TOWSON, Md. – Last Friday, the Towson University athletic department officially inducted its newest members of its Class of 2018 at the annual Hall of Fame dinner.
 
With the first announcement back in May, the Class of 2018 was officially placed in the Hall of Fame: Mary Clare Coghlan, Alfonso DeMares, P.D. Moore, Jimmy Rosenfield, Dennis Shifflett, Becky Trumbo-Groves and the 1988 baseball team.
 
"This was a tremendous evening and a huge success with well over 200 attendees for the Annual Hall of Fame Dinner," said Towson Hall of Fame President Rich Bader. "It is always a great evening when we induct new members into the Hall of Fame and also have the chance to welcome back so many of our current members," said Towson Hall of Fame president, Rich Bader.  "We are very appreciative of the assistance we receive from the Towson athletics department and give special thanks to TU President, Dr. Kim Schatzel, for her attendance at his significant event."
 
224 people, including current Towson Hall of Fame members, Towson athletic department members, friends, families and supporters all gathered at the Valley Mansion in Cockeysville for the induction.  All six individuals and a representative of the team of distinction spoke to the guests, along with Towson President Dr. Kim Schatzel, Director of Athletics Tim Leonard, Hall of Fame President Rich Bader and Master of Ceremonies Spiro Morekas.
 
Hall of Fame Bios – By Pete Schlehr, SID Emeritus
2018 HOF INDUCTEE MARY CLARE COGHLAN '05
Playing volleyball to Mary Clare has always been about having fun, and when it stopped she made what turned out to be a life changing decision that brought her east to Towson where her spirit was rekindled and she found the missing fun in her sport again.
 
A second team All-Interscholastic Association Federation selection and two-time first team All-Mission League player from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Mary Clare was heavily recruited, finally settling on the University of Tennessee. After a year, though, she left the Volunteers' program.
 
"For the first time in my life I wasn't having fun playing a sport," she says. "Tennessee is an unbelievable school but I looked at my teammates who were seniors and they just weren't enjoying it. I decided to transfer."

Mary Clare contacted Chris Riley, Towson's coach from 2000-06. They had met when Riley was an assistant volleyball coach at St. John's where her older sister, Casey, was a member of the Red Storm's volleyball squad.
 
"I reached out to Chris for mentorship and advice," Mary Clare recalls. "He invited me to come up for a visit to Towson. Volleyball had taken me all over. I didn't care how big the school was or how big the name was. But if I wasn't having fun, I couldn't be a part of it."
 
Mary Clare joined the program at a pivotal time when the Tigers were elevating their program to a higher level. Her first year at Towson coincided with the Tigers' inaugural year in the Colonial Athletic Association. During her three years (2002-04) the Tigers compiled a 64-24 overall record and a 36-8 league mark that included an unbeaten 14-0 campaign in conference play. She helped the Tigers to their only regular season and subsequent conference tourney championship in 2004 when TU earned its first NCAA Tournament berth.
 
Statistically Mary Clare is still among the program's leaders. Her 3,078 career assists rank her 4^th on the Tigers' all-time list. She is 7^th in service aces with 144. The 1400 assists she recorded in 2003 are the 3^rd most in program history and the 8^th most in the CAA.
 
One of just two Tigers named to the CAA's prestigious Silver Anniversary Team, Mary Clare was a first team All-CAA selection in both her junior and senior years when she was also the conference Setter of the Year. In 2003 she was selected the CAA's Scholar-Athlete of the Year for volleyball. A biology major, she was honored twice as a CoSIDA Academic All-District II selection. In 2004 she was named Towson's Female Athlete of the Year.
 
Mary Clare continued her volleyball career after graduating from Towson, playing professionally in Germany and Spain. In 2007 she joined the staff at the United States Naval Academy. During the summer months she played for the All-Navy team, helping Navy win the gold medal at the U.S. All-Armed Forces Games. In 2007 and 2008 she was a member of the US All-Star squad that competed in the Military Olympic Games in Germany.
 
