite retiring from Mayo Regional Hospital this year, he will continue to treat FA athletes.