Induction CLass Of 2023

Lauren Barber was a three-sport athlete (soccer, indoor-outdoor track and field) and captain at New Bedford High School where she excelled throughout her four-year high school career. Lauren is without question one of the most outstanding track and field athletes (male or female) to ever wear the NB uniform. She is the only Whaler track and field athlete to ever capture five individual All-State titles during their career as she won the outdoor 100m hurdles for three consecutive years (2005, 06, 07) indoor 55m hurdles (2007), and outdoor triple jump (2007) as she completed the rare "double" of winning a track race (hurdles) and field event (triple jump) in the same All-State Championship competition. She also won five Division I (formerly- Class A) individual titles. She was the New England champion in both the 55m hurdles and 100m hurdles during her senior year (2007).

During her senior year, Lauren was a two-time All-American as she finished seventh in the country in the 60m hurdles and for two consecutive years was a member of the school's All-American shuttle hurdles team that included fellow inductee Tricia Sullivan Rugman during Lauren's junior year. As a cherry on top, Lauren was an integral part to the New Bedford girls' team's first indoor All-State Track & Field team championship as a senior ('07) under coach Tom Giasson's direction.

Sixteen years later, Lauren still holds school records in the 60m hurdles, 100m hurdles, triple jump, and outdoor high jump (tied), as well as being a member of school records in the 4x100m, shuttle hurdles, and high jump relays!

During the fall season, Lauren played four years of soccer under Head Coach Joe Gill where she played right defense and served as team captain during her senior year in the fall of 2006. Lauren attended Princeton University where she was a four-year member of the Tigers track and field program. During those four years. Lauren won one Ivy League title in the hurdles and was part of four Ivy League team championships.

Lauren graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. Barber continued her education as she received her Master's degree in Epidemiology from Harvard University and her PhD from Boston University in Epidemiology. Lauren currently resides in Atlanta Georgia with her husband James Minor. Lauren works as a Cancer Epidemiologist at Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health.

When you're a young male about to enter a high school that has over 3000 to one day make your mark in the athletic field, you better bring your best game. In evaluating his progress over the four years at New Bedford High School, he seems to have adjusted well and reached the top rung of the ladder of success.

It should be noted that Ryan didn't have much trouble finding his way around the gym or locker rooms since his father was not only a teacher at the school but also a coach! In the course of his four years at NBHS, Ryan gathered numerous awards and impressive stats, drawing some positive attention and accolades for his skills and athletic abilities in basketball, football, and baseball. This included being recruited in their different sports by several colleges, including St. Michael's -D2 with a full basketball scholarship. Also included in his basketball awards were Standard-Times-Super Team, junior and senior years. McDonald's All-American nominee from MA, Boston Herald All-Scholastic, Big 3 All-Star, Buddy Thomas - Top 20 NBHS Basketball  Player, career total of 148 three-pointers as well as numerous impressive stats in individual aspects in the game of basketball. 

 On an additional note, we want to make you aware of his selection to two very important sports highlights of his senior year. The first was the Standard-Times who named him " Athlete of the Year" as only the 2nd NB male to be honored, and the 2nd award was from his home ground of NBHS as the "New Bedford High School Athlete-of-the- Year," Ironically, the first NB male chosen by the S-T was fellow-inductee, AJ Tavares in '04 who also received the 'NBHS Athlete-of-the-Year' 

Another sport in which Ryan excelled was football. He was a three-year Varsity Starter at Corner Back and a two-year Varsity Starter at Wide Receiver. He also accumulated a great deal of notice for this sport by being named to the Standard-Times Super Team, Big-Three All-Star, and Boston Globe Division I Team. One of his biggest highlights was being selected as the MVP of the Thanksgiving Day game between NBHS vS Durfee HS, a tradition of over 100 years. 

Moving on to baseball, we note that he played varsity for the NB Whalers in the position of Short Stop. He once again made the Standard-Times Super Team, the Big-Three All-Star, and batted 324 during his senior season. Once his high school glory days were completed, he moved on to St. Michael's for his freshman and sophomore years. 

