By: Ed Weaver / March 13, 2024
The Wellsboro Sports Hall of Fame committee is proud to announce its class of 2024. This year’s class is made up of former coach Dr. Andy Sayre and athletes Elizabeth (Nicodemus) Hoover and Ted Zuchowski.
Zuchowski (baseball) won the John Antoine Prevost Male Athlete of the Year Award in 1968 as a four-year member of the Hornet football, basketball and baseball teams. After graduation Zuchowski was drafted into the United States Army to fight in the Vietnam War. After his military service ended, Zuchowski returned to Wellsboro to raise his family. During that time he coached many years of little league baseball and small fry football, teaching athletic skills and life lessons to countless young athletes.
Over the past fifty years, Zuchowski has been one of Wellsboro’s greatest supporters, and you can always catch him in the stands at a variety of sporting events, but especially during the basketball season, where he has a reserved seat at midcourt.
Hoover (girls track) was a three-sport athlete in volleyball, basketball and track & field during her Wellsboro career and was the MVP of all three sports during her senior year. The John Antoine Prevost Female Athlete of the Year winner in 1989, Hoover led her volleyball and track teams to district titles her senior year, while being named Regional Athlete of the Year for New York/Pennsylvania, and All-Twin Tiers Athlete of the Year for New York/Pennsylvania. Hoover was a four-year district qualifier in the shot put, discus and javelin while winning all three events her senior year at the District IV championships. She qualified for the PIAA State Championship meet as a sophomore, junior and a senior in all three throws, and placed in the top-10 her junior and senior year for all three events. She still holds Wellsboro’s girls discus record at 129-ft, 4-inches.
After graduation Hoover attended Susquehanna University, as a member of both the basketball and track teams. She was a four-year starter and letter winner for the basketball team that were Middle Atlantic Conference Champions her last three years, and National Playoff contenders during those three years, making the sweet sixteen tournament during her senior year. During her senior year on the track team, she qualified for the NCAA Championship meet in Ohio in the javelin, where she placed 4th in the nation with a SU record throw of 143-ft, 6-inches, solidifying her All-American status into the Susquehanna University Hall of Fame.
Sayre coached Wellsboro’s Middle School Cross Country team for 11 years, amassing a 235-26 record in that span. Five of his boys teams and 4 of his girls teams were undefeated with first place finishes at the McQuaid Invitational, the Bloomsburg Invite, the Northern Tier Coaches Invite, and the Lasagna XC Invite. His teams numerically dwarfed opposing teams with 35-45 members participating yearly in a sport where only the top 5 runners score. Coach Sayre’s teams were the seed bed for the successful high school XC teams of that era.
The Wellsboro Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 will be inducted on Thursday, September 5, 2024, at halftime of the Wellsboro-Wyalusing football game.
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