While earning a Master's degree from Gonzaga in Organizational Leadership, she was a leadership consultant working with professional and collegiate teams. She is currently employed by Northwestern Mutual where she handles recruiting development and training of entrepreneurs in finance. In addition she is an adjunct professor teaching Leadership Theory at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. In her spare time she continues to give back to the sport that has meant so much to her, coaching youth volleyball and giving clinics. She resides in Annapolis.

2018 HOF INDUCTEE ALFONSO DeMARES '02
Opting at age 16 to leave his native Colombia and all that was familiar to him Alfonso came to the United States in 1996 to play soccer and attend school.
 
"My plan was always to play soccer," says Alfonso who landed in Boca Raton, Fla. where he lived with a relative. "I had a vision that if I came early enough to the United States maybe I could earn a scholarship to an American University."
 
Alfonso's plan worked to perfection. He attended Olympic Heights High School. The Lions annually fielded a high-profile soccer team that grabbed a lot of attention. While considering various offers, Alfonso became interested in Towson after Tiger coach Frank Olszewski had successfully recruited one of his high school teammates, Chris Hurley.
 
"After Chris went up to Towson Frank continued to watch me play," Alfonso recalls. "He was the first one to believe in me. At the end of my senior year he made an offer, I accepted and that's how I wound up going to Towson."
 
Alfonso left an indelible mark on Towson's soccer program, becoming its all-time career leader in assists (35) and points (125 that includes 45 goals). In 1998 he was named America East Rookie of the Year and 2^nd team all-conference. He was selected 1^st team All-America East as a sophomore, junior and senior. The America East Player of the Year in 2000, he was named to the America East All-Tournament team twice (1998 and 2001). He earned All-South Atlantic Region recognition three times (1^st team, 2^nd team, honorable mention). He was selected honorable mention All-America by College Soccer News in 2001. He was Towson's MVP three straight years and the program's Rookie of the Year in 1998. He was twice selected Towson's Male Athlete of the Year.
 
During his four years the Tigers were 42-20-3 in conference play and 49-23-6 overall, a record that included one conference championship and Towson's first of two trips to the NCAA Division I tournament. He scored the only goal of the game in Towson's 1-0 victory over Northeastern in the 2001 America East championship game that propelled the Tigers into the NCAA tournament. The Tigers defeated James Madison 4-1 in the first round before falling to North Carolina. He was the top scorer for that team that finished 16-5-1 with a number 25 final national ranking.
 
A business administration major with a concentration in international business, Alfonso's passion for soccer continued after graduation. While pursuing an opportunity to join a team in Switzerland he played for the Sioux Falls Thunder of the Premier Development League (PDL). Later his parents, who had always supported his goal of playing soccer, urged him to move to France near the Swiss border to wait for the call.
 
"The contact we had lost his job," says Alfonso, "and with that the opportunity to play for the Swiss team was gone. I stayed in France for a while playing in the 4^th Division but when I weighed out the experience and what I was actually doing I decided it wasn't worth it. Besides, I was anxious to get back to South Dakota because that's where I met my wife and she was waiting for me."
 
 With his soccer days behind him Alfonso set about making his way in the business world. After stops at JLT in London as a placing broker and Guy Carpenter in Miami as a senior vice president for planning and development for facultative business, he joined QBE European Operations as the business development manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.
 
Alfonso and his wife, Stephanie, reside in Miami with sons Alfonso (9), Nicolas (7), Daniel (6) and Ricardo (4). They are expecting a fifth child later in the year.
 
2018 HOF INDUCTEE P.D. MOORE '05
P.D. was not only always among the smallest players for every football team he played on from age eight through his college career, he was also the youngest.

"I'd come home from school in the first grade and every day my parents would ask me what I learned," P.D. recalls. "And every day I'd tell them the same thing – nothin' I didn't already know."

After a couple of months of this monotonous refrain, P.D. was tested. This undersized six-year-old graded out to nearly 4^th grade reading and math levels. Before the Thanksgiving Holidays he was plucked from the first grade and skipped into the second.

