DaShena Stevens has achieved success at every level academically and athletically, from her career as a member of the women’s basketball team at St. John’s University, where she gained entry into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame, to her current position as deputy athletic director at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

Angela Mele-Craig is Western Connecticut State University’s all-time leading scorer and a member of the school’s athletic hall of fame and that’s only the beginning of an extraordinary career in which Mele-Craig led the Colonials to the postseason in all four seasons and to three consecutive Division III NCAA tournament appearances.

Long before the gymnasium at Bacon Academy was named in his honor, Dave Shea was a proud graduate of the school and its first 1,000-point scorer in boys’ basketball. Shea, still a resident of Colchester, went on to honor his alma mater by winning 778 games and three state championships over 49 seasons coaching first the boys’ basketball team, then the girls.

Roger Gautrau is a referee, but could very well double as a historian. Gautrau’s estimable career with the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials has spanned 52 seasons, from 1972 to the present, and he has officiated a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference state tournament game for 45 consecutive seasons, including 29 state championship games.

Not long after the implementation of Title IX, propelling the growth of women’s sports, Sandra Hamm provided one of the building blocks to history, serving as the first head coach of the 11-time national champion University of Connecticut women’s basketball program.

Symone Roberts made such an impression in her career at New Britain High School that she was named to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference All-Century Team in 2020 as one of the top 25 girls’ basketball players in the state’s rich history.