PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The CIAO Soccer Hall of Fame induction and scholarship banquet was held on Thursday, May 8, at Berkshire Hills Country Club in Pittsfield.

 

The 2025 inductees were honored, and 21 scholarships were presented to one boy and one girl senior soccer player from each high school in the county (chosen by their high school coaches).   

 

Committee Chairmen Al Belanger and Patrick West introduced inductees and scholarship winners at the event. The nomination committee included, in addition to Belanger and West, Chris Dumas and Richard Asher. Marisa Andrews led the banquet committee and Nikki O’Neil was the architect of the booklet.

 

Sweatshirts to each of the scholarship winners were provided by AtoZ Lettering, operated by Mark and Jeff Reynolds.   

 

Class of 2025 CIAO Soccer Hall of Fame: 

 

Bob Berube  

 

 Bob Berube was a strong soccer player in Wahconah Regional High School’s Class of 1967 and he went on to be a four-year starter in college. However, he is going into the Hall of Fame as an official in the county for the past 33 years. He has been a referee at every level from U10s, to state final high school games, to college games, and to officiating adult league soccer.  Clearly, he is widely known and respected for his ability to handle officiating. In addition, he continues to be an active skier, biker, and lacrosse official.  

 

He was a teacher in the Central Berkshire Regional School District for many years.  

 

Rex Green  

 

Rex Green has been an outstanding soccer player his whole life. He was named to the All-Coaches team, the All-Eagle Team and to the All-Western Mass teams in high school despite having a season ending eye injury his senior year. He was the league’s leading scorer at the time. In addition to being one of the county’s best soccer players in the 1970s (PHS Class of 1978) and as a DI player at Brown University, he has continued to play competitive soccer even today.  

 

Rex lives with his wife, Lisa, in Winchester, Mass., and in Little Compton, R.I. He has three grown children and has worked in finance his whole career. 

 

John Haddad 

 

John Haddad (PHS Class of 1982) was a renowned player in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and he received praise from his teammates for being one of the best “team” players they ever had.  Hadard received the accolades that earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame (All Berkshire and All-Western Mass selections), and he went on to play college soccer at Western New England for 4 years as a starter and captain.  

 

He is co-owner of Haddad Rugs and has continued to play in the Over-40 soccer league. He is also the running/walking coach at Canyon Ranch. He plays in two bands (Williams College Flatbed Jazz Band and Wednesday’s Child) which raise funds for various charities in the area.  

 

Tony DeMartino 

 

Tony DeMartino is a rarity in Berkshire County soccer. His first game in goal his senior year (PHS 1983) was the first competitive soccer game he ever played. More remarkably, he went on to be named Berkshire County’s best goalie on the Coaches’ All-County team that year. He also went on to become an excellent college player at Union College.  

 

He is a well-known and respected physical therapist in Berkshire County and has been active in the community as a volunteer on the Pittsfield Parks Commission, Rotary, Unico, and as president and coach in youth baseball. He also was a volleyball official in the 1996 Olympics and in the NCAA for 18 years.  

 

Brian Farley 

 

Brian Farley (Wahconah 1985) was inducted into the CIAO Soccer Hall of Fame as one of the best officials in the county for many years. And, like Bob Berube, he was also a superb player in high school and college. He made the All North and All Berkshire Teams in high school and then went on to play soccer for four years at Bridgewater State. Farley referees for all the right reasons as he feels a need to give back to the game he has been involved with his whole life.  He has done the most important games in the county for many years. He also has been an official at every level from U10, high school, college and adult leagues.   

 

Farley has been a youth and high school coach in various sports for many years and has served on youth boards for over 25 years. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Dalton with their two children. He has a managerial position at Crane Co in Dalton.  

 

Mark Girard 

 

In the 1995 state semi-final game, Mark Girard (Mount Greylock 1996) scored the winning goal late in the game to propel his team to the state title game. He then went on in the next game to score the winning goal in “Golden Goal” time with only seconds remaining to give his team the state championship. He was known as a player with skill, great field sense, and over-all high soccer IQ. For these and many other reasons, Mark was named to the All Berkshire, All-Western Mass, and All-State teams. (He was chosen for the state baseball team as well.)  

 

He is currently a VP with Fisher Investments and lives with his wife, Lynn, in New Hampshire.  

