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Canton’s Norland selected to be inducted in CT Field Hockey Hall of Fame

Anna Norland (31) fights for the ball in the 1993 Class S semifinals against Valley Regional.

Canton’s Anna Norland (31) fights for the ball in the 1993 Class S semifinals against Valley Regional.

CANTON – Former Canton High field hockey star Anna Norland will be one seven women to be inducted in the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame on Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Aquaturf in Southington.

Norland will become the third woman with Canton connections to be inducted in the Hall of Fame. She will join former teammate Erin (Murphy) DuFresne and her former coach Nancy Grace.

Other women who will be inducted into the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame with Norland are Mimi Duran, the long-time Wamogo, Cheshire and Ethel Walker School coach (high school coach), Pam (Sproull) Hammersmith, the long-time Simsbury and Windsor High coach (high school player, pre 1990) who played under Hall of Fame coach Dot Johnson at Granby High, Erica H. Johnston of Enfield (high school player, post 1990), Laura Thibodeau of Pomperaug (high school player, post 1990), Noya Boyer (umpire) and Kathy Walling (honorary), the long-time coach at Hall in West Hartford.

Established in 1999, the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame recognizes those who have contributed to the enhancement of field hockey in the state through participation, support, service or achievement. Tickets are $50 each. Deadline to order tickets is Sept. 16.

Norland, who is currently a chemistry teacher at Northwestern Regional in Barkhamsted, is being inducted in the college player category. She played at Trinity College in Hartford from 1994 to 1997 and scored 30 goals with 26 assists in her career for 86 points, good enough for No. 11 in Bantam history. Her most successful season in terms of points came in 1996 when she had 12 goals and 10 assists.

Norland helped Trinity to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament in 1996 and 1997. In her senior season (1997), the Bantams went undefeated in the regular season at 14-0 and went 1-1 in the NCAA Division III tournament.

At Canton, Norland had an outstanding field hockey career. She helped Canton win two Class S championships in 1991 and 1992 with a pair of undefeated (19-0) seasons. She scored 79 goals with 24 assists in her high school career for 184 points. That is No. 2 on the Canton career scoring list behind Erin (Murphy) DuFresne with 107 goals and 14 assists. Norland graduated from Canton in June 1994.

Duran has been coaching field hockey in Connecticut for over 30 years. She spent 12 years at Wamogo, leading the Warriors to six Berkshire League championships and appearances in the Class S semifinals, losing each time in OT. Duran coached at Cheshire and led the Rams to the Class L championship game in 2005.

She has been at Simsbury’s Ethel Walker School since 2007 and has led Ethel Walker to a Western New England championship in 2010 and seven Connecticut Independent School Athletic Council titles.

Before Hammersmith was coaching at Simsbury and Windsor, she was a player at Granby High. In the fall of 1973, she was the senior captain of a Bears team that went 14-0-3 and won the first CIAC field hockey state championship with a 2-1, double OT win over Guilford on a field in the shadow of Yale Bowl in New Haven.

Hammersmith had an assist on Granby’s first goal with 14 minutes remaining in the game. The win enabled Granby to extend its unbeaten string to 50 games, snapping the previous record of 46 unbeaten games by Farmington in the late 1960s.

In 1973, the tournament was a single open tournament for schools of all sizes from across the state. Thirty-eight teams participated in the first tournament. At Granby in 1973, Hammersmith was a center halfback. Not only did she play defense but she had her opportunities to score. She had a game-winning goal in a 2-1 win over Canton and three goals in a 3-2 win over Fermi.

There was no All-State teams in 1973 but Hammersmith was named to the All-Valley team by the Farmington Valley Herald, which covered state qualifying teams from Granby, Simsbury, Avon, Canton and Lewis Mills.

Hammersmith coached 21 years at Simsbury High, won more than 300 games, 18 league championships and four state tournaments. She retired but couldn’t step away from the game and has been coaching at Windsor High for several years now.

Johnston was an All-American field hockey player at Enfield High (1991-95) and at the University of Massachusetts (1995-99). She scored 78 goals at Enfield and led the Raiders to three state championships. At UMass, she was a two-time All-American in 1997 and 1998 and finished her career with 48 goals and 107 points.

Thibodeau was a standout player at Pomperaug and went on to play four years for UConn, where she was a three-year starter on defense and a member of three NCAA Tournament teams in 2000, 2002 and 2003.

Walling was recently inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She coached field hockey for 13 years at Hall and was the CHSCA field hockey coach of the year in 2002. She led the Warriors to a pair of CCC West titles in 1997 and 2003.

To order tickets for the banquet, mail your request and check to Terri Ziemnicki, 2 Halwood Drive, Granby, 06035 by Sept. 16. Please make your check payable to CHSCA-CFHHF. If you have further questions, please email [email protected].

 

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 30 years.

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