Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content
Cortland Red Dragons

SUNY Cortland Athletics

Head shots of 2015 C-Club Hall of Fame inductees Art Jessup, Dennis Fries, Maura Olga Stouter, Tom Olivo, David Wright, Andrea Spaulding and Michael Borra

Cortland C-Club to Induct Seven New Members Sept. 26

Seven new members will be inducted into the SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame during its 47th annual banquet and ceremonies on Saturday, Sept. 26, in the College's Corey Union.
 
The 2015 honorees are:
 
• Art Jessup '65, a four-year basketball and track and field athlete at Cortland and a successful teacher and coach in Washingtonville, N.Y., for 37 years until his retirement in 2002;
 
• Dennis Fries '67, a strong distance runner at Cortland who served as a distinguished teacher, coach and administrator in the West Irondequoit (N.Y.) Central School District for 39 years from 1967-2006;
 
• Maura Olga Stouter '70, a posthumous inductee who participated in numerous sports during the pre-Title IX era at Cortland and coached Smithtown (N.Y.) High School volleyball teams to more than 500 wins in 34 seasons;
 
• Tom Olivo '79, a gymnast and All-America diver at Cortland who coached collegiate diving before embarking on a long career in business consulting and performance measurement;
 
• David Wright '82, the assistant vice president for athletics and former men's soccer coach at Gettysburg College and former Cortland men's soccer All-American who shares the school record with 35 career goals;
 
• Andrea Spaulding '87, a two-time 400-meter hurdles national champion and eight-time track and field All-American who has coached and taught physical education on the scholastic level for 26 years;
 
• and Michael Borra '93, an All-America men's soccer striker/midfielder who shares the school record with 35 career goals and a long-time youth soccer coach and Syosset (N.Y.) High School social studies teacher.
 
In addition to Saturday night's official ceremony, the inductees will be introduced at halftime of the Cortland-Utica football game earlier that afternoon.
 
Established in 1969, the C-Club Hall of Fame recognizes Cortland alumni who competed as athletes at the College and who have since distinguished themselves in their professions and within their communities. Honorary members are recognized for their long and significant contributions to SUNY Cortland athletics. New C-Club members have been added annually and this year's ceremony will bring the Hall of Fame roster to 244 alumni and 27 honorary members.
 
Nominations for next year's C-Club Hall of Fame voting will be accepted until January 15, 2016. The nomination form is available online at: http://www.cortlandreddragons.com/nominations. A person must be nominated in order to be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame.
 
A detailed look at this year's inductees follows.
 
C-Club Hall of Fame Weekend Information Page (Alumni Engagement)

Art Jessup '65
Washingtonville, New York

 
Upon his graduation from Cortland in 1965, Art Jessup dedicated nearly four decades as a coach and teacher at Washingtonville (N.Y.) High School. Jessup taught social studies from 1965 until his retirement in 1998, and he coached the track and field teams for 37 years and the cross country squads for 22 years before his retirement from coaching in 2002.
 
Jessup's cross country teams recorded 255 wins, won a state title in 1987 and were state runners-up in 1984 and 1986. They also finished second in the State Federation championships twice, won 12 Section 9 titles and captured six Orange County crowns. Individually, Washingtonville boasted an individual state champ, eight sectional winners and four county champions under Jessup.
 
In track and field, Washingtonville won 10 sectional and nine county titles under Jessup's watch. Three individuals and two relays qualified for nationals, and two individuals and one relay won state titles. Jessup became the first coach from Section 9 to be inducted into the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Hall of Fame in 2005, and he served as the section's indoor track chairman to the state committee for 20 years.
 
At Cortland, Jessup competed four years in a variety of events in varsity track and field. He won eight New York State Conference Championship medals, and he was a member of the 4x400-meter relay team that set a school record while placing second at the 1962 Penn Relays. He earned Cortland's Track Red Letter Award in his junior year.
 
Jessup also started at guard for three years on the varsity basketball team after playing his first year on the freshman squad. He was a member of the Gamma Tau Sigma fraternity and was active in student government. He earned a bachelor's degree in education and did graduate work at SUNY New Paltz and Syracuse University.
 
