The Owego Hall of Fame Class of 2019 was inducted amongst school officials, old teammates, family and friends on Friday, Oct. 18 at Owego Free Academy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Class of 2019, which is the second class inducted, includes athletes Michael Steele, class of 1964; Thomas Bryant, class of 1968; Wendy Collins, class of 1986; Joseph Palladino, class of 1988; and contributors Thomas Morrissey and Richard Brown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to meet these people, which is really my favorite part of all this. I love to hear their amazing stories, I even look up all their old stats in the record books,\u201d said Andy Buchsbaum, director of athletics for Owego Free Academy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buchsbaum said that the idea of the hall of fame was a collaborative effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe idea stemmed from our coaches council, it was a collaborative effort that also included school officials,\u201d Buchsbaum said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roger Brown, who attended along with his siblings and mother, spoke on behalf of his late father Richard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy father was a coach and an athletic director. He did a lot promoting girls sports, before him there really wasn\u2019t that many girls teams,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A graduate of Owego himself, Brown said it was nice to see the school honor his father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very special, he was a special person who cared about kids and the community and the school. He devoted 33 years of his life to this school,\u201d Brown added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wendy Collins, who was a four-year letterman in both basketball and softball, said that she hasn\u2019t been back to the Owego Free Academy in 30 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a while, I guess I didn\u2019t have a reason to come back until now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accompanied by her mother, teammate and coach, Collins said it was “cool” being honored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s weird being back, bring back a lot of memories,\u201d Collins said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Steele said he never expected to be named to the hall of fame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI played basketball pre-three-point-shot, and it was a great surprise. Even my old baseball coach is here and I graduated in 1964,\u201d Steele said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Bryant, who along with being honored as an athlete was honored as a former coach and athletic director, said he was dumbfounded to find out he was being inducted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing here brings back a lot of memories of the things I did here,\u201d Bryant said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current basketball coach Chris Evans spoke on behalf of Morrissey, who is retired down south. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When he asked me to speak on his behalf it brought back a lot of memories, he was a mentor and a father figure at times, a good solid man. He has a coaching tree in the area, his legacy will continue for a long time,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ceremony started off with food and beverages and then moved on to the presentation ceremony. Buchsbaum handled the presentation and introduction of the inductees while Superintendent Corey Green gave a short speech complimenting the athletes and the concept of the hall of fame itself. While all inductees were given the chance to give a speech in front of the audience there to watch the ceremony, not all of them took that opportunity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Owego Hall of Fame Class of 2019 was inducted amongst school officials, old teammates, family and friends on Friday, Oct. 18 at Owego Free…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":75823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n