GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

12 Littleville Road Huntington, MA 01050

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Wendy V. Long, Public Relations

(413) 685-1003

Pruner, Farrell into Gateway Athletic Hall of Fame

Huntington – J. J. Pruner (Class of 2001) and Mike Farrell (Class of 2002) were inducted into the Gateway Athletic Hall of Fame at the Annual Sports Banquet on June 2nd at Tekoa Country Club.

The event also honored the current Gateway Regional High School athletes from all three sports seasons. In addition to announcing each team and reviewing each team’s accomplishments for the year, the All League and All Scholastic teams were announced. Senior Kirsten Huff (alpine skiing) and Junior Erica Mason (soccer) received their awards for being named Athletes of the week by the Republican Newspapers and Channel 22 news. The girls varsity soccer team also received warmups embroidered with their names, Western Massachusetts Championship and State Runners-Up honors.

Senior athletes earning scholarships from the Gateway Athletic Club were also announced, and included: Sarah Boylan, Steven Ellershaw, Trevor Hamel, Jessica Hopson, Kirsten Huff, Emily Lak, Emma Long, Tyler Main, Kelly McCarthy, Moira Pieciak and Joe Simonowicz.

The event began with a buffet dinner and the viewing of the annual sports highlights film compiled by students John Hughes, Sean Cook, parent Bill Hughes, and Athletic Director Gary St.Peter. The film was a moving tribute to all of this year’s athletic teams.

Retired teacher Kenneth Barrows returned to emcee the event. Barrows announced the highlights of the 2009-10 sports seasons, including: the boys soccer team earning runners up in the Western Mass Championship; the girls soccer team earning runners up in the State Championship; both Cross Country teams having winning seasons (7 – 4 for each team); the gymnastics team wining a dual meet against Division I schools; girls basketball finishing first in their league; boys basketball and girls softball teams more than doubled their wins from the previous year; Chase LaDue qualifying for the state tournament in wrestling; boys alpine skiing taking 1st place in the South Division; girls alpine skier Kirsten Huff finishing first in the league for the fourth consecutive year—a feat never accomplished before by a girl in the PVIAC—and taking 2nd at the state championship; and the boys baseball team qualifying for the Western Mass tournament this year. In addition to announcing the highlights of each sports season, Barrows also introduced the evening’s inductees.

J. J. Pruner was a member of the cross country and basketball teams in each of his four years at Gateway Regional High School. In his junior year of cross country, JJ finished 11th at the Western Mass Championships and 65th in the State Championship meet. In his senior year, the team had a 14-3 record, earning 2nd place in their league. JJ finished 11th at Western Mass and 27th (out of 130 runner) at the State meet. JJ served as Co-Captain of the team in his junior and senior years and was named to the All Western Mass Team in all four years of high school. Former running coach Jack Fabella reported that, when he retired after 30 years of coaching cross country, he selected a 10-member All Star team from his coaching career, and JJ had ranked 7th on that team.

Pruner also played basketball for four years. As point guard, JJ averaged 17 pts/game the year the team became Bi-County Division Champions. In their quarter final bid for the Western Mass Championship that year, he scored 31 points with 12 rebounds. JJ was named to the All Western Mass. Division III Team in his senior year at Gateway. JJ Pruner went on to attend Roger Williams University, where he continued to run cross country. At Roger Williams, JJ was named to the Commonwealth Coast Conference All Star Team in all four years, and led his team to the League Championship all four years. Pruner currently lives in Boston where he works for Healthcare Management Systems.

Mike Farrell was a three-sport athlete in all four years at Gateway, competing in soccer, basketball and baseball each year. He was Co-Captain of each team in his senior year. In soccer, Mike was named to the All League and All Western Mass teams in his junior and senior years, was nominated for All State honors in his senior year, and was the Team’s leading scorer in both his junior and senior years. In basketball, Mike was an All League and All Western Mass selection in his senior year, averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds a game. He finished the year with 282 points and over 60 steals on the court.

Baseball was the sport that Farrell truly excelled in. He was an All League selection in all four years, and an All Western Mass selection in his last three years. As a senior, Mike led Gateway to its first Western Mass Division II Baseball Championship, and was named the Springfield Republican’s Athlete of the Week as a result. He was also named to the All State team and was the only Division III player in the Massachusetts vs. Connecticut game at Fenway Park.

Farrell attended Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, where he was on their Division II baseball team all four years. In his freshman and senior years, he pitched on teams that finished in 3rd place in the Division II College World Series. He now works as a freelance TV cameraman, doing work for ESPN, CBS and Sky Sports, among others.

In accepting his award, Mike thanked the booster To see you in the stands or hear your voices from the crowd gave me that little extra I needed on the field.”

The Gateway Athletic Booster Club hosted the all-sports banquet, which they established in 2002. Officers Joe Simonowicz and Deb Lariviere assisted Barrows in the emcee honors. They also raffled off numerous items to the high school athletes at the conclusion of the event.

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District telephone: (413) 685-1000 Fax: (413) 667-8739