Dana Zelenakas 

Dana Zelenakas graduated from Brattleboro  in 1966. He was an All-State selection from  the State Championship Colonel football  team in 1965. A member of the Eastern Ski  Jumping team from 1965 to 1968 and the  US Ski Team from 1968 to 1972, Zelenakas  had the opportunity to compete in many  prestigious competitions. During the 1968  Olympic tryouts, he finished in 9th place  at Lake Placid, NY and in 7th place at Iron  Mountain, MI. As a member of the US Ski  team, in 1969, he competed in Lahti, Finland  and at the Finnish Ski Week and during the 1970 season, in Plancia,  Yugoslavia and the Holmenkollen (Holmenkollbakken) in Oslo,  Norway. After a 4th place finish in the 1972 Olympic Tryouts, Dana was  named to the US Olympic team that competed in Sapporo, Japan. In  1984 he won 1st place in the Masters Division at Lake Placid.  

1965 Brattleboro Colonel Football Team  

The 1965  Brattleboro  Colonel  Football  Team was  the highest  scoring team  in Vermont  history and  finished the  season as the undefeated Division I champion. Scoring a total of 68  touchdowns (with only 22 coming from inside the ten-yard line) the  team averaged 55 points per game while grinding out 2,505 yards on  the ground, 849 yards through the air, and 372 yards on punt and kick off returns for a total of 3,726 yards – 206 yards more than three miles.  Their point total for the season of 445 bested the old Vermont record  set by Ollie Dunlop’s 1959 BFA team of 302 points. Not to be outdone,  the first team Defensive unit gave up only two touchdowns all season,  and yielded only a total of 32 points, or 4 pts per game.

Coach Darrell R. Sawyer 

During his fourteen years as the head  football coach for Brattleboro Union High  School, he led the Colonels to one Division  1 Vermont State Championship in 1973, and  to a runner-up finish in 1978. He finished his  illustrious head football coaching career with  an impressive 70 percent winning record.  Between 1970 and 1981, he coached in  eight Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl games  before serving as the Vermont athletic  director and in 1999 received the National  Football Foundation and College Hall of  Fame Amateur Football award. In 2009, Sawyer was inducted into the  Vermont Principals Association Hall of Fame. 

Jan Carlson  

Jan proved herself to be one of the top   track and field athletes ever to compete at  Brattleboro Union High School, amassing  13 individual Indoor and Outdoor Vermont  

State Track Championships. In her senior  year, she earned four state championship  titles in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, the  triple jump and pole vault, with four titles  being the most any one person can win.  For her success as a student-athlete, she  received the Diedrich Stolte Cup, awarded to  the most outstanding female athlete of the BUHS Class of 2006. As a  collegian, she won both 100 and 200 meter NCAA Regionals and the  NCAA championship title in the 100-meter dash. In 2010, she won the  100-meter dash championship at the New England Inter-Collegiate  Amateur Athletic Association meet. She was a 3-time America East  All Conference Indoor athlete and Outdoor Track & Field athlete for all  four years.

David McGinn 

David quarterbacked the Colonels to a SVL  championship and received a Special Team  Award for his punting. In basketball, David  led the SVL in scoring, averaging 21 points  per game with a four-year total of 1,048  points – the third all-time scoring leader  at BUHS. David led his team to a State  Championship pitching and winning all four  play-off games and allowing only 1 earned  run in 26 innings. At graduation he was  awarded the Arthur James Monroe Cup that  is awarded to one who best attains a balance with scholarship and  athletics. He attended the University of Vermont playing baseball and  received the Sunderland Award presented to a student athlete who  has demonstrated a high level of athletic achievement, qualities of  character and leadership. 

Ernie Johnson  

A 1942 graduate of Brattleboro High School,  Ernie Johnson had a tremendous baseball  career. As a high school senior he went  6-3 on the mound, including a 20 strikeout  game and three straight one-hit shutouts. In  addition, he led his team in hitting, batting  .409. He signed a professional contract with  the Boston Braves the summer after high  school and went on to have a solid nine year career in the Major Leagues, including  helping the Milwaukee Braves defeat the  New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series.  After his playing days, Ernie became a renowned TV broadcaster and  executive for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves.

Coach Andrew Natowich 

Coach Natowich served as the Brattleboro  football coach from 1945-1965. During  those 21 seasons, his teams compiled 113  wins and were crowned state champions in  1950, 1953, 1957 and 1965. Also a baseball  coach, his teams enjoyed equal success  on the baseball diamonds, reaching the  state championship games six times, with  titles in 1951, 1956 and 1961. His teams  also reached the 1957, 1958 and 1960  finals. Coach Natowich was inducted into  the College of Holy Cross Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Vermont  Principals Association Hall of Fame in 2015. Beyond starting the  town’s Little League Baseball league and American Legion team, he  also contributed by building athletic fields, including the Small Fry  and Little League fields, the BUHS Baseball & Football fields, and  fields at Living Memorial Park and Fort Dummer. Natowich was also  instrumental in the resurfacing of Art Freeman Track and the efforts to light Natowich Field. 

Peter Faridoni  

Peter was an acclaimed three-sport athlete,  and lettered eleven times while participating  in football, basketball and baseball. Chosen  as a 2nd team all-state quarterback as a  sophomore, Peter was named to the 1st team  as he helped lead the 1950 team to the state  championship. In basketball, he was voted  the most outstanding player in the Southern  Vermont League, finishing second in scoring  as a sophomore, and first in both his junior  and senior seasons, in which he was named  to the all-tournament and was chosen to play in the North-South All  Star basketball game in Murray KY. In baseball, he set a Stolte Field  pitching record for one game, recording 27 strikeouts through 12 1/3  innings pitched, with 20 strikeouts coming in the first nine innings.