The Monroe, N.Y., native has coached various youth sports teams in his community and coached for the Hudson Valley Region in the Empire State Games for four years. He created and operated the summer track program for the Town of Blooming Grove for five years and currently is a New York State certified track and field official.

Return to Top of Story
 
Dennis Fries '67
Rochester, New York

 
After playing an integral role on Cortland cross country squads that were among the best in New York State, Dennis Fries enjoyed a respected and highly successful career as an athletic administrator, coach and teacher for nearly 40 years in the West Irondequoit (N.Y.) School District.
 
Fries was the top runner on the freshman cross country team in 1963, and was part of squad that went 7-3 in dual meets as a sophomore. As a junior, Fries placed in the top five of the SUNY cross country championships and 18th at nationals. The Red Dragons were a perfect 8-0 in duals, with Fries joining Robert Lalley '66 and Bob Fitts '67, both also C-Club Hall of Fame members, in the top three places at every meet. As a senior, Fries finished in the top 10 of the conference and in the top 50 at nationals. In addition to cross country, Fries ran in half-mile, mile and two-mile races on the track team for four seasons. He was also a four-year member of the Gamma Tau Sigma fraternity, where he served as vice president as a senior.
 
Fries earned a bachelor's degree in education from Cortland in 1967 and, later, two master's degrees from SUNY Brockport. He joined West Irondequoit in 1967 and served as assistant athletic director from 1969-84 and director of physical education and athletics from 1984 until his retirement in 2006.
 
A native of Arcade, N.Y., Fries was named New York State Director of Physical Education of the Year in 1998, was Section 5 president from 2000-02, and served on the board of directors of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) from 2002-06. He was NIAAA president in 2005. In 2007, he received the Ellis H. Champlin Award, the highest honor bestowed in New York State for administration in physical education, and in 2012 was honored with the NIAAA Award of Merit, the organization's highest award. He's also a 2015 New York State Athletic Administrators and Section 5 Football Hall of Fame honoree. Fries continues to serve New York State athletics as the executive director of the 23-school Monroe County Public School Athletic Conference and as the New York State Athletic Administrators Association's (NYSAAA) liaison to the NIAAA.

Return to Top of Story
 
Maura Olga Stouter '70
(posthumous)

 
One of New York's finest volleyball coaches, Maura Olga Stouter led teams in the Smithtown (N.Y.) School District to 590 victories in 34 seasons. Her squads captured 23 league titles and she earned nine Coach of the Year awards.
 
A pre-Title IX female athlete, Stouter actively participated in volleyball, archery, badminton and fencing, served as an athletic trainer, and was a member of Cortland's Women's Athletic Association. Stouter earned a bachelor's degree in education from Cortland in 1970 and a master's degree from SUNY Stony Brook in 1975.
 
Stouter taught in Smithtown from 1970-2003 and coached girls' volleyball from 1970-2005. She was also instrumental in starting the boys' volleyball program as she coached Smithtown West High School's boys' volleyball extramural team from 1979-86 and was the boys' first varsity head coach in 1987.
 
Stouter's Smithtown West girls' teams won Section 11 and regional titles in the 1984 and 1986 spring seasons, and the program's first Long Island championship in 1990. Stouter was an advocate for girls' volleyball being played in the fall season, when the sport was played in most states and in college. Her team, along with a few others in the county, switched to the fall season in 1990 and participated in their first state championship. Stouter led Smithtown to the 1995 state finals and seven state semifinals, and her teams won seven Long Island championships.
 
An outspoken advocate for women's sports, Stouter tirelessly pressed for compliance with Title IX provisions. In 1993, she received the Jack Ault Memorial Award, named for a New York State athletic director instrumental in giving girls' sports a voice in the 1970s.
 
While at Smithtown, she helped create the Smithtown/SUNY Cortland Scholarship for Smithtown students attending Cortland. She directed numerous volleyball camps and was a long-time certified varsity volleyball official. She started the Suffolk Stars, the first club program on Long Island to provide opportunities for elementary school athletes to learn volleyball.
 
