COLCHESTER — Former Mount Abraham Union High School multi-sport all-star and University of New Hampshire standout hockey player Carol Weston, now a soccer and hockey referee, was picked last week as one of the 10 newest members of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.
The Vermont Sports Hall of Fame announced its eighth group of inductees during a Jan. 29 news conference at Saint Michael’s College.
The other inductees are cross country and track star Tara Chaplin of Middlesex, former UVM hockey coach Jim Cross, former BFA-St. Albans hockey player and coach Toby Ducolon, South Burlington gymnastics champion Debbie Dunkley, Olympic ski jumper Jeff Hastings of Norwich, basketball players Ed Hockenbury of Northfield and Sarah Schreib of East Fairfield, golf pro and basketball player Libby Smith of Essex, and golfer Thomas Pierce of Rutland.
Complete bios of the inductees are available online at vermontsportshall.com.
The class will be formally inducted at the 2020 Vermont Sports Hall of Fame dinner at the Delta Marriott Burlington Hotel on Williston Road in South Burlington on April 25.
This year’s class brings membership in the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame to 97 since its first class was inducted in 2012. The hall’s 15-member board of directors, a statewide sports advisory panel, and the previous inductees selected this year’s inductees.
Weston becomes to first female hockey player inducted into the hall. She went from Bristol to star for a top NCAA Division I program. Weston was a four-year regular on defense for UNH (1987-91), and she helped lead UNH to ECAC titles as a junior and a senior. Weston also played soccer at UNH and was a championship thrower on the Wildcat track and field team.
At Mount Abraham, Weston was a tremendous all-around athlete, including starring in boys’ soccer. She also was a state champion in the discus, shot put and javelin, and twice won the New England discus title.
Weston was an assistant women’s hockey coach at Middlebury College and then Cornell for seven years, and then served as the Big Red head coach for four seasons (1998-2002), becoming the first Vermonter to become a Division I head hockey coach.