Norwich – Eleven outstanding athletes and the most successful coach in school history make up the members of the Norwich Free Academy Hall of Fame induction class of 2022.

The new members will be celebrated at a banquet Friday, Oct. 28, at the Holiday Inn in Norwich. The event, which begins at 5 p.m., is open to the public. Tickets are $60 and can be ordered at nfaschool.org/athletics/hof.

“This class represents the very best in NFA athletic history,” NFA athletic director Roy Wentworth said. “The accomplishments of this group are inspiring on a number of levels and continue to show the success our athletes have while on campus and beyond.”

The members of the 2022 Hall of Fame class are:

• Ronald Pires (Class of 1966) — Pires was a three-year basketball player at NFA and blossomed after graduation, going on to play for Eastern Connecticut State. Pires is 10th on Eastern’s all-time scoring list, having held the top spot for 20 years. He’s been the head boys’ basketball coach at E.O. Smith High School for 43 years. He is a member of the E.O. Smith Foundation Hall of Fame, the ECSU Hall of Fame and the Norwich Sports Hall of Fame.

• Ronald Delgado (1973) — A three-sport athlete (football, basketball, track), Delgado’s career began to flourish as a junior. He started the year as an All Capital District Conference selection in football at quarterback, then received the same honor in basketball, leading the team in scoring as a junior and senior.

• Daniel Rose (1973) — While he earned letters in basketball and track and field, Rose’s greatest accomplishments came on the football field. He was named to the All Capital District Conference second team as a junior before earning first team honors as a senior. He played a postgraduate season at Milford Academy, which earned him a spot at UConn, where he started as a freshman and earned three letters.

• William Krohn (1976) — As a senior, Krohn received the Fletcher-Wiley Cup as the top male athlete at NFA. Krohn’s success came in cross country and track and field, earning all-state honors in both as a junior and senior. He continued his career at Manhattan College and later ran on four U.S. track and field national teams. Krohn competed for 10 years internationally, including the Millrose Games, Prefontaine Invitational and the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Trials.

• Beth Curran Garver (1984) — Curran Garver earned three varsity letters in basketball and two in softball. She was the first girls’ basketball player at NFA to earn all-state honors and went on to play at Division I New Hampshire.

• Jody Hull McCabe (1988) — NFA did not have a women’s swim team when Hull McCabe competed, but swam on the boys’ team. She held two school records (200- and 500-yard freestyle) for more than 20 years. She also set the record for most points scored in a season and a four-year career. She won the ECC championship in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events as a junior, setting conference records each time, and during her senior year was the only female to qualify for the Class LL championship. Hull McCabe swam four years at UConn, setting three individual school records.

• Jill Akus (1997) — Akus put the rest of the area — and the state — on notice when in 1993, as a freshman, she swept the ECC, Class LL and State Open cross country individual championships. She would go on to win the conference the next three years and both the LL and Open championships twice. She teamed with fellow inductee Erin-Kate Mandelburg Aleksak to lead the team to four conference championships, two LL championships, two State Open championships and one New England championship. Akus was a nine-time letter winner in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.

• Erin-Kate Mandelburg Aleksak (1997) — Mandelburg Aleksak earned 11 varsity letters during her four years competing in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. Her cross country and outdoor track teams won the ECC championship four times and she earned All-ECC honors four times in cross country. Her cross country teams also won the Class LL and state open championships twice, as well as the New England championship during her junior season. Individually, in addition to her three All-New England honors, she was State Open champion three times and Class LL champion four times. During her career, her outdoor track team also won the Class LL championship four times and the State Open championship once. She has run dozens of half marathons and marathons, including Boston and New York.

• Saona Chapman Jackson (2001) — Named a Nike All-American and the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year in 2001, Chapman Jackson led the Wildcats to basketball state championships in 1999 and 2001. She won eight varsity letters, four in basketball and four in cross country. Following NFA, she played Division I basketball at Rutgers and Richmond, where she ranks No. 2 all-time in assists.

• Courtney Davis Gomez (2004) — Her basketball career, which included four conference titles, started with consecutive state championships in 2001-02. She earned all-state honors twice, all-conference honors three times and was named The Day’s Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. She captained three teams her senior year (basketball, softball, cross country) and was awarded the Shearer-Curtis Cup as the school’s top female athlete. She four years at the University of Hartford, where she helped the Hawks to three NCAA appearances. She has been the head girls’ basketball coach at NFA since 2019.

• Matthew Shaughnessy (2005) — Drafted 71st overall (third round) in the 2009 NFL draft, Shaughnessy played for the Oakland Raiders and was named to ESPN’s All Rookie team. He played with the Raiders from 2009-13, before joining the Arizona Cardinals, for whom he played through 2015. Shaughnessy joined the Raiders having lettered for four years at Wisconsin, where he was selected to the All-Big 10 team his senior year. He earned 10 varsity letters at NFA and was selected to the all-state football team twice. He also competed in basketball and outdoor track.

• Bill Scarlata (coach) — Scarlata took over as head girls’ basketball coach in 1992 and made the Wildcats one of the most successful programs in Connecticut history. His 27-year career yielded 576 wins, 18 conference championships and seven state titles (1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010). He had four unbeaten seasons and amassed winning streaks of 53 and 38 games. Scarlata was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.