Later P.D. excelled in football (running back, defensive back) and track at Middle Township (NJ) High School but the Panthers' ho-hum record coupled with his questionable size wasn't attracting a lot of college recruiters who were concerned whether or not he would ever grow any more.

Tiger coach Gordy Combs saw through all that, encouraging him to visit Towson where one of P.D.'s Cape May County friends, Brian Allen, was enjoying a four-year career as a guard on the Tiger basketball team. Despite whispers from Rutgers and Maryland, the deciding vote was cast by his mother who said Towson "felt like it was home."

As a first-year Tiger, freshman P.D. worked his way onto special teams, slowly figuring into certain defensive packages. In late October he earned the first of 38 consecutive starts. In the 2001 season finale the kid who was too small and only 17-years-old was named Patriot League Player of the Week for leading the Tigers to a 27-9 win over Georgetown. That honor would be the first of many for him.

P.D. closed out his career with 274 tackles, eighth on the all-time list. His 11 career sacks are the most by any Tiger defensive back. He led the Tigers in tackles with 111 in his senior year when he served as a co-captain. He finished his career with 8 interceptions, returning 3 for TD's which ties the school record.

He was chosen Tiger Football's MVP in both his junior and senior years. He is the only Towson football player ever named 1^st team All-Conference in two different leagues, earning the honor as a sophomore and junior in the Patriot League and as a senior in the Atlantic 10. In addition he is one of just two three-time first team all-conference players at Towson. In his senior year he was named third team All-American by Football Gazette. He was selected the Brooks-Irvine (New Jersey) Division I-AA Player of the Year in 2004. He was an All-ECAC honorable mention pick as a sophomore.
 
P.D. (surname Clarence) has remained active with the Tigers. He is the recipient of a Towson Football Alumni Dedication Award for helping arrange Alumni Weekend activities, and for his participation in a mentoring program for current Towson players.
 
A biology major, his undergraduate academic achievements included Atlantic 10 and Patriot League All-Academic honors twice, CoSIDA District 2 All-Academic and the NCAA FCS Athletic Directors All-Academic Team.
 
After graduating from Towson P.D. earned a doctorate of pharmacy degree from Howard University. He served a residency at Shore Regional Medical Center and later held a hematology/oncology pharmacy fellowship and faculty position at Howard. He is currently an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Shennandoah University.
 
P.D. and his wife, Sarah, reside in Silver Spring, Md. with their four children; daughters Gabrielle (a freshman at the University of Delaware) and Zoe, and sons Bryan and Peyton (P.D.).

2018 HOF INDUCTEE JIMMY ROSENFIELD '82
The 18.5 points per game Jimmy averaged as a senior guard on Pikesville High School's basketball team isn't what grabbed the attention of college recruiters. Rather, it was the 25-1 tennis record that included the two county championships he had earned as the Panthers' number one singles player.
 
"Back then you would get letters in the mail from colleges," Jimmy says. "I got a box full of them. I was signed to attend Central Florida University which at the time was called Florida Tech. About two weeks before the fall semester started, the coach called me to say he was leaving. I was 17-years-old, didn't know how comfortable I was going to be down there, not knowing anybody, not knowing who the coach was going to be. So I decided to look around a little bit."
 
Hoping to wind up closer to home he got back in touch immediately with Temple whose coach had recruited Jimmy earlier. "We drove up to Philadelphia, met the coach, played tennis with a couple of the guys on the team for about an hour," Jimmy says. "From there we walked over to the admissions office where they stamped the paper and that was that. I was admitted."
 
Jimmy stayed one year at Temple. He played in the fall for the Owls but sat out the spring with an injury which actually played to his favor. The following fall, to the delight of coach Tom Meinhardt, Jimmy enrolled in Towson and became part of perhaps the Tigers' most formidable period in men's tennis.
 
Beginning in the spring of 1980, Jimmy went on to compile a career singles record of 62-13. As a sophomore he registered a 24-2 mark, the sixth best single season record in men's program history. He was 20-5 in his junior year and 18-6 as a senior. His career winning percentage of .767 is third best all-time. He and Mark Snyder own the 4^th best number one doubles record at 29-4. Over three years he was 58-10 at number one doubles.
 
