The athletic complex at Canton High will be renamed Nancy Grace Memorial Stadium.
Canton’s Board of Selectmen recently approved official names for three key athletic facilities on the Canton High and Canton Middle School campus, honoring individuals and groups who have made a lasting impact on the school’s athletic legacy and the Canton community, according to a news release from Jordan Grossman, Superintendent of Schools in Canton.
The main stadium at Canton High will be named the Nancy Grace Memorial Stadium in recognition to Grace’s outstanding contributions to the Canton school community as a teacher, athletic director and legendary field hockey and softball coach.
The turf field inside Nancy Grace Stadium will be recognized as Legends Field, honoring legendary coaches who have served in the Canton athletic program throughout the years.
The upper grass field behind Nancy Grace Stadium will be named deSimas Field in honor of Catherine T. deSimas, who served on the Canton Board of Education for 26 years from 1973-99.
The date and time for the formal dedications have yet to be determined.
Grace, 65, passed away last October. She was part of the Canton school system for decades.
In field hockey, she had tremendous success in 20 years as the head coach, winning 295 games, 11 league championships and eight Class S state championships from 1985 to 2004. Her teams played in the finals 11 times and she was finalist for the National High School Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award in 2000.
In softball, she coached from 1990-99, leading the Warriors to seven NCCC championships and a Class S state title in 1991, the school’s first state title in the sport. She served as athletic director from 2005-10 and coached the girls golf team for a few seasons.
Legends Field will allow the community to recommend past and current Canton High School head coaches to be honored and recognized for their dedication and skill.
Nominations will be reviewed by a committee on following key criteria: coaching legacy, student and community impact, professional conduct, lasting influence and cultural contribution.
Coaches selected to be honored will have their names placed on a plaque located at Legends Field to honor the dedication, leadership, and mentorship that generations of coaches have provided to student-athletes throughout the school’s history.
The practice field behind the turf field at Canton High will be renamed deSimas Field. This photo is from a 2016 football practice.
In 1999, the school dedicated a practice field to Catherine deSimas upon her retirement from Board of Education. But that field was torn up in 2013 when the turf field was built and the parking lot was reconfigured.
The newly-named deSimas Field was the home of the football program beginning in 2007 until the turf field was completed. In the 1980s and 1990s, the field was the home field for the field hockey program.
Editor’s note: Yes. Cathy deSimas is the mother of the author, who was one of five children that Cathy and her late husband, Gerry, raised in Collinsville.