A 2003 Smithtown Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Stouter founded and was the first president of the Suffolk County Volleyball Coaches Association and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. After retiring, Stouter returned to her native New Lebanon, N.Y. She coached and mentored the boys' high school volleyball team from 2009-11 and led them to their first regional championship. Stouter passed away in June 2011 after battling cancer.

Return to Top of Story
 
Tom Olivo '79
Bozeman, Montana

 
Tom Olivo was one of the top divers in Cortland history who went on to coach and champion the sport before embarking on a long and successful business career.
 
Olivo earned a bachelor's degree in geology from Cortland in 1979. He competed in gymnastics for two seasons, but made his larger impact athletically as a diver for four seasons. A team captain as a junior and senior, Olivo qualified for the NCAA Div. III Championships four times and was a four-time All-SUNYAC honoree, including two league crowns. Olivo earned All-America honors with a 10th-place national finish on the 3-meter board as a junior and with a 10th-place showing on the 1-meter board as a senior.
 
Olivo established all school and Cortland pool records on both boards, and he finished first in 89 of his 101 dual meet, invitational and conference competitions during his four-year tenure. He helped Cortland win the SUNYAC title as a senior and place in the top 20 at nationals three times. Also while at Cortland, Olivo was Geology Club president and Delta Kappa Beta fraternity house president during his senior year.
 
Upon graduation from Cortland, the Bedford Hills, N.Y., native served as men's diving coach at the University of Vermont from 1979-83 and men's and women's diving coach at the University of California San Diego from 1983-87. At UCSD he coached a four-time NCAA champion and was named the 1985-86 NCAA Division III Diving Coach of the Year. He also was a two-time Master's national champion in 10-meter platform diving in 1985 and 1986, and while at UCSD he established Dive San Diego, the largest competitive diving program in the country with more than 500 registered age-group divers.
 
In 1987, Olivo began working for Equitable/AXA Financial Services, and since its founding in 1991 has been president of Success Profiles, Inc., a performance measurement consulting firm in Bozeman, Montana. He was also the founding partner in 2003 of Healthcare Performance Solutions, a consulting firm that serves the not-for-profit healthcare industry. Olivo has also co-authored three best-selling business books:  Impending Crisis — Too Many Jobs, Too Few People with Roger Herman in 2003; Success Simplified with Dr. Stephen Covey in 2011; and Roadmap to Success with Dr. Ken Blanchard in 2012.

Return to Top of Story
 
David Wright '82
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

 
David Wright was one of the nation's top soccer players during his time at Cortland, and for nearly 30 years he has earned that same level of recognition as an athletic administrator and coach at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.
 
The Goshen, N.Y., native played defender for the first half of his Red Dragon career before making the move to forward, yet is still tied for the school career record with 35 goals scored. As a senior in 1981, Wright scored 19 goals and helped Cortland finish 14-1-3. The Red Dragons were undefeated until falling 1-0 in overtime to Glassboro State in the national quarterfinals — a game in which Wright left late in the first half due to injury.
 
Wright was named a first team All-American as well as first team all-state and the SUNYAC Player of the Year in his senior campaign. He was the lone Division III player nominated for the Hermann Trophy, soccer's equivalent to football Heisman's Trophy for the top collegiate player, and was one of 32 players from all divisions chosen to compete in the Senior Soccer Bowl in Oklahoma. As a junior, Wright earned all-state and all-league honors as well as the first of his two Red Letter awards. He also was on teams that finished third nationally in 1978 and advanced to the national quarterfinals in 1979.
 
Wright earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from Cortland in 1982 along with a master's degree from Brigham Young University in 1989 and a doctorate from The George Washington University in 2013. After coaching briefly at BYU and Elmira College, Wright joined Gettysburg in 1986 as head men's soccer coach. He assumed administrative duties as assistant director of athletics in 1990, associate director of athletics in 1996, and director of athletics in 2002. Wright was promoted to an Assistant Vice President position in 2011.

In all, Wright's soccer teams at Gettysburg were 221-99-26 in 18 seasons with three Centennial Conference championships. His teams appeared in the NCAA tournament in seven of his final 10 seasons. He was named Middle Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year in 1992 and NSCAA Middle Atlantic Region Coach of the Year three times. He also coached men's tennis for eight seasons.

