CIAO Berkshire County Hall of Fame Inducts 10

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. –  The CIAO Soccer Hall of Fame induction and scholarship banquet and presentations were held on Thursday, May 9, at Berkshire Hills Country Club in Pittsfield.
 
The 2024 inductees were honored and 21 scholarships of $1,000 each were presented.   Committee Chairmen Al Belanger and Patrick West introduced inductees and scholarship winners at the event. The nomination committee included, in addition to Belanger and West, Chris Dumas and Richard Asher. Sheila Lussier led the banquet committee.
 
The inductees are Katie Bradley (Pittsfield High), Sam Dils (Mount Greylock), Tom Hazen (Wahconah), Peter Larkin (St. Joseph), Harry Rich (Pittsfield), Todd Rose (Wahconah), Jordan Schnopp Chausse (Wahconah), Corey Stack (St. Joseph), Judy Tierney (Pittsfield), Alycia Sacco (Pittsfield).
 
This list includes two county MVPs, 15 all-Berkshire selections, five all-Western Mass picks, seven captain honors, one five-year varsity starter, one Lady General Award winner, and one Italian-American Athlete of the Year honor.
 
Katie Bradley was a four-year force on a strong PHS team from 2008 to 2011, earning all-Berkshire honors her junior and senior year.  As captain her senior year, and even before, she led her team to strong finishes in the state tournament all four years she was in high school.  She also played on SDA in the Premier League for her four high school years. She also won a silver medal in the Bay State Games with the Berkshire Blast U-14 team.  
 
She graduated from the University of New Hampshire and is currently a charge nurse at Brigham and Women’s. She is studying for her master’s degree in Nursing Education at Simmons University.
 
Sam Dils was a rare five-year starter at Mt. Greylock and was on the all-Berkshire second team in 2014; all-Berkshire first team three times from 2015-2017; and was on the all-Western-Mass team three times from 2015-2017. He was the Berkshire County MVP in 2017.
 
Dils ended his senior year with 59 goals and 33 assists.
 
At Hamilton College he was named captain and was a four-year player in the NESCAC. He graduated from Hamilton in 2022 and has started a career in strategic communications. He lives in Cambridge and has continued his passion for soccer as an active member of the Bay State Soccer League.
 
Tom Hazen graduated in 1983 and was a midfielder on strong Wahconah boys teams. Hazen led them to their first ever Western Mass title in 1982.  He went on to captain a team at BCC  when the team was nationally ranked. Hazen also was named to the National Junior College Athletic Association All-Region team.  
He has gone on to be a successful business leader and CEO having twice placed companies on the INC 1000 fastest growing business in America list. He has maintained his ties to soccer by coaching many travel and club teams.
 
Peter Larkin, who graduated from high school in 1971, was a midfielder on one of Al Belanger’s first teams at St. Joseph’s High School and was one of the captains his senior year. Belanger must have prepared him well, because Larkin went on to Division I St Bonaventure University, where he captained the team his junior and senior year and was an All-American nominee in 1972, 1973, and in 1974. 
 
After college, he has been a State Representative from the Third District and has held many other influential positions as well.
 
Harry Rich is a 4-year midfield, varsity starter who was named to the all-Berkshire team twice.  He was captain for the Pittsfield High Generals his senior year and unselfishly led the team all four years in assists. Harry also captained the Westenhook United Club throughout high school leading his team to the top division in the Maple League.
 
After high school, he went to Middlebury where he played on the men’s club team before injuries forced him to stop.
 
Rich has a career in New York City in the technology industry. He remains active in the soccer community, serving as board member for HotFutbol, playing in several adult leagues and cheering on his younger brother Gabe at his college matches.
 
Todd Rose led Wahconah to Berkshire County and Western Mass championships during his time at WRHS. He made the all-Berkshire Teams his junior and senior years, and he made the all-Western Mass teams his junior and senior years as well.
 
After high school, Rich has remained active in soccer as a youth coach and as a player (and champion) in the Men’s soccer league. He was also a champion in the BABL League in 2016. He works as an HVACR tech at Pittsfield Pipers and lives with his wife, Wynde, and daughters in Hinsdale.
 
Jordan Schnopp Chausse was on all-Berkshire, all-Western Mass and all-State teams but Boog Powell said that her strength was her soccer IQ. It was like having another coach on the field and that certainly is the Schnopp everyone saw on the field. She played a defensive mid and center back position and was a 4-year starter at WRHS. She is also someone who went on to have a stellar career at Merrimack College and received the prestigious “All 80 Game Award” and her team won the New England 10 Championship in 2011 and 2012.
 
She is married to Matthew Chausse, and is a practicing dietician and is the owner of Thrive Nutrition, a functional nutrition practice in Newport, R.I.
 
Corey Stack was a multi-year starter, midfielder, and captain for St. Joseph High School in the late 1990s. Stack  made the all-Berkshire and all-Western Mass teams his senior year and led St Josephs to the 1997 Western Mass finals and to the 1998 Western Mass Championship.
 
