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.

Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing. 

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said. 

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today." 

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback. 

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director. 

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care.  Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires. 

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs. 

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said. 

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025. 

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