By Christopher Tremblay

On Saturday November 26, the Norwood High School Hall of Fame (HOF), Class of 2022 ceremony will take place 1-3 p.m., at Norwood High School. This year’s class consists of two coaches and 11 individual athletes.

Typically, an athlete has to wait 10 years after their graduation to be eligible for nomination, while coaches have a five-year waiting period since last coaching, and must have been at Norwood for at least two years. Individuals have a better chance of making it into the Hall if they have been named an all-star or a league MVP in their particular sport. It makes it that much easier to be enshrined if they are a State or New England Champion. However, while accolades help, the biggest part of getting into the Norwood HOF is being nominated by someone outside of the committee.

Going in as coaches will be John “Duffy” Doherty and Jack Martinelli. Doherty was the Mustangs head coach during the 1978 and 1980 Super Bowl teams at Norwood, while Martinelli, who was his defensive coordinator during that time, also made a name for himself coaching the track team. At one-point Martinelli’s track teams went an incredible 60-6 and captured a number of Bay State League Championships; he also coached a lot of athletes that went on to become State Champions in their individual events.

“These two were a pair and it’s good to see them going into the Hall of Fame together,” Brain McDonough, President of the Norwood H.O.F. said. “They were one of the greatest coaching duos in the state during their time together.”

Martinelli is also a Hall of Famer at Milton High School, Northeastern University, and Foxboro High School, where he is currently coaching, and now Norwood.

Nine individual athletes ranging over a 46-year period (1965–2011) will have their names etched into Norwood lore as they are entering the hallowed halls.

The elder statesman of the group is Thomas Smelstor (class of 1965). The three-year starting goalie for the hockey team will join his sister Cathy (softball) in Norwood immortality. Smelstor, who taught at Norwood High and coached the girl’s hockey and cross-country teams, was nicknamed Mr. Zero for posting nine shutouts his senior campaign.

Steven Salvatore (1979) will receive his induction posthumous, having passed away in 2010. Salvatore, who was part of the 1979 Super Bowl team, was a defensive back for the Mustangs and later went on to play at the University of Colorado under Chuck Fairbanks (a former New England Patriots Coach).

The class of 1986 will see two athletes, Robert Goonan and Kevin Keegan, enter the HOF. this fall. Goonan played baseball and basketball for Norwood while also taking the field for the Norwood Legion team during the summer. Keegan played football but was best known for his wrestling prowess where he was a New England Wrestling Champion and finished second in the State Tournament.

Stephen Grenham (1991) has found himself in the HOF cue for some time and is a principal in the Medfield school system. He was a three-sport athlete participating in golf, basketball, and baseball, where he captained each team. He went on to have an incredible baseball career at Brandeis University where he holds the school record for most assists in a single game.

Andrew McNulty (2003) was a two-time Bay State League All Star and MVP pitching for the baseball team and had himself an extraordinary senior campaign. He would follow his career at Norwood by going to Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) and Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.

Rounding out the Class of 2022 is a three-some, Lauren Duggan, Ali Maloof, and Cory Ryan, all who graduated in 2011.

“You really don’t see this; three individuals from the same class going into the Hall of Fame together too often,” McDonough said. “As the Athletic Director at Norwood, I got to watch all three of their careers blossom.”

Duggan and Maloof were softball pitches and both hurlers went an incredible 10-0 during their senior seasons. 

“Its hard to have one pitcher go 10-0, but to have two is really special,” the former Norwood AD said.

Duggan, who was a New England Shot Put Champion while at Norwood, went on to coach at Nobel and Greenough, a private school in Dedham. In addition to softball, Maloof was a three-sport athlete who also ran cross country and played girls ice hockey. According to McDonough, Maloof reminded him of Bobby Orr, the Bruins great defenseman, as she was able to take the puck from end to end with lightning speed.

Last but not least, Ryan will be joining her sister Taylor, who ran track, in Norwood history. Ryan was a State Champion in both the 200 and 300 and according to McDonough was a one-woman wrecking crew on the soccer field. She would later play at the University of Maryland.