Class of 2013

 
Jeff Davis Pic

JEFF DAVIS, Class of 1990

One of the great arms in Durfee baseball’s impressive history, Davis was exceptional and consistent in his two-year varsity career. As a junior, the righthander posted a 6-3 record with a 1.38 ERA and 65 strikeouts and 19 walks in 50 2/3 innings pitched. As a senior, he was 8-3 with a 1.45 ERA and 86 strikeouts and 2 walks in a remarkable 72 innings pitched. An infielder when not pitching, Davis batted .329 and .333 in his two years.

After helping Spindle City to a runnerup finish in American Legion Baseball in the summer of 1990, Davis embarked on a brilliant two-year career at Masssasoit Community College, leading MCC to its first NJCAA World Series championship in 1992.

At that World Series, Davis earned the W in three of his team’s four wins. He was 9-1 in both years, batted .329 as a freshman, and was named first team all-American as a sophomore.

A 28th-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 1993, Davis embarked on an impressive five-year pro career ultimately ended by shoulder injury (four surgeries). He was the Rangers’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 1993 when he went a combined 13-7 with a 2.77 ERA for Single A Port Charlotte and Double A Tulsa.

The year before, Davis had fanned 72 batters in 49 2/3 innings. In 1996, he was placed on the Rangers’ 40-man roster and attended big league spring training, where he worked a scoreless inning against the Yankees.
A resident of Somerset, Davis is married to the former Kathryn Sullivan. In 1999 he joined the Sullivan family business, the Waring-Sullivan Funeral Homes. He has three daughters, Julia Rose, Margaret Mary and Annie Kathryn.


Nancy Hargraves Pic

NANCY JANE HARGRAVES, Class of 1986

A four-year member of the swimming and diving team, her specialty was the 100-yard backstroke and she went undefeated in that event in all conference and dual meets for all four years. She qualified for both the South Sectional and State meets for all four years, winning the sectionals as a junior and taking fifth All State the same year.

 As part of Durfee’s exceptional 200-yard medley relay team, Hargraves helped the Hilltoppers to first place in the South in 1983 and third place in ’82. At the State Meet, she helped the Toppers to place fourth in 1983. A leader and mentor for other swimmers, she and teammate Nancy Kitchen were virtual swimmer/coaches in 1985.

Outside of Durfee, Hargraves was also very competitive and successful. She twice (1982, 1984) qualified for the National AAU competition in Florida, swimming against the best competition in the country.


Ron Ferreira Pic

RONNIE FERREIRA, Class of 1994

One of the great runners (cross-country and track) in Durfee history, Ferreira excelled from the start of his career and finished with 15 varsity letters, more than 40 school (class and overall) records, and was eight times all-scholastic for both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald.

In cross country, Ferreira was runnerup in the state his senior year. He won the City Companionships three straight years (setting course records at all three schools) and took first place at the State Coaches Meet three straight years.

As a senior he also won the prestigious Catholic Memorial Invitational.
He set course records at Durfee, Diman, Bishop Connolly, Somerset, Brockton, New Bedford (Buttonwood Park), Bishop Feehan and Dighton-Rehoboth high schools. His school record time on his home course beat the record set by New Bedford running legend Joe Correia.

With two seasons to do track each year, Ferreira continued to pile up the notable accomplishments. Perhaps the most notable of those, at least to old-time Durfee athletics followers, came in Ferreira’s junior year when he ran an outdoor mile in 4:29 to break Art McAndrew’s 4:32 school record set 31 years earlier. Ferreira already had a 4:29 indoor mile to his credit, an effort which helped to earn him an invitation to that year’s Top 12 New England Milers meet at Harvard, where he took third place.

He broke his own record the next year with a 4:26. Ferreira is also the school record holder in the two miles (9:16). Ferreira did not run outdoor track his senior year. All of Ferreira’s track record still stand and many of his cross country marks do also.

A resident of Fall River, Ferreira works as a managing partner for JD Byrider in Boston. He has a wife, Maria, and three children, Joshua, Maria, and Amanda.


Dan LePage Pic

DAN LePAGE, Class of 1996

With LePage, it wasn’t a matter of if he would land in the Durfee HOF, it was question of when. That time has come for one of Durfee’s all-time great wrestlers.

 Winning 100 matches in a career is a rarity. LePage reached that plateau just five matches into his senior year, and with a career record of 144-18, he is the winningest wrestler in Durfee history. LePage shone from the start, posting a 23-6 record as a freshman. In his career, he twice won a Division 1 South title and twice took third place at the All State Tournament.

The list of his other accomplishments – as a senior he wrestled at the very competitive 152 pounds – include twice winning the prestigious Marshfield Holiday Invitational Tournament and a third place at the New England Championships. His 40 wins as a junior included 30 pins.

Outside the halls of Durfee, LePage was a two-time USA Wrestling Freestyle state champion, a Bay State Games gold medalist and Bay State Games two-time bronze medalist.

After graduating from Durfee, LePage wrestled for Syracuse University, where was a three-time team MVP. These days LePage is the owner/head wrestling coach of Clinch MMA in the city. He also co-hosts the K.O. radio show.


Kathy Attar Pic

KATHERINE ATTAR, Class of 1994

Attar makes an unprecedented second-year-in-a-row appearance in the list of individual inductees. It all has to do with motherhood. Selected for induction in 2012, Attar was unable to make the trip from Maryland due to the impending birth of her child.

The plan is to make it this year. She was a three-sport (volleyball, basketball, softball) star at Durfee and followed with a superb volleyuball career at Holy Cross.

She was a potent middle hitter and blocker in volleyball. In basketball, she gave Durfee a big, athletic presence in the middle, a shot blocker with a very soft shooting touch. In softball she hit for power and average and, arguably, was the best defensive first baseman in school history. Her long reach and deft footwork saved many an otherwise errant throw.


Special Inductee

Jim Wilcox Pic

JIM WILCOX

He was a name, a face synonymous with Durfee High School. A 1959 graduate, Wilcox competed in track and football. He returned to Durfee in the early 1970s to start a near four-decade career as a social studies teacher. Though he retired as a teacher in 2006, Wilcox remained very attached to Durfee until his death in 2012. One of the areas first distance running coaches, he coached both cross country and track and field at Durfee, mentoring Dave Ozug and Steve Gardiner, who themselves would go on to great coaching success.

 When his coaching days were complete, Wilcox devoted his significant energy and unique brand of intelligent enthusiasm to his part-time career of sporting event officiating. He refereed basketball, officiated football, and became a nationally recognized track and field official.

And while his experience and skill as a track and field official landed him assignments at events as big as the U.S. Olympic Trials (2004, 2008), he never lost his passion for working the local high school events on those cold, windy April days outdoors or those long indoor meets at Durfee High School, the ones that stretched close to 10 p.m.

Wilcox was known for being the last to leave the Urban Field House after those indoor events, making sure every student athlete had a ride home. Wilcox was not only a teacher and mentor, he was a fountain of information. He was long known as the go-to guy for any questions about Durfee athletics history, sports rules and interpretations, and history in general. “If you wore the red and black,” retired Durfee trainer Paul Peloquin said, “Jim was invested in your success. Induction as an official may be unprecedented for the Hall of Fame but the duration and passion of Jim accomplishments in this role merits it.”