Brewer native Darren Beers, an All-American defenseman and assistant captain for the 1999 NCAA Division II champion Saint Michael’s College men’s ice hockey team, will be inducted into that school’s athletic hall of fame on Sept. 28.
Beers, a 1999 graduate of the school in Colchester, Vermont, was a four-year defenseman for Saint Michael’s who helped the Purple Knights win the only NCAA championship in school history.
He scored 47 points in 99 games while missing only five games during his career, during which Saint Michael’s compiled a 65-35-4 overall record (42-14-3 in league play).
Beers matched his career high with 13 assists as a senior for the Purple Knights, who defeated Southern New Hampshire University to capture the national title.
“Darren is one of the strongest players we’ve ever had here,” Saint Michael’s hockey coach Lou DiMasi said after the 1999 season. He started his career as a forward and moved to defense because that’s what we needed from him.”
Beers subsequently was named first-team NCAA Division II All-America, New England Hockey Writers Association All-New England and to the All-ECAC Northeast first team.
Beers and four other seniors from the championship team also threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game on May 5, 1999.
A biology major at Saint Michael’s, Beers was the college’s first member of the Northeast-10 Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was selected as the league’s national SAAC delegate in 1998-1999.
Beers now lives in Colchester, Vermont, and has worked for the South Burlington Police Department for more than a decade.
Among his accomplishments while at Brewer High School, Beers scored 28 goals and dished out 21 assists in helping the Witches capture their first Eastern Maine Class B hockey championship in school history in 1994.