He later transferred to Bloomfield College for his junior and senior years. His total points scored in college were 1121. He also scored 95- three pointers in his senior year to put him in the top S in the country. His senior year was the Team Conference Champion- Reached the Elite 8 NCAA Tournament; He was selected to the Bloomfield College Athletic - Hall - of - Fame - 2023. 

He now lives in New Bedford and has one son, Austin. Ryan teaches at the Atlantis Charter School and coaches football and basketball in Fall River at Durfee High School. 

Tricia Sullivan Rugman is one of best all-around female athletes to ever wear the Whaler uniform. Daughter of Hall of Famer Mark Sullivan ('75). Tricia entered New Bedford High School in the fall of 2002 with high expectations, and she certainly did not disappoint herself or her many fans.

In the fall, Tricia, like her sisters Kelly and Katelyn (Hall of Fame-class of 2019), was a member the swim team. Under Coach Tim Curry's guidance, she set the still-standing school record in the 100-yard breaststroke.

During the winter months, Tricia was a member of the indoor track and field team. She had the ability to run in any event from the 55m dash up through the 100m; but instead, she focused primarily on the 300 and 600m events. She also set the indoor school record in the high jump. What really displayed and showcased her athletic ability is that she was taught the hurdles in the final month of her senior indoor season which allowed the girls to have a nationally competitive shuttle hurdles team. Resulting in a sixth-placed finish at the New Balance Indoor Nationals held at the "Amory", in New York City. She led off a team that was anchored by teammate Hall of Fame inductee, Lauren Barber.

In the spring, Tricia set her sights on the sport that most sports fans remember her for, as she was a four-year starting pitcher for the Lady Whalers' softball team. During that time, she was a major part of achieving four consecutive Big Three conference titles, also, named Boston Globe All-Scholastic in her junior and senior years. She was selected in 2006 as the Boston Globe Player of the Year. Her 2006 team coached by Harry Lowe, had a perfect 20-0 regular season record and was ranked 20th in the country. As a senior, Tricia served as captain for all three seasons and was chosen as the Standard/Times Female Athlete of the Year (2006). Very Impressive.

Tricia accepted a full athletic scholarship to the University of Connecticut where she continued to excel on the mound. Upon graduation, she ranked in the school's top ten in the following categories: appearances (fifth, 100) - starters (third, 88) - innings pitched (sixth, 509.1) - strikeouts (third, 423) - victories (seventh, 45) - complete games (seventh, 52).

At present, Mrs. Rugman is following her passion as a hairstylist at a Boston salon and is currently owner of a bridal hair business. She and her husband Jonathan, reside in Raynham, Ma. with their three children, Cora (3), Harlow (1) and newborn (March 28th), son, Jonathan Crew.

When “A.J” entered New Bedford High, he, like so many other young men, was anxious to become a member of various athletic teams. So he became a member of the football team, the basketball team and the baseball team. In a sense, he was a man for all seasons. Now, in a school as large as NBHS, it is not unusual for many young men to attempt the same thing, However very few attain the level of accomplishment that "A.J.* reached.

To begin, he played each of these sports for four years(200-2004) In the sport of football in his senior year, he was selected for the Standard-Times "Super Team", the Boston Globe/Harold "All-Star", and a "Big 3-All-Star". These selections represent students from many high schools, not only NBHS. Given our numbers, it is amazing to be chosen to represent just this school from the group of competing schools. He also became the representative for NBHS in the Otto Graham Awards which chooses from all the high schools in this extended location, of approximately 26-30 high schools.

Moving into the season of basketball, he once again did his family and his school proud by being selected as the captain of his team, selected to the Standard-Times "Super Team" also into the Big 3 "All-Star", and set a school record of most 3 - pointers in a season (74) that is still currently the record. All of these great accomplishments led to his selection as the school's representative for the Dave Cowens Award. This award is similar to the Otto Graham for football.

Baseball season arrives and once again, "AJ" is the captain of his team. Also repeating for him is his selection to the Standard-Times "Super Team", the Boston Globe/Herald "All-Star", and Big 3 "All-Star". The new nod to his talents, comes from the High School Sports Magazine who select him under "Players to Watch" and title of "All-Star".

