Hampton to welcome doubled-up class into sports hall of fame

By: John Grupp
Saturday, September 18, 2021 | 11:01 AM

Former girls soccer star Amy Lindsey Shane waited more than two decades to get into the Hampton Athletic Hall of Fame, so one extra year wasn’t going to matter.

“It was very nice,” she said. “For me, even though I played through college, the times that I remember the most are the times that I played for Hampton.”

Lindsey Shane, a regional All-American for a two-time WPIAL champion, is part of a seven-person hall of fame class, which was announced in late August.

Because the 2020 banquet was canceled by the covid pandemic, the school combined the 2020 and 2021 classes, some of whom learned before coronavirus struck that they were selected for the 20-year-old hall of fame.

“I didn’t tell anybody,” said Lindsey Shane, a 1998 Hampton graduate.

The combined class also includes a two-time boys lacrosse All-American, a girls lacrosse 200-goal scorer, a two-time state championship swimming and diving coach and a beloved longtime baseball and football coach.

The Classes of 2020-21 will be honored at Fridley Field before the Oct. 1 football game against visiting Greensburg Salem. A hall of fame banquet will be held the following day at Treesdale.

Andy DeMichiei, a 2013 Hampton graduate, never thought about the hall of fame when he tried out for the school’s boys lacrosse team as a freshman in 2010. He just wanted to earn a spot on the varsity roster.

“My oldest brother (Chris) was a senior and my other older brother (Matt) was a junior on the team,” he said. “So I really wanted to make varsity to play with those two. I kind of achieved that.”

He went on to become a two-time lacrosse All-American for Hampton, a second-team All-Big East selection at Marquette and a ninth-round pick of the Ohio Machine in the 2017 Major League Lacrosse draft.

“I was definitely a little bit surprised,” DeMichiei, 26, said of his induction. “I’m still kind of young. But it was something that’s a huge honor for me, and Hampton is pretty close to my heart.”

Other inductees are Christine McGrath (lacrosse, 2013), Candice Coholich Weaver (cross county, track and field, 2004) and coach Todd Koltes, who guided the boys and girls swimming and diving teams to multiple WPIAL and PIAA titles in the 1990s.

Inducted posthumously were Andy “Skip” Palmer, who coached Hampton baseball for 18 seasons in the 1980-90s, and former Hampton Township School Board member and Hall of Fame Committee member Gail Litwiler.

McGrath, who scored 204 career goals from 2010-13, learned earlier this year that she was a new hall of famer. She was visiting her parents, Bill and Katie, when her mom gave her a letter from Hampton School District. Because McGrath is an assistant coach for the Hampton girls lacrosse team, she figured it was a paycheck.

“My mom said, ‘It kind of feels heavy,’ ” McGrath said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah it does. Maybe it’s a bonus.’

“I opened it and I started reading it. … Before I got even halfway through, all three of us started cheering. That was awesome. It was just a lot of fun.”

McGrath is the first girls lacrosse player to be inducted into the Hampton hall of fame.

Another former lacrosse star, DeMichiei, said some of his fondest memories at Hampton came in a different sport. He skipped his junior football season to focus on fall lacrosse but returned for his senior season and earned all-conference honors at defensive back.

“In high school lacrosse, you are playing two or three games a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays and there’s not really that big crowd,” he said. “But whenever you are getting out Friday night, under the lights, I don’t know if there is any feeling like that.

“Even throughout college, I played in some NCAA (lacrosse) tournament games, and you still get don’t get that feeling that you get on Friday nights, coming out and playing in front of your whole school.”

Hall call

Here are the seven Class of 2020-21 inductees into the Hampton Athletic Hall of Fame. Inductees are listed with sports and graduating class.

Athletes

Candice (Coholich) Weaver, cross country, track and field, 2004

Andy DeMichiei, lacrosse, football, 2013

Amy (Lindsey) Shane, soccer, track and field, 1998

Christine McGrath, lacrosse, 2013

Coaches

Todd Koltes, swimming and diving

Skip Palmer, baseball, football

Contributor

Gail Litwiler, school board, hall of fame committee

Tags: Hampton