NMHS Athletic Hall of Fame to welcome new inductees
The 2010 Green Wave gymnastics team and seven men and women who have also distinguished themselves will be inducted in October into the New Milford High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
The ’10 gymnasts were state and New England champions and this fall will be just the second team to be honored as NMHS Athletic Hall of Famers.
Longtime Green Wave wrestling coach Chris Piel will become just the sixth coach to be so honored, and will be joined as an inductee by outstanding athletes Ken Horne, Class of 1962; Suzanne Marsan ’82; Erik Dunn ’89; Julie Reynolds Baldwin ’05; Mia Nahom ’17; and Melquisedec Ortiz ’18.
The inductees will be honored Oct. 18 at Fairview Farm Golf Course in Harwinton. The dinner/ceremony will mark the sixth AHOF induction banquet, following those in 2017, ’18, ’19 and, following a Covid break, 2023 and 2024.
Full bios and photos of the 2025 inductees are posted at www.nmhsahof.org.
Banquet tickets are available through Oct. 7 at Eventbrite.com or by check. Ticket details may be found on the AHOF website.
The 2025 inductees
2010 Green Wave gymnastics
Impressive depth of talent, competitive fire, and an admirable esprit de corps... the 2009-2010 Green Wave gymnasts had it all, and were blessed with good health for their biggest meets.
In retrospect, that they won the 2010 New England team championship was no surprise.
Veteran coach Bethany Mihaly’s team was led by defending New England all-around champion Ashley O’Connor, who was backed by several fellow state-class gymnasts.
That corps of young athletes had shown heading into the 2009-10 campaign they had the individual skills in vaulting, on the uneven parallel bars and the balance beam, and in floor exercise, to be a state contender.
Once the season had begun, the Green Wave improved by leaps and bounds, so to speak. Carla Hernandez, Colleen Menard, Tori Weiss and Libby Martin were among the gymnasts who elevated their game, complementing Ashley O’Connor’s sublime talents to form an unbeatable lineup.
The Green Wave proceeded to win its first South-West Conference championship and, after a slight hiccup led to a state ‘L’ runnerup finish, soon added the state open title and the climactic New England championship.
Such was the Green Wave a tour de force, Ashley and Carla placed Top Ten all-around against the best New England had to offer, and teammates Colleen, Tori and Libby all placed in the top 30 all-around. Jasmine Ros and Ashleigh Barney also got into the scoring act.
As reward for their hard work and excellence, come Oct. 18, the 2009-10 Green Wave gymnasts will become just the second New Milford High School team to be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame.
Coach Chris Piel
Chris Piel took the reins of the perennially strong Green Wave wrestling program for the 2008-09 season and soon helped shepherd the team to previously unattained standards.
Bolstered by an active local youth program and backed when sought by the wisdom of several former coaches, Coach Piel guided the Green Wave to its first state title in 2010-11, just his third season at the helm. Four more state championships have followed.
Coach Piel’s well-disciplined, heady grapplers have thoroughly dominated the South-West Conference during his tenure, winning 13 championship banners in his first 16 campaigns.
Green Wave wrestlers under his direction have individually won 66 SWC titles, 24 state class gold medals, seven state open championships, and three New England titles.
Coach Piel has been oft-honored as the face of the NMHS program, earning national and state coach of the year recognition, and soon will become just the sixth coach in Green Wave history to be inducted into the AHOF.
Ken Horne ‘62
A multi-talented athlete best remembered as one of the Green Wave’s best-ever basketball players, Ken Horne, Class of 1962, also made an impact while running cross country, and high jumping and hurdling to state success in track & field.
Ken proved a formidable opponent for early 1960s rivals in the newly minted Western Connecticut Conference.
His 6’4” stature and well-practiced basketball skills helped his team to win 11 of its final 12 games to tie for second place in the WCC.
Along the way, Ken scored 19.1 points per game in the league as a junior and 18.0 as a senior to claim back-to-back scoring titles in the first two years of WCC competition, peaking with a 34-point explosion vs. Ridgefield.
Ken was an important contributor to fellow AHOF inductee Russell Devin’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track squads.
He earned a Top 10 medal in the WCC cross country championship meet as a senior, sparked the Green Wave to third place in the state indoor meet with school-record performances in the high jump and 60-yard high hurdles, and excelled as a school record-setting high jumper and hurdler in outdoor track.
Suzanne Marsan ‘82
Suzanne Marsan, Class of 1982, etched a memorable, three-sport NMHS athletic career highlighted by field hockey talents that motivated legendary coach Fran Zaloski to describe her performances as ‘so outstanding every game.”
Suzanne was perhaps Green Wave field hockey’s key player, possessing excellent stick skills while displaying a gritty, hustling style that served as the catalyst for a WCC title and two straight trips to the state tournament championship match.
On the basketball court, Suzanne proved a tenacious defender and an aggressive rebounder who was at her best in the biggest games, scoring 18 points vs. mighty Masuk in a WCC playoff semifinal game.
Her athletic acumen was such in softball that she played first base, second base and leftfield equally well for the Green Wave. As a senior, Suzanne was a .300 hitter who earned all-WCC plaudits. Better yet, she was chosen as the team’s Most Valuable Player over members of a strong junior class that would go on to win the WCC championship the following spring.