He isn't done! Senior year he is selected again by the Standard-Times with the title of "Male Athlete-of-the-Year and selected by his own NBHS for the same "Male Athlete-of-the-Year' Understand that these titles are not a popularity contest, but rather take hard work, and dedication, a drive to succeed and personal commitment. He showed it all and where did it take him? Let's see...Attended UMass Dartmouth where he was a 4-year member of the UMD basketball team, a 1-year member of the UMD football team, and a 1-year member of the UMD baseball team. He received his Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice in 2008-2009. Has been teaching in the New Bedford Public Schools for the past five years. He has coached NB Boys Basketball JV in 2017-2018. He owns a skill development and training business that has had numerous clinics in the NB area Currently, trains Bonzie Colson, as well as works with Brycen Goodine, along with many other student-athletes in the area.

Not sure how he finds the time, but he also serves as a Board Member of the Greater NB Boys/Girls Club and the United Way of Greater New Bedford. This is all taking place while he still finds time to do his training programs for various athletes.

Before the official season began, Coach Ryan was asked if his earlier predictions about the success of his tennis team were met or not met by his boys' team. His prediction had been "to win the league title and qualify for the State team tournament." His proud reply was that the team had exceeded all his expectations and had a GREAT season. The team had made it to the second round of the State tournament.

One of the main reasons for this success came from the play of the team captain, "Vish" Srinagesh. He helped the team achieve a record of eighteen wins and only two losses. The sport of tennis at a high school level does not usually receive a great deal of attention on the sports pages unless there is a special player to highlight. That player for New Bedford High School is the young man named at the top of this page.

“Vish" participated on the school tennis team for all four years of his high school career. While he held the position of team captain for two years, he was selected as an All-Star for four years and the selected Player of the Year by the Standard-Times for three years. His overall record for regular season matches was an impressive 74W - OL. Yes, you read correctly - NO LOSSES. In the Big 3 conference, his record was 20W - OL. Finally, in the State team matches, his record was 4W - OL.

It is no wonder that one of his fondest memories of his high school tennis career is of the Gatorade "dunk" at the end of their first undefeated season!

After high school, where he excelled, he entered Union College and played 1st Singles/Doubles on the college team. Academically, he joined the Leadership in Medicine Program at Union College and continued his climb in the medical field by receiving a BS in Biology, and a MS in Healthcare Administration. He graduated from Union College in 2007 with magna cum laude honors. Since then he has completed his internship at Tufts University and Ophthalmology residency at the Kruger Eye Institute, in addition to his MD from Albany Medical College.

He currently specializes in cataract and glaucoma surgery at one of the largest practices in Central Florida as a partner and lives with his wife in Ocala, Florida.

Michael Stott (89) is one of the few Whalers to ever start every game at the quarterback position as a sophomore. Under the direction of Head Coach Joe Wirth, Mike set a school record for touchdowns by a sophomore when he threw sixteen TDs during that tenth-grade season in leading the Whalers to a 7-1-2 record and a league championship in the fall of 1986.

Unfortunately, "Lady Luck" would not shine on Mike as he entered his junior season when he suffered a non-contact knee injury (torn ACL) on the last play during preseason in early September. This would force Mike to miss his entire junior football season and alter the trajectory of his high school athletic career. Mike had run indoor track during the previous two years but had played baseball in the spring. The rehabilitation of his knee worked best as a junior to participate throughout the rest of his junior year in the sport of track and field. The rehab apparently was successful as in May of 1988, a short nine months after tearing his ACL, Mike was the Champion in the 100 meters and was part of undefeated teams both indoors and outdoors. Senior year saw Stott back underneath center as he led the Whalers to a 6-3-1 record and another league championship. Like his sophomore year, he was named as the quarterback on the Standard-Times All-Star team, and the senior captain was also named the offensive player of the year. An amazing statistic is that Mike played in twenty varsity games and either threw and/or ran for a touchdown in ALL TWENTY GAMES! 

