DALTON, Mass. – The fourth class of the CRA Athletic Hall of Fame had echoes from the first three years.

 

But that does not mean that organizers are running out of ideas for inductees.

 

“As you can imagine, for a community with such a rich sports tradition, the number of nominations we get each year is amazing,” Hall of Fame Chairman Dustin Belcher told the crowd at Sunday’s induction ceremony at Wahconah Country Club. “There were hundreds of nominations this year to consider.”

 

Some were familiar faces.

 

Two were two-time inductees as individuals. Several more were honored as individual athletes from teams that already received a hall call or vice versa.

 

Few Hall of Famers are better known or better loved than Robert “Boog” Powell, who was one of the first coaches to enter the hall in 2019 and on Sunday, got a second plaque as a member of the institution’s “contributor” category.

 

“When you think of Dalton, when you think of Central Berkshire, when you think of Wahconah Regional High School, I think of a couple of people, and at the top of the list is Robert ‘Boog’ Powell,” board member and Wahconah football coach Gary Campbell Jr. said in his induction remarks for Powell. “Boog passed in 2009, but his legacy is still here. In fact, I can clearly say he is the heart of the Warriors.

 

“Clearly, we know his coaching and everything else, but what I heard [this weekend], everybody talked about people like Boog who would help in any way they can, camps, anything – all the stuff that he supported.”

 

Powell was a long-time coach and board president of the Dalton-Hinsdale Little League, a president of the Dalton Benefit Association and a youth soccer and basketball coach in the CRA leagues. In 1985, Powell became the youngest ever recipient of the Community Recreation Association’s Gib Kittredge Award for “outstanding service and the spirit of generosity to the CRA.”

 

He also served as athletic director at the town’s high school for nearly two decades.

 

“I was a young coach and a person who was just hired in the late ‘90s, and here’s our athletic director out there painting the goalposts,” Campbell said. “Here’s our athletic director in the locker room painting the benches. Here’s our athletic director out there dragging the water buffalo all over the property so our fields look mint during the fall.

 

“That was what service was. … So you talk about setting up other people’s success? I don’t know that there was anyone better than Boog Powell.”

 

Athletic successes over the course of seven decades were embodied in the 14 individuals and three teams who compose the CRA Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022.

 

The group includes:

 

♦ the 1966 Wahconah football team, now the oldest team in the hall, which was the first high school 11 from Dalton to beat Pittsfield High since the 1920s and won a Class “A” Championship;

 

♦ the Wahconah Warriors Booster Club, which was founded in 1971 and which has raised and spent $375,000 over the years to support the school’s student-athletes;

 

♦ Nancy Barry, who coached the 1986 Wahconah girls soccer team, which won a state championship;

 

♦ Katie West, who led Wahconah to four Western Massachusetts soccer titles and the 1996 state crown;

 

♦ Darcy Sullivan Myette, a three-sport captain in soccer, basketball and softball who led Wahconah to Western Mass soccer titles in 2007, ‘08 and ‘09;

 

♦ Samantha Burgner, who was a county MVP in volleyball and softball in 2011 and pitched Wahconah to a softball state championship in 2011;

 

♦ and the 2022 Wahconah boys lacrosse team, which was honored as the Hall of Fame’s “story of the year” after winning the school’s first state championship in the sport in June.

 

Keith Poopor, a three-sport star for Wahconah in 1990s who went on to be a captain in baseball and basketball at Amherst College, was inducted into the CRA Hall of Fame as part of its first class four years ago. On Sunday afternoon, he was back at Wahconah Country Club to deliver the ceremony’s keynote speech.

 

“There’s really no greater feeling than to be recognized and honored by your community, by the people of your town, for the role that you’ve played, athletically or otherwise that has positively contributed to the fabric of this great community,” Poopor said. “Whether it be in the moment, like after winning a championship, as the fire trucks escort you through town, or today when we look back with purpose to remember and honor the athletic achievements and contributions of those who are inducted today.”

 

The ceremony featured many of the impressive numbers put up by Wahconah athletes over the years and a couple of statistics about the hall itself.

 

One figure was provided by Hall of Fame board member Pat West, who highlighted the hall’s mission to raise funds to support youth sports in the community.

 

“Prior to the Hall of Fame, some kids in our community couldn’t afford swimming lessons,” West said. “The money we’ve raised through the Hall of Fame has created a situation where every kid gets swimming lessons.”

 

Another stat was provided by Belcher, one of the driving forces behind the hall, who showed just how much the recognition means to those who have built and maintained the town’s strong athletic tradition.

 

“In four years, people from 17 different states have come to celebrate this induction,” he said. “No matter where your physical address is today, this is home.

 

“Welcome home.”