Erik Dunn ‘89
Erik Dunn, Class of 1989, was a mercurial talent whose penchant for front-running victories earned him a place amongst the best distance runners in Green Wave history.
Erik’s cross country and track & field resume features numerous state and Western Connecticut Conference individual titles, starting with an eye-opening romp to victory as a precocious freshman in the 5,000-meter run at the WCC championship meet.
His auspicious Green Wave harrier career kicked off as a sophomore with a top-10 in the WCC meet, propelling Erik to the first of his three straight team MVPs.
Matured as an upperclass runner, Erik proceeded to dominate regular season rivals, easily won back-to-back WCC meets and consecutive state class ‘L’ titles. He capped his bravura cross country career with a fourth place in the state open and seventh place at the New England race.
Erik’s track & field career was highlighted by consistent wins in distances from 800 to 5,000 meters, as well as the anchor man for the 4 x 400-meter relay, helping the Green Wave to WCC championships as a sophomore and as a senior.
By the time Erik had hung up his spikes, he had contributed to Green Wave cross country and track & field teams’ overall 52-8 record while carving an indelible mark for individual excellence.
Julie Reynolds Baldwin ‘05
Julie Reynolds, Class of 2005, was a Green Wave soccer player with few equals, superbly skilled, strong and fiercely competitive, and a quick sprinter who dashed to all-South-West Conference indoor track laurels.
Julie distinguished herself on the soccer pitch through four seasons as a closely marked standout for the NMHS side. League coaches recognized her excellence with four straight, first-team South-West Conference selections, a rare feat in any sport.
She also was twice voted first-team all-state. Julie’s teammates acknowledged her leadership and skills by selecting her as the team’s MVP each season. Her impact was felt from end line to end line, as a defender, midfielder and, when the occasion called for it, as a distributor and scorer.
Julie accumulated 29 goals and 19 assists, including 12 goals and eight assists as a senior while lifting the Green Wave to an 8-6-3 record and state tournament qualification. A highlight was a header for the winning goal in an early-season 1-0 win over Joel Barlow, likely a season catalyst for the Green Wave.
An all-academic SWC selection each year, Julie was the school’s female ‘scholar-athlete’ state honoree, and also the Class of ’05 yearbook’s ‘best girl athlete.’
She then successfully took on the challenge of attending and playing soccer with distinction at the United States Naval Academy.
Mia Nahom ‘17
Mia Nahom, Class of 2017, seemingly charted a path to the Athletic Hall of Fame from her early moments as a freshman standout with the Green Wave soccer side.
By the time she had raced to victory in the New England 1,600-meter run as a senior, Mia often found herself center stage, with the athletic talent and emotional fortitude to rise to the occasion.
Along the way, Mia contributed to a South-West Conference championship and nine SWC and state tournament match victories in soccer, proved herself one of the elite cross country runners in the state and New England, and etched an iconic indoor and outdoor track & field career.
On the soccer pitch, Mia was a tireless defender whose freelancing style richly rewarded the Green Wave, most notably when the lithe freshman scored the match’s only goal vs. Danbury in the state class ‘LL’ tournament’s second round.
Mia chose to run cross country as a sophomore, and run she did, earning second place in the SWC championship meet and the state ‘LL’ meet, third place in the state open and eighth place at the New England race.
Yet with all of that on her resume, Mia was most impactful running track. In all, she captured 21 SWC, state and New England individual gold medals in events ranging from the 800 to the 3,200, climaxed by that 1,600 triumph at the New England meet as a senior.
Most memorably, Mia stole the show at the 2017 SWC meet, contested on the NMHS track, by winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 and adding runnerup in the 400 to contribute a remarkable 38 team points for the Green Wave.
Mia followed her NMHS athletic career by setting UConn records in the mile run, the 5,000 meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and later claimed the women’s title in the 2021 New Milford 8-mile road race.
Melquisedec Ortiz ‘18
Mel Ortiz, Class of 2018, was a standout among standouts during perhaps Green Wave wrestling’s most impressive run of success in its rich history.
Competing for four seasons at weights from 113 to 126, Mel built the second-best individual record, behind only fellow AHOF inductee Conor Kirkegard, with his 166-26 mat ledger, including 88 pins. Throughout Mel’s four seasons, he was pinned just once.
His reliable contributions helped coach Chris Piel’s squads carve out at 30-1 record in the South-West Conference for those four years, as well as a 51-5 overall record. The Green Wave captured the SWC team championship three of Mel’s four seasons and claimed the state class L’ title in 2015 and ’16.
Individually, Mel improved from solid performances as a freshman and sophomore to etch a remarkable 91-7 mat ledger for his final two seasons. During those two wintertime campaigns, he captured gold medals at numerous invitational tournaments, including back-to-back titles in the Green Wave’s own New Milford Invitational, and scored the possibly unprecedented achievement of being named the ‘Most Outstanding Wrestler’ at three straight SWC tournaments.
As a junior, he won his second straight state ‘L’ title and finished third in the state open, at the New England tournament and at the Junior Nationals. In his final season, he upgraded that to win the state ‘L’, state open and New England titles (just the third in Green Wave annals, and was third at the Senior Nationals.
For his accomplishments, Mel was accorded all-state honors, earned All-American recognition and was voted Green Wave MVP in back-to-back seasons.