Mike returned to the track for indoor and outdoor for his Senior year and his knee was healthy enough to add a field event to his repertoire. And just like that, Mike was in the school's all-time top 5 list in the javelin as he threw the sphere 178'4" in just one season of competition. Once again the Whalers had undefeated indoor and outdoor seasons with Mike's help in the sprints, relays, and javelin events. The senior co-captain of that 1989 team also saw the team repeat as champions in both indoor and outdoor at the season-ending league championship meet.

Mike attended and graduated from the University of New Haven with a degree in Marketing. He was a member of both the football and track and field programs while at New Haven.

Today, Mike resides in St. John's, Florida with his wife Kim and daughter Blaire (19) who is a student and cheerleader at Florida State University, and son Nolan (15) who is a sophomore at Beachside High School. Mike is the Director of Digital Marketing with Crowley.

When Kevin arrived at New Bedford High School, he was active in all sports and outstanding in everything he did. However, competitive swimming was not on the list. He was the skinny ninth grader who was the best at everything that happened to be going on in his physical education classes at the time. Luckily, for Coach Jim Medeiros, Kevin chose to try out for swimming. In the beginning, he proved to be a hard worker and made steady progress. On a team of about 40 swimmers, he had to fight his way into the starting lineup and started to prove his worth by swimming on the B and C relay teams.

Throughout his four years of swimming at NBHS, he became a rock-solid contributor. In his Junior and Senior years, he was a truly dominant presence in the Southern Conference and beyond. While Kevin's strengths were in the freestyle events, he was extremely versatile and very often swam in other events whenever it was needed.

During his four years, Kevin was voted "Most Improved Swimmer" two years in a row and 

"Most Valuable Swimmer" during his senior year. He was a League and Standard-Times All-star his junior and senior years, a Co-Captain his senior year, and was selected by The Boston Globe as a member of their "All-Scholastic Team" his Senior year.

During his Senior year, Kevin capped off the season with an impressive third place finish at the New England Championship meet with a time of 49.1 in the 100-yard freestyle. He also swam a 48.23 relay split during the same meet. At graduation, Kevin held several school records.

After New Bedford High School, Kevin went on to swim for four very successful years at

Babson College. He finished at Babson as a Co-Captain and a member of an outstanding 400-yard freestyle relay team that placed third at the New England Championships, defeating many Dirson | schools, including BC, UNH, URI, UConn, and BU. That same relay team qualified to swim at the Division III National Championship where they finished one place away from making All American.

Kevin now lives in Newton, Massachusetts with Linda, his college sweetheart and wife of 33 years. They have two sons, Andrew (26) and Matthew (25), and a daughter, Kaitlyn (20). Kevin works as a Data Warehouse Developer at "MathWorks", which is the leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists.

It should be noted that Kevin comes from a very athletic family. With his induction into the NBHS Hall of Fame, he joins his sister, Beth, who was a three-sport star who was inducted in 2013.

This young man had an outstanding football career at New Bedford High while playing for Coach Вгuсe MacPhearson from 1976 to 1978. His role as a player was as a wide receiver on offense and a cornerback on defense. He was considered "great" in the first role and said "to excel" in the second role. In fact, the Standard-Times called him poetry in motion when running with the football. As a defensive back, he scored 5 touchdowns, 10 extra points, and "pilfered" a couple of key passes. He also returned punts and kickoffs for the Whalers.

All of these accomplishments earned him great attention from not only the fans in the stands, but also from the newspaper and all football fans. He was selected to the Standard-Times "All-Scholastic Team" in his senior year and was twice selected "Player of the Week".

One very memorable game during his senior year was against Dartmouth High School. He had a kickoff return for a touchdown, recovered a fumble for a conversion, had a couple of quarterback sacks, recovered another fumble, and made several crushing tackles. That game earned him "Player-of-the-Week" honors for his all-around great play!

