An eclectic class of 12 athletic standouts in sports ranging from cheering and the biathlon to the National Football League and Major League Baseball will be inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame this fall.
Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Oct. 30 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.
Set for induction are Ron Cote, Mike DeVito, Clare Egan, Ryan Flaherty, Christy Gardner, Mikey LeBlanc, Lori McPherson, Hank Pfeifle, Adrienne Shibles, Emily Caras Snyder, Diana Walker and Rod Wotton.
Cote was a three-sport standout at St. Louis High School in Biddeford and was All-State in football and basketball. He played quarterback at the University of Maine for three seasons before turning to coaching basketball, where he amassed 350 victories, mostly at Biddeford High School as well as the University of New England. The Southwestern Maine Athletic Association’s Girls’ Basketball Coach of the Year award is named in his honor.
DeVito played 110 games at defensive end over nine seasons for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets after starring at the University of Maine where he was a captain, defensive player of the year and twice named All-Atlantic 10. DeVito lives in the Bangor area and still works with area youth and with defensive players during spring ball at UMaine.
Egan is a two-time Olympic biathlete who has represented the United States on the World Cup tour for six seasons. She was the fourth-fastest woman in the Beijing Olympics’ inaugural biathlon event, the mixed relay, in which the U.S. had its highest-ever finish. Egan also has served as chair of the International Biathlon Union Athletes’ Committee and has taken strong stances against steroid use.
Flaherty played three sports at Deering High School in Portland, leading his teams to state championships in football and baseball. His Nova Seafood team won the American Legion baseball national championship in 2004. Flaherty was a two-time All-American shortstop at Vanderbilt before the first-round draft choice of the Chicago Cubs went on to play in the Major Leagues for nine years, mostly with the Baltimore Orioles. He now is an advance scout and development coach for the San Diego Padres.
Gardner was a multi-sport athlete at Edward Little High School in Auburn who attended Long Island University on a track scholarship before joining the U.S. Army. In 2006, she suffered injuries that resulted in her losing both legs, but Gardner became one of America’s top International Paralympic Committee athletes and helped the USA National Sledge Hockey Team to the first International Cup gold medal in 2014. Gardner was named 2013 USA Hockey Disabled Athlete of the Year and won the shot put and discus at the 2016 U.S. Paralympic Trials.
LeBlanc was a top global snowboarder for 17 years and is known for pioneering skateboard-style snowboarding, bringing the sport to urban settings and for pushing the boundaries of big mountain backcountry freestyle maneuvers. He was named a “Mountain GOAT” by Snowboarder Magazine, Outstanding Rider of the Year by Transworld Snowboarding and was a character in the launch edition of the XBox snowboarding game. An award-winning filmmaker and featured performer, LeBlanc also has influenced mountain sports through his eco-conscious clothing company Holden Outerwear, which he founded nearly two decades ago.
McPherson is the first MSHoF inductee from the sport of competitive cheering, She became the coach at Marshwood High School in South Berwick in 1987 and led the Hawks to six regional and five state titles while also helping many other teams as she established herself as a leader in this rapidly evolving sport. She was named Maine Coach of the Year twice, and her Maine Stars gym produced three national champions and a world championship team.
Pfeifle took up cross country running as a senior at the University of Vermont, then returned to Maine and won 19 in-state races, had dozens of top-10 finishes in national events, qualified for two U.S. Olympic trials, and posted the fastest time ever by a Mainer in the Boston Marathon. At age 40 in 1991 he turned to biking and won an age-group world championship and two national titles.
Shibles was a star athlete at Mt. View High School in Thorndike and a two-time basketball captain and 1,000-point scorer at Bates College. She then joined the coaching ranks, first turning a 7-17 Swarthmore team into the Centennial Conference champion in four years, then compiling a 281-65 record over 12 seasons at Bowdoin College with 11 NCAA tournament appearances and two trips to the NCAA Division III Final Four. Her 2020 Polar Bears were 27-2 when their national championship bid was halted by COVID-19. Shibles now coaches women’s basketball at Dartmouth.
Caras Snyder was setting short-course swimming records by age 10, and 34 of those records still stand. At Cape Elizabeth High School, she set five state records, won multiple titles and was named to the All-State and NISCA All-America teams. She went on to captain the Cornell women’s swimming and diving team, set four school records and was presented Cornell’s Achievement and Leadership Award. She died of sudden cardiac arrest at age 33 in 2020.
Walker is retiring after coaching field hockey for 39 years at Sanford High School, where she amassed nearly 400 victories, four regional titles and two state championships. From 1999 to 2001, her teams won 50 straight games.
Wotton coached Marshwood High School of South Berwick to 16 football state championships in four classes and compiled a 220-33-3 record — including one stretch of 45 consecutive victories. He left Marshwood for St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1992 and retired as the winningest high school football coach in New England history with 342 victories and was voted Maine’s Greatest High School Football Coach in an online poll conducted by the Bangor Daily News. Wotton passed away last November.
