MALDEN— The doors will swing open once again to the Malden High School Golden Tornado Hall of Fame next month when seven former standout student-athletes and two Distinguished Service Award winners are inducted with a full banquet and ceremony to commemorate the evening.
In addition the annual Peter Donoghue Essay Award winners from both 2016 and 2017 will be announced. The Essay Award scholarship is presented to the student-athlete who pens the winning entry detailing how a Malden High School coach has inspired them. The coach who is mentioned in the essay receives an award as well.
This year’s Distinguished Service Award recipients are Henry Dorazio and Jimmy Dorazio. The Dorazio brothers run the Malden Moose Hall and Henry’s Catering, which has provided a great venue for the Hall of Fame banquet and ceremony for many years.
The biannual Golden Tornado Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony is being held on Saturday, November 18 at the Malden Moose Hall, 579 Broadway Malden. Social hour is at 6:00 p.m. with dinner served at 7:00 p.m.
The last Hall of Fame induction took place in 2015. This is the first time since the Hall of Fame Committee voted to go to biannual inductions the event has been held.
This year’s inductees span a period of nearly 30 years with three from the 1980s, Paul Frazer (1981), Paul Miller (1987) and Billy Roderick (1988); two from the 1990s, Corey Johnson (1991) and Charlie Conefrey (1997); and two from the 2000s, Sheila Nanjego (2001) and Steven Verdi (2006).
“It’s an excellent group with some of our best student-athletes that have ever been on the fields or in the gyms,” said Peter Carroll, MHS Class of 1967, himself a former Malden High player and coach and a member of the Hall of Fame for Distinguished Service. Carroll has served as master of ceremonies at the Hall of Fame events for the past 30 years. “It is always a great night to re-live old memories and reminisce, as well as get to know some of the inductees and their friends and family members you might not have known.”
Carroll said that this year a table has been reserved for captains on the present-day Golden Tornado sports teams. “It will be a chance for players from the past to see what kind of players have followed them and for this year’s captains to hear some stories from the past,” Carroll said. “We’re excited about making this link.”
From the Class of 1981, Paul Frazer was a standout running back and hockey forward, who also excelled on the baseball diamond for the Tornados. Paul Miller, Class of 1987, was another three-sport standout for Malden in football as a split end, in basketball and as Malden’s three-year starting second baseman and leadoff hitter from 1985-1987. He later went on to star for the WPI football team.
Billy Roderick was a stellar tight end for two years and then the quarterback of the 1987 football team, which went 9-1 and is regarded as one of the best ever fielded in Malden. He also starred three seasons as a slugger and catcher for Malden baseball, which twice made it to the MIAA Division 1 North Championship Game in 1987 and 1988, going 33-11 over those two years.
Corey Johnson was a record-setting rebounder and shot-blocker for the 1989-90 and 1990-91 Malden basketball teams. Charlie Conefrey was a three-sport star for the Malden cross country, boys basketball and outdoor track teams in the late 1990s. He’s now in his second year as Malden’s athletic director.
Sheila Nanjego was one of the best all-around athletes of the 2000s for Malden, excelling for the girls basketball team as a three-year starter and for the outdoor track team. Steve Verdi played on three state tournament basketball teams in the mid-2000s for Malden and was also a standout receiver in football and a speedy outfielder in baseball.