Heather Pancake 

During her time at BUHS, Heather  participated and lettered in three varsity  sports, soccer, basketball, and track and  field. During her senior year, she earned  individual state championships in the 300  meter hurdles and heptathlon and in the Vermont Meet of Champions added crowns  in the 100 meter hurdles and javelin. In the  New England Championship, Heather won  the javelin and still holds BUHS records in the 100 meter hurdles and  heptathlon. In college, she was a two-time NCAA Division 3 Champion  in the Heptathlon (1999 and 2000) and was named an All-American  in the 100-meter-high hurdles. Her success extended to basketball,  where she was a four-year starter, participated in the Division 3  playoffs and finished her career scoring 944 points with 692 rebounds.  She was recognized by the College Conference of Wisconsin and  Illinois and made the All-Conference Team. 

Ray Smith  

Ray is arguably the finest running  back in state history, evidenced  by his selection to the Vermont  All-State team for each of his  three varsity seasons, an honor  never before bestowed upon a  sophomore, and was named to  the Vermont Shrine Football team.  His successes extended to the  track oval, where Ray won State  Championships in the 100 and  220 yard sprints as a sophomore and anchored the 4x 100-yard relay  team. His dominance continued as a junior. In the spring of 1965, his  life was lost in a motorcycle accident while on the way to school.

Joe Shield 

A 1980 graduate and Co-Captain on the  1980 Vermont Shrine Football team, Joe  transitioned from BUHS to Worcester  Academy where he was inducted  into the Worcester Academy Athletic  Hall of Fame as both a football and  baseball player. Next, at Trinity College,  Joe excelled by setting many season  and career records, including 476  completions in 845 attempts for 6,646 yards and 52 touchdowns. His  season high marks of 163 completions, 264 attempts, 2,186 yards and  19 TD passes endured as Trinity records for 15 years. In 1983 he was  named the Division 2/3 New England Collegiate Football Offensive  Player of the Year. A Co-Captain for both the football and baseball  teams, Joe was inducted into Trinity’s inaugural Hall of Fame class. His  successes led to an eleventh round selection in the NFL draft pick by  the Green Bay Packers, of which he was a member of the active roster  during 1985 and 1986 seasons. 

Grady Vigneau  

A 1973 graduate from BUHS, Grady  Vigneau excelled as a student-athlete  in both baseball and football. He played  on the winning Vermont squad in the  1973 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl Game.  As a senior, he was awarded the Arthur J  Monroe Cup given by the class of 1901 for  successful participation in major sports and  academics and also received a Sherman  Award. Vigneau continued his football  career at the University of New Hampshire where he excelled as an  offensive tackle in football. A team captain, he was named a 1977  college football All-American and Academic All-American and later  earned induction into the University of New Hampshire Athletic Hall of  Fame. Grady turned down NFL offers to enter the coaching profession,  coaching for 8 years at Boston University and at the University of New  Hampshire before returning to graduate school and earning an MBA  from Columbia University.

Girls’ Varsity Teams – Special Recognition  

This recognition is made to celebrate the history of girls’ sports  teams earning their place in the gyms and on the playing fields at  BUHS. There is no single student-athlete, coach, administrator,  or supporter to whom credit is attributed. The 1967-68 Girls Field  Hockey & Basketball teams were the first official Girls’ Varsity Teams  at Brattleboro Union High School. The Girls Athletic Association was  initiated in 1953, then came of age in the 1960’s. Girls asked for more  competitive sports opportunities including use of gyms & playing  fields, appealing to fellow students, parents, physical education  teachers, school principals, the superintendent & school board. In  1966 extramural Field Hockey and Basketball for girls were added  with an eye to becoming varsity level in the following season. In the  1967-68 school year BUHS officially sanctioned these two teams to  play at the varsity level, Brattleboro preceded the mandate of the 1972  Federal Title IX Education Amendments.

Barb Barrett 

Barb was an accomplished three-sport athlete, graduating from BUHS in 1984. As a field hockey captain, Barrett scored 19 goals in her senior season, a record which stood for 20 years, and earned all-state  recognition. As a basketball team captain and three-year letter winner, she became the school’s first female 1,000-point scorer  and helped lead the team to the school’s only state championship. Named the team’s MVP in both 1982 and 1984, and chosen to represent Vermont in the Alhambra  Basketball Classic, Barb also earned  the status of Carnation Prep All-American and Honorable Mention  Converse All-American in 1984. As a captain of the softball team,  she was a four-year letter winner; MVP as a senior and a member of  the 1983 state championship team. During her four-year career, Barb  struck out only one time while leading the Colonel teams to a record of  59-11. After high school, Barb was talented enough to continue playing  both basketball and softball at Assumption College. In basketball, she  was the first Assumption player to score 300 points in a season (doing  so three times), averaged 15.1 points per game, led the Northeast-10  Conference in three-point accuracy (.488) and finished her career as  the second leading scorer in school history, amassing 1,142 points, to  go along with 241 assists and 173 steals. She was named the team’s  MVP during her senior season. A four-time MVP and first-team all-star  shortstop, Barb was the first softball player with 200 hits in Division II  history, was the school’s career batting leader, team MVP for all four of  her years and was twice named Northeast-10 Player of the Year.