Return to Top of Story

Andrea Spaulding '87
Apex, North Carolina


One of Cortland's most accomplished women's track and field athletes, Andrea Spaulding earned eight All-America honors, including two national championships, along with 10 state crowns and seven SUNYAC titles during her four years as a Red Dragon.
 
A native of Tully, N.Y., Spaulding won the 400-meter hurdles at both the 1985 and 1987 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She was also national runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles and fifth in the triple jump at the 1985 nationals to help Cortland win the national team title by one point. During that meet she established the national record in the 400-meter hurdles that stood for three years.
 
At the 1985 indoor nationals, Spaulding earned a pair of All-America awards with a fourth-place effort in the 55-meter hurdles and a fifth-place showing in the triple jump as Cortland was the national team runner-up. She also finished third in the 400-meter hurdles and sixth in the 100-meter hurdles at the 1986 outdoor national meet.
 
Spaulding won SUNYAC titles in the javelin and triple jump twice apiece along with single crowns in the 400 meters, 100-meter hurdles and 4x400-meter relay. Cortland won both indoor and outdoor SUNYAC team championships in Spaulding's sophomore and junior years. She still holds the SUNYAC conference record in the indoor 500-meter run. Also, as a senior, Spaulding played on the women's basketball team, earned the women's track and field Red Letter Award, and captured the Cortland's women's bodybuilding contest title.
 
Spaulding earned a bachelor's degree in education from Cortland in 1987 and a master's degree from Eastern Illinois University in 1988. She embarked on a teaching and coaching career that included five years at Altmar-Parish-Williamstown Middle School in Central New York, one year at North Carolina State University, and the last 20 years in the Wake County (N.C.) Public School system. A national board certified teacher since 1999, Spaulding has coached numerous sports, including basketball for 14 years and track and field for 20 years. She authored and was awarded three grants for heart-rate monitors used in physical education classes.
 
Spaulding's community service efforts have included hunger awareness and relief projects to provide Thanksgiving dinners for local families, and work with Brothers Keeper Quilts to help students make sleeping bags for the homeless.

Return to Top of Story
 
Michael Borra '93
Syosset, New York

 
Michael Borra was a standout on Cortland's men's soccer teams that, from 1989-92, posted a combined record of 53-12-11 and made three NCAA Division III tournament appearances, including two national quarterfinals. Playing at forward and midfield, Borra shares the career lead at Cortland with 35 goals and also registered 20 assists.
 
In his senior season, Borra earned second team All-America and first team all-region and All-SUNYAC honors after scoring a team-high 13 goals. He also earned the SUNYAC's Holloway Award, named after C-Club Hall of Famer T. Fred "Prof" Holloway, for having the highest GPA among first or second team all-league players. He helped Cortland finish 11-2-3 that season and qualify for nationals.
 
A two-time team captain, Borra scored nine goals and earned all-region and all-league honors as a junior as the Red Dragons went 15-3-3, won the SUNYAC title and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals. Borra was also honorable mention All-SUNYAC in his first two seasons. During his sophomore campaign, the Red Dragons were SUNYAC champs and national quarterfinalists and finished the year with a 14-1-5 record.
 
Borra earned a bachelor's degree in history and social studies secondary education from Cortland in 1993 and a master's degree from the University at Albany in 1995. He served as an assistant coach for the Red Dragons in the 1993-94 season. Borra was named to the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and received Cortland's Award for Excellence in Secondary Social Studies in 1993.
 
A native of Westbury, N.Y., Borra has taught social studies at Syosset (N.Y.) High School since 1997. He teaches some of the program's more rigorous Advanced Placement courses, and also has supervised student teachers, developed new courses, and trained teachers on staff in areas of curriculum and instruction, classroom management, and instructional technology.
 
Borra has remained very active in soccer coaching at the youth level. Since 2000 he has trained and developed youth travel teams at the Syosset Soccer Club, and since 2004 he has served as an instructor for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) Coaching Academy. Borra was also the director of coaching for the LIJSL Olympic Development Program U11 Developmental Program from 2003-06 and was Syosset High School's boys' varsity soccer coach from 2002-05.

Return to Top of Story
Print Friendly Version