Donna W. Dearborn 1971
Donna Dearborn’s sports achievements at Brattleboro Union High School were also the first steps of a lifelong commitment to physical well-being, fitness, and athletic adventures that can be found on local sports fields and in the great outdoors all over the world.
Lettering in five different sports at BUHS, Dearborn was co-captain and leading scorer in her junior and senior years on the varsity field hockey teams in 1970 and 1971. She was two-year co-captain on the tennis team and was undefeated at No. 1 singles and doubles as a junior and senior. She also played two years of varsity basketball and was co-captain and leading scorer in her junior year. She was on the ski team as a freshman and senior and vaulted on the gymnastics team for one year. She won the Sherman Award for Athletic Excellence and the Achievement and Service Cup in Physical Education in 1971.
Her athletic success continued at Springfield College, where she was a four-year varsity field hockey player and two-year co-captain. Her teams went undefeated in her junior and senior years, and she was twice named to the Northeast Field Hockey Association All-Star Team in the National Tournament and was captain of the All-Star Team. She won the Maroon Award and Scholar Athlete Award for her field hockey performance at Springfield. She also played on the Springfield College tennis team for one year.
And she was just getting started. An accomplished tennis player, she won multiple Brattleboro Outing Club singles and doubles championships and won the 1970 Marion Wilson Memorial Award to the junior player exhibiting sportsmanship, good will and love of the game. In 1976, she was ranked No. 2 in New England B Tennis and played in tournaments far and wide.
A committed runner, she participated in multiple marathons, half-marathons and other long-distance races and track meets. She was the women’s winner in 54 races, and her age-group winner in 98 races. She ran the Boston Marathon twice and took first place in the 1984 National Master’s Indoor Track Championships. She also competed in cross country ski races, and completed the Catamount Trail, skiing the length of Vermont in March of 2013.
Her outdoor adventures, no doubt inspired by her father Frank, also include extensive hiking accomplishments including the Long Trail End-to-End and most of New England’s high peaks. She has also tackled trails, treks and peaks in New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, Peru, Patagonia, Indonesia and Malaysia. Her adventures include sea kayaking and canoeing, as well.
Her commitment to athletics and fitness extends to her professional life, which includes graduate degrees in exercise physiology, and stints as a tennis professional, tennis coach at BUHS, field hockey coach, fitness trainer, ski instructor and Outward Bound instructor.