NEWBURYPORT — Standing in the Newburyport High School hallway just outside of the gymnasium, waiting to see his Wall of Fame plaque get unveiled alongside so many legendary figures, Joe Pace basically summed up what thousands of kids who have walked those same halls across the decades have dreamed of.
“I think a lot about how, growing up, this Wall specifically was a huge deal for me,” smiled Pace (NHS ‘06). “It used to be outside, and I remember looking at all of the old-school plaques and being like … ‘Maybe one day.’”
Well, “one day” actually came for Pace and five others.
On Thursday night, the Newburyport Wall of Fame committee inducted its six-person Class of 2025. For the first time there was an unveiling of the plaques along the renovated Wall in the High School, followed by a ceremony held at the Newburyport Elks where the six honorees were officially inducted. Pace was joined by Kevin Hale, Kyle Kravchuk, Jason Beauparlant, Don Hennigar and Margaret Frash Pflugh as the latest to be forever enshrined in Clipper glory.
And as always, it’s a class of heavy hitters.
A two-sport athlete who excelled in basketball and baseball during his Newburyport tenure, Pace was our Daily News Baseball MVP and the Cape Ann League MVP in 2006, who would go on to have a successful four-year career at Bowdoin College. Funny enough, the now-West Newbury resident actually got a little early tip that he might be part of this year’s class from his brother, Richard, who is an English teacher at Newburyport High.
But truly, the word of the night was easy to spot: Connections.
Perhaps none more so than with Frash-Pflugh (NHS ‘03), who got inducted to the Wall by her former coach, Hennigar, who then turned around and got inducted himself. Frash-Pflugh remains incredibly modest, and gave plenty of credit to her former teammate Molly Landreth, who was inducted to the Wall as part of the 2022 class. But Frash-Pflugh (NHS ‘03) is certainly deserving as a former 12-season varsity athlete who competed in soccer, cross country and track. She was a CAL All-League runner in track as a Clipper, and would go on to both serve and have a highly-successful track career in the Air Force.
“I ran with Molly Landreth, and she was phenomenal,” said Frash-Pflugh. “She’s been up on that Wall for a couple years. I didn’t really care about the glory back then, it was just fun. But we had some awesome teammates. And (Hennigar) was an awesome coach.”
The feeling from her coach is mutaul: “It’s awesome to be able to go in with Margaret,” said Hennigar. “She’s the third of our distance runner girls that will be up there. It’s going to be a special night to get inducted, and then induct her right after.”
And almost 40 years later, Hennigar is still doing it.
The highly-successful varsity boys and girls cross country coach — along with being an assistant track coach during both seasons — has already been inducted into the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame. This fall, Hennigar’s boys cross country team won its eighth straight CAL Kinney title, while his girls team won its fourth straight.
“It’s been 40 years,” laughed Hennigar. “It’s funny, there was a longtime coach, Joe Casey, he used to coach at Masconomet, and one time I was talking with one of the other coaches and I said, ‘How old is Joe now?’ and they told me, ‘He’s 70,’ and I was probably 60 at the time. I said to myself, there’s no way I’m coaching when I’m 70.
“Well, I’m 73 now and here I am!”
But the connections didn’t stop there.
For Hale (NHS ‘00), getting inducted meant joining his father, Bill Hale, who was a member of the 1999 Wall of Fame class. But the younger Hale is certainly deserving, as a three-sport athlete who was a CAL All-League football player and Newburyport Daily News All-Around Athlete award winner. He was a member of the 1997 Newburyport football team that won the Division 4 Super Bowl, and then a member of the State Championship-winning basketball team of 2000.
“It means a lot,” said Hale. “My dad is on the wall, so it means a lot to me to kind of carry the torch, so to say. It’s a great honor, and I’m super humbled to be associated with this group going in. It’s a lot of great people.”
Then’s there’s Beauparlant (NHS ‘86), who joins his brother and Newburyport hockey legend Jed Beauparlant on the Wall. But Jason Beauparlant is quite the influential Newburyport sports figure himself, who came back to town after working for the Buffalo Bills in their stregth and conditioning department in the late-90s. He was Newburyport’s first strength and conditioning coach, along with being a football coach and physical education teacher. He created the lifting program for both the male and female athletes, and also helped to renovate the weight room into the state-of-the-art facility it remains today — rivaling Division I college weight rooms.
“It started with just the football team, and it kind of morphed into every team, male and female,” said Beauparlant. “It kind of just took off and everyone bought in, because there was really no strength programs back in the late-90s. Everyone was sort of doing their own thing, nobody knew what to do. So I’m very happy with how successful it turned out for both the male and female athletes.”
And finally, Kravchuk (NHS ‘85) was a three-sport athlete who played football, hockey and ran track during his Newburyport days. He was a CAL All-Star in both football and hockey, and for the past 21 years, he’s been the Associate Director of Athletics/Ticket Operations at the University of Connecticut.
“I was just so fortunate to play with great teammates and great coaches,” said Kravchuk. “I played under Coach Stehlin and Coach Kolman, and they were just legendary coaches. And they were inspiring for me when I was a kid. So I consider myself really, really fortunate.”