Fran Marinaro, Stack’s coach and a Hall of Famer himself, said, “Corey was an excellent player and an even better teammate and captain. He was instrumental in our run to the state finals his senior year (1998) as a fierce leader in that back line. His induction in the Berkshire County Hall of Fame is an honor well deserved.”
 
Corey works at Piantedosi Baking Company as a Regional Manager.
 
Sadie Supranowicz was a three-year varsity starter at PHS and was captain her senior year. She was twice named to the all-Eagle team and was an all-Berkshire team selection twice as well. She was the PHS MVP her senior year and was named ‘PHS Lady General Award’ winner. She was named captain her senior year as well.
 
She recently earned her second degree, graduating May 4 as an ABSN nurse. She also earned her bachelor of science from Westfield State in 2022. 
 
Judy Tierney Nichols was a three-sport high school athlete. She was on the all-Berkshire team and the All-Western Mass team and led Pittsfield High School to its first championship season ever in 1984.
 
Despite all the accolades she has received for her athletic ability, her greatest asset was her leadership skills, She, along with captains Sandy Hassett and Ruthie Cohen Thistle embraced the challenge and led the team to a 17-3 season.
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One of Tierney’s highlights was when PHS played Marlborough High in the Western Mass semis. Marlborough was 19-0 and had outscored their opponents 102-2. PHS ended up winning the game 2-0 and she was a huge key to that. She went on to coach the PHS varsity tram in the mid-90s.
 
Alycia Sacco Duquette was a four-year starter at PHS, made All-Berkshire teams her sophomore, junior and senior years, and was a varsity captain her senior year. She was also the State’s Italian Athlete of the Year in 1989.
 
Currently she is an assistant general counsel for product risk at Guardian Life and she has remained a firm supporter of athletics in Berkshire County. She has coached youth soccer, youth basketball, and is on the board of the Berkshire County Girls Basketball Hall of Fame.
 
The 2024 CIAO $1000 scholarship winners:
 
Abigail Percy (Drury), Ferris Miksic (Drury), Talia Rehill (Hoosac), David Scholz (Hoosac), Isabella Kotek (Lee), Aliza Munch (Lenox), Cooper Maloney (Lenox), Svea Lawson (McCann), Brady Vallieres (McCann), Sam Higa (Monument Mountain), Alex Tenney (Monument Mountain), Allison Stuerenagle (Mt. Everett), Aiden Murray (Mt. Everett), Belen Galvez (Mt. Greylock), Jude Barzousky (Mt. Greylock), Ellen Muller (PHS), Cal Soldato (PHS), Ava Rose Maffuccio (Taconic), Andrew Peprah (Taconic), Ava Massaro (WRHS), Ryan Marauszwski (WRHS).
 
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Community Meeting Addresses Prejudice in Pittsfield Schools

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Johanna Lenski, a special education surrogate parent and advocate, says there's a 'deeply troubling' professional culture at Herberg that lets discriminatory actions and language slip by.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Around 60 community members gathered at Conte Community School on Monday night to discuss issues with prejudice in the district. 

The event was hosted by the Pittsfield Public Schools in partnership with the Berkshire NAACP and the Westside Legends. It began with breaking bread in the school's cafeteria, and caregivers then expressed fears about children's safety due to bullying, a lack of support for children who need it the most, and teachers using discriminatory and racist language. 

"One thing I've learned is that as we try to improve, things look really bad because we're being open about ways that we're trying to improve, and I think it's really important that we acknowledge that," interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips said, reflecting on her work in several other districts before coming to PPS last summer.  

"It is very easy to stay at the surface and try to look really good, and it may look like others are better than us, when they're really just doing a better job of just kind of maintaining the status quo and sweeping things under the carpet."

Brett Random, the executive director of Berkshire County Head Start, wrote on her personal Facebook page that her daughter reported her math teacher, "used extremely offensive language including both a racial slur (n-word) and a homophobic slur (f-word) and then reportedly tried to push other students to repeat those words later in the day when students were questioning her on her behavior."

The school department confirmed that an eighth-grade teacher at the middle school was placed on leave.  

The Berkshire Eagle, which first reported on the incident, identified the teacher as Rebecca Nitsche, and the teacher told the paper over the phone, "All I can tell you is it's not how it appears." Nitsche told the paper she repeated the words a student used while reporting the incident to another teacher because officials needed to know it happened. 

Johanna Lenski, speaking as a special education surrogate parent and parent advocate, on Monday said there is a "deeply troubling" professional culture at Herberg that has allowed discriminatory, racist, non-inclusive, and ableist treatment of students.

She said a Black transgender student was called a "piss poor, punk, puke of a kid," and repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by one of the school's teachers, and then wrongfully accused of physically assaulting that teacher, which resulted in a 10-day suspension. 

Another Herberg student with disabilities said the same staff member disclosed to an entire classroom that they lived in a group home and were in state Department of Children and Families' custody. When the teacher was asked to come to an individualized education program meeting for that student, Lenski said he "spent approximately 20 minutes attacking this child's character and portraying her as a problem, rather than a student in need of services and protection and support."

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