 

Kate Simonelli Hastings 

 

Kate Simonelli Hastings (Taconic 2005) was the leading scorer on her JV soccer team when she was called up to the varsity and, “of course”, she was placed in the goal. She responded by making 21 saves against Ludlow in her first game and 24 saves against Mount Greylock soon after. She served as a captain for Taconic her senior year and was also named to the All-Berkshire team. In college she was a walk-on her sophomore year and earned the starting position for three years and won the ‘Coach’s Award’ her senior year. 

 

She is still involved with soccer as a coach in the YMCA leagues. She also volunteers for many charitable fund-raising and community events with UNICO. She works as a case manager with Soldier On in Eastern NY and lives in Pittsfield with her husband Justin, and her two children.  

 

Jared Dodge 

 

In the mid 2000s, Jared Dodge (Wahconah 2007) was one of the premier defenders in Western Massachusetts for three years. His teams won Berkshire County and Western Mass during his time and as a sweeper his teams consistently allowed the fewest goals in the county. He was skilled, strong, smart, and fast and he never came out of the game. Opposing teams could rarely figure out how to get the ball past him.   

 

Dodge graduated from Wahconah in 2007 and from RIT in 2012 with his master’s degree in mechanical engineering. He is currently working at General Dynamics with Electric Boat on submarine design. He now enjoys watching his budding soccer star son take up the game.   He lives with his wife, Becky, and his two children in Niantic, Conn.  

 

Matt Begrowicz 

 

Matt Begrowicz was a multi-sport star athlete at St. Joseph's High School (201z3) (He was well-known in the state for his basketball skills as well as in soccer.) In soccer Begrowicz had 28 goals his senior year and most were in big games. Through that season, opposing coaches were quoted often in the paper commenting that Begrowicz was the one player they had to contain. It didn’t work very well, because he scored two goals a game on average. As a result, he was named to the All-Berkshire and All Western Mass teams twice in two years.  

 

Begrowicz is employed at Onyx Specialty Papers as a millwright and is currently working toward getting his journeyman electrical license. He lives with his wife, Hannah, and their two children in Pittsfield.  

 

Nick Masiero 

 

Nick Masiero (Monument Mountain 2013) was an All-Berkshire and All Western-Mass selectee in both his junior and senior years and he was a varsity player when he was a freshman at Monument. He was captain his junior and senior years and was named the Co-MVP of Berkshire County soccer his senior year. His team went to the Western Mass finals in multiple years in high school and at Skidmore he led his team to the Liberty League finals three of the four years he played.  

 

Masiero is an owner of Guido’s Fresh Marketplace and has continued his soccer as a member of The Crows, who have won the league the last three of four years. Nick lives in Pittsfield with his wife, Cassandra Lynn.

 

Allie Supranowicz 

 

Allie Supranowicz (PHS 2014) was part of a team that went five years in Berkshire County without a loss, winning the North four times in her four years in high school. She was a smart, talented midfielder who was on the All-Berkshire team and was named the Student-Athlete Award winner her senior year.  At Union College she was named to the All-Liberty League Honorable Mention team and made the All-Liberty Academic Team three times.  

 

She majored in neuroscience at Union and then went to Hofstra and graduated with a physician’s assistant degree. She is now working as a PA in emergency medicine and urgent care.  

 

Maddie Sprague 

 

Maddie Sprague (Wahconah 2015) was an athlete who could play any position on any team in any sport. She anchored the defense on her soccer team for four years but did occasionally move up the field to play offense and was a force there as well. She was a four-year starter on the varsity and was a captain for two seasons. She was an All-Berkshire player for three years and was named to the All-Western Mass team as well. She led her team to a Western Mass championship her senior year and as a central defender only allowed one goal leading up to that championship.   

 

Sprague graduated from college with a bachelor of science degree in nursing and works as an emergency room nurse and in a primary care office. She is still a talented athlete and is running in a sprint triathlon this year.

 

This year’s CIAO Soccer Hall of Fame Scholarship winners are: Jacinta Felix and Colin Daly (Drury); Emma Meczywor and Aiden Middlebrook (Hoosac); Mia Puleri (Lee); Jocelyn Fairfield, Harper Jaehnig (Lenox); Lily Speed and Alexander Boyer (McCann); Annabel Holmes and Hudson Manzolini (Monument Mountain); Stella Lennex and Diego Cruz (Mt. Everett); Mai O’Connor and Will Igoe (Mt. Greylock); Molly Ferguson Pope and Gustavo De Oliveira (Pittsfield); Eva Matkovska and Jeremiah Cudjoe (Taconic); Kathryn Perone and Jason Moynihan (Wahconah).