After graduating from NBHS, Dwayne received a four-year football scholarship to UMass-Amherst where he played cornerback for the Minutemen. He was Tri-Captain of the school's football team in his senior year and graduated in 1983. He has remained active in athletics by coaching youth basketball in the Houston, Texas area since 1995. It should be mentioned that Dwayne played four years of basketball, along with three years of football at NBHS. He was co-captain of NBHS basketball, Southeast Massachusetts Conference. After finishing the coaching years, he turned to refereeing high school football.

Unfortunately, he received an injury that required an 8-hour neck surgery for spinal stenosis. He is semi-retired, but blessed to be walking and his body is recovering. After forty years in Texas, he has come back home to Massachusetts and is excited about reunions with his family and old close friends. His biggest joy will be his wedding in June to his love, whom he met forty years ago when they both attended UMass.

 When Celesté came to New Bedford High School after graduating from her junior high, the picture of female sports' offerings were quite different than the world of today's female sports. Additionally, there was little promotion or recognition of their single or team accomplishments. However, that began to change slowly and Celeste stood on the edge of that change eager to step into the future of female sports.

Her first step was to immerse herself into, not only one sport, but instead she put herself on the line for three sports and played all three for her entire school career. (At this time the high school only consisted of three grades since the 9th grade was taught at the junior high school level.) The sport that she is most associated with is the sport of basketball which she played from 1959 to 1962. Celeste was a co-captain with her friend Brenda Freitas Moniz in the '61-'62 season. Together they led the team to the winner's circle as the team won the Bristol County Championship every year.

Interest slowly began to follow the female high school sports and Celeste was named only the second local girl to be selected for the S-T Player-of-the-Week. Celeste had been selected for her outstanding play in the Crimson win over Somerset 47 - 43 for the Bristol County League title once again, making it four years in a row. Celeste contributed 29 points in the win for the BCL title. Of those, 15 points came from the foul line. Celeste was also the leading scorer for the season with 336 points. She was described as a quiet girl with the ability to shoot from almost any place on the court. Over the season, this team of female athletes put together a 10-1 season, and a scoring record of 632 to their opposition's 436.

As you can tell, she is a leader and a powerhouse even at 5ft 4 inches! She then turned her sights to, new sports at NBHS, there was: volleyball and softball, while the school also added field hockey, and slowly, things were changing for women's sports. With more sports being offered and the introduction of Title IX in the Seventies, more recognition was given by newspapers, radio, and television to sports for women. When you see how many female teams exist in today's schools, you know your daughters have a chance to develop in mind, body, and spirit thanks to young leaders like Celeste, coaches like Hope McFadden and others who brought the change along.

After high school, Celeste went on to get her B.S. degree from N.B.I.T. which is now (UMass-Dartmouth). She also received her Teaching Certificate from Bridgewater State College (now...University) She taught in Fairhaven Public Schools for 34 years and retired in 2002. She coached intramural basketball, first girls only, then girls and boys intramurals. She refereed CYO basketball at the Kennedy Center. She was a secretary for the NBHS Gridiron Club '88 - '95 and helped select possible candidates for induction.

Celeste has been married to her husband John LeBoeuf for 54 years and has a son, Mark LeBoeuf, and a daughter, Karen Lourenco. With all she has accomplished already in her life, she deserves a little rest, so relax with your good friends this evening and enjoy yourselves.

When you think of New Bedford High School Sports, you immediately think of "Chris". He has been a mainstay on the sidelines and courts for over twenty years. His positive attitude and big smiles have brought out endless smiles from coaches, athletes and fans. Chris has a knack of remembering mascots and gyms throughout the State. He always lets us know who we are playing and when we last played them.

When Chris doesn't have practice or a game, he is always willing to help in any capacity; whether it is cleaning with the custodians or helping the Athletic Director or working with the Grounds Crew. Chris is the bright spot in everyone's day because of his love for NBHS sports.

He has been honored by the Massachusetts Athletic Directors Association as the "Joao Rodrigues Winner" in Hyannis last year at their State Conference, where he received a standing ovation. As stated earlier, Chris has endless energy and will do whatever is asked of him. We are so lucky to have him, and we look forward to many more years with Chris, "Best Waterboy in the State", although to NBHS he means much, much more than that.