The team co-captain for two years, he captured the number one singles title in three straight Tiger Tennis Classics. He placed 2^nd at the 1980 Eastern Intercollegiate Meet at Rochester. In the summer of 1981 he was ranked in the top 20 in the under 21 U.S.-National Amateur Collegiate Circuit. Selected to the College Greats of America, he ranked 29^th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches rankings in his junior year.
 
After college he played professionally on the Penn Circuit while teaching tennis in Florida and Baltimore. Eventually the wear and tear from the sport led to tendonitis in his elbow, forcing him to retire from tennis. In 1990 he and his brother, Stuart who was also a Tiger tennis player, founded Lightning Golf & Promotions, a successful synergy they sold in 2013 to Chicago based InnerWorkings, a global marketing executive firm serving Fortune 500 brands. Currently, Jimmy is working as an independent consultant while devoting most of his attention to mentoring his son, Danny, a junior southpaw pitcher at Gilman School.
 
Jimmy, his wife, Laura, and their son continue to reside in Pikesville, just three miles from where Jimmy grew up.

2018 HOF INDUCTEE DENNIS SHIFFLETT '74
In making the most of his opportunity Dennis enjoyed a successful wrestling career at Towson that followed a grueling amateur period he used to prepare for the competition he would face on the collegiate mats.
 
After graduating from Dundalk High School Dennis wrestled for the YMCA, appearing in almost 60 tournaments in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. He reached the semifinals many times but a loss put you into the wrestle backs where you had the chance to claw your way to a third place finish. That's where Dennis piled up the victories. Eventually he enrolled at Essex Community College. At the urging of its coach, he tried to fit the sport in to a very busy schedule.
 
"I was working full-time, wrestling for the Y and still trying to carry a full academic load," Dennis recalls. "I couldn't do it all. I wound up wrestling in two tournaments, taking second in both. That was it but it cost me a year's eligibility."
 
In the fall of 1970 Dennis entered Towson. He was forced to sit out his first year as a redshirt but he competed as a sophomore and junior, winning 88 per cent of his matches by compiling a 44-7 record. He was a two-time Mason-Dixon Conference champion (190 lb. in 1972 and heavyweight in 1973). He also won the 190 lb. class title at the 1972 Maryland Federation Open Wrestling Tournament.
 
He competed in the 1972 and 1973 NCAA Division II nationals. In 1972 he lost in the semifinals to an All-American and eventual National Champion. In 1973 he advanced all the way to the semifinals once again where he bowed to a two-time national champion and US Olympic alternate, finishing 9^th in the college division. During the wrestle back he just missed All-American honors. His collegiate eligibility expired after that season. In one of his final appearances on the mats he captured the heavyweight title at the Colonies Championship Wrestling Tournament in 1974, competing as an independent.
 
Over the years Dennis has kept his hand in the sport. He has coached at the recreation and club levels. He has served as an assistant at Fallston High School since 1996. He was on the board of directors for the Maryland State Wrestling Association for 13 years including a stint as its vice-chairman. He currently serves as a board member (selection committee) of the Maryland Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
 
Later after graduating from Towson Dennis and his wife, Sharon, also a Towson grad who taught elementary school for over 40 years in Baltimore County, served two years in the Peace Corps in the South Pacific in the late 1970's. The father of a special needs son, Dennis has devoted much time and effort to Maryland's special needs and disability community by serving on the Governor's Quality Advisory Council of Development Disability Administration (DDA). He has served as a member of the board of directors and treasurer for SDAN (Self-Directed Advocacy Network, Inc. of Maryland), a non-profit organization advocating for Maryland's special needs/disability community.
 
Dennis and Sharon continue to reside in Forest Hill. In addition to their son they have two daughters and three grandchildren.

2018 HOF INDUCTEE BECKY TRUMBO-GROVES '06
When Becky was 13-years-old she put down her softball glove and picked up a lacrosse stick, a decision that set her on a career path she continues to follow today.
 
