PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Five people instrumental in the success of the Presque Isle High School sports program have been named as the school’s next inductees into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
An induction ceremony for members of the Class of 2016 — Dr. Jack Belden, John Dean, Natasha Deschene, Dana Hews and Don Kirkpatrick — will be held Jan. 15.
Belden’s leadership was instrumental in the fundraising effort to bring varsity hockey to SAD 1. A committee led by Belden raised more than $100,000 to fund startup costs for the first three years as well as maintenance costs for the program.
Dean (Class of 1978) starred in basketball and baseball for the Wildcats. In basketball, he was named to the Bangor Daily News All-Maine second team as a senior as well as to the All-Aroostook County first team and Eastern Maine all-tournament squad.
In baseball, the pitcher-first baseman earned the James Dyer Memorial Trophy as the outstanding player in Aroostook County, as well as being named to the All-Aroostook County team.
Dean went on to the University of Maine at Farmington where he played four years of basketball, captained the squad as a senior and was a two-time All-Western Maine Athletic Conference honoree.
He also played baseball for three years — UMF did not field a team in 1981 because of the energy crisis — and captained that team as a senior while earning All-WMAC honors. Dean was inducted into the UMF Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
He has been an IAABO Board 21 basketball referee since 1989.
Deschene (2005) played four years of varsity soccer, basketball and baseball at Presque Isle.
In soccer, she was a three-time All-Aroostook choice, a two-time All-Penobscot Valley Conference and Eastern Maine regional all-star, a second team Maine Soccer Coaches Association all-star and a recipient of the Butch Shaw Memorial Award.
Deschene was the 2004 Big East Player of the Year in basketball as well as a Bangor Daily News All-Maine third-team honoree and All-Aroostook choice.
She played first singles in tennis for three years, earning All-Aroostook honors and qualifying for the state singles tournament as a senior.
Deschene went on to play basketball at Worcester (Massachusetts) Polytechnic Institute, where she helped the Engineers win an ECAC championship and earned all-conference honors as a senior point guard and team captain.
Hews introduced soccer to Presque Isle’s physical education program in 1963 and proposed the sport as an interscholastic activity throughout Aroostook County.
He worked with Dwight Hunter to integrate soccer into Caribou’s physical education program, and in 1964, Presque Isle and Caribou played in the area’s first soccer match as a demonstration for area principals.
The County’s first soccer league began play in 1964 with teams from Presque Isle, Caribou, Fort Fairfield and Fort Kent, and Hews served as Presque Isle’s first soccer coach from 1964 to 1969.
Hews also coached basketball from 1958 through 1964, leading the Wildcats to the Eastern Maine final in 1960 and the state championship game in 1961.
Kilpatrick (1938) was a standout on Presque Isle’s baseball team, captaining the squad as a junior and leading the Wildcats to the state tournament as an offensive catalyst and center fielder.
He also played a year of basketball and a year of football in high school and went on to play three sports at the University of Maine. His favorite sport was baseball, and he played first base for four years with the Black Bears.
He also played first base for the semi-pro Presque Isle Indians.