Actually, that switch had some push behind it from her parents, especially her mother, Fran (nee Ingalsbe) who is a 1976 Towson graduate and former four-year Tiger lacrosse player under Maggie Faulkner. Fran went on to distinguish herself as an official and has served as the Executive Director of the Baltimore Board of Officials for women's sports. She has been one of a handful of Americans internationally qualified to officiate World Cup lacrosse games in the US and abroad. Becky's father, Dave, who is currently Stevenson University's head coach of women's volleyball, was her first coach.
 
"When your dad is the coach you get the ball a lot," says Becky who, even as a sixth grader, had no trouble finding the goal. By the time she reached Liberty High School she was a prolific scorer. She closed out her interscholastic career as Carroll County's all-time leading scorer with 249 goals and 130 assists. In her senior year she was named Carroll County's Athlete of the Year and a high school All-American.
 
Heavily recruited Becky extracted some gasps when she settled on Towson, becoming the first lacrosse daughter to follow her mother in a Tiger uniform. "The coach, Linda Ohrin, did a great job of selling the program," Becky recalls. "The players I met were so welcoming, it felt like home."
Over her four years as a Tiger Becky became one of the most decorated lacrosse players of all-time. The recognition she received started immediately when she was named the Colonial Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year in 2003. A physical education major, she was honored as the 2005 and 2006 CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's lacrosse. She was named 1^st team All-CAA in 2004 and 2005 and 2^nd team in 2003. She was the 2005 Doc Minnegan Scholarship Award recipient, Towson's Senior Female Athlete of the Year in 2006, the Tigers' Female Rookie Athlete of the Year in 2003 and the TAF Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2006.In 2010 Becky joined Hillary Fratzke as the only two Tigers named to the CAA's prestigious Women's Lacrosse 25^th Anniversary Team.

Becky led Towson in goals scored in 2003 (39) and 2004 (45), in assists in 2004 (19), 2005 (31) and 2006 (21) and in points in 2003 (48) and 2004 (64). She ranks 4^th in career goals with 178, 2^nd in assists with 79, 3^rd in points with 257 and 10^th in ground balls with 135. She paced Towson to a 13-6 record in 2005 that included a pivotal first CAA championship and the Tigers first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. She was named a third team All-American by the IWLCA.

Now in her 12^th year as a physical education teacher at Century High School Becky has coached the Knights' girls' lacrosse and volleyball teams. Her squads have won three state lacrosse titles (2009, 2010, 2012) and one in volleyball in 2011 when she was named the Baltimore Sun's Volleyball Coach of the Year. Over 50 of her former lacrosse players have gone on to play collegiately including Alice Mercer, an All-American while at Maryland and US National Team player.  

Becky resides in Sykesville with her husband, Tim, a physician's assistant, five-year-old son Ryland and three-year-old daughter Kinsley.
 
2018 HOF INDUCTEE 1988 TOWSON BASEBALL TEAM – TEAM OF DISTINCTION
 
This is the 1988 Baseball Team's 30^thAnniversary Year. Under the direction of then first-year head coach Mike Gottlieb the Tigers posted a 31-17-1 record.
 
The team finished first in the East Coast Conference regular season standings with a 12-2 mark and became the first Towson men's team to earn a NCAA Division I post-season berth in any sport when it grabbed the ECC automatic qualifier by winning the conference tournament. It was the first 30-win season in the history of the program and one of just six thus far. The .645 winning percentage is the highest in Towson's Division I history. The 12-2 league record (.857) is the top league record in program history. The 17 losses are the fewest in a season for Towson in the last 30 years. The team's earned run average of 3.99 remains the program's best in the Division I era. That year is the only one in program history with four first-team All-Conference selections: Chris Nabholz (P), Towson Hall of Famer Kevin King (SS), Mike Wlazlak (3B), Robbie Smith (1B). Gottlieb became Towson's first-ever Coach of the Year for baseball that season. Brian Walsh (2B) was named ECC Tournament MVP while Nabholz picked up the honor for Most Valuable Pitcher.
 
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