Two winter Olympians, including a two-time medalist, a legend of the hardwood, a wrestler who represented his country on the mat, a multi-time champion in track and field, a talented baseball player who earned a World Series ring, an all-American women’s lacrosse player, an award-winning sportswriter and a pair of championship collegiate coaches are the 10 newest inductees of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.
The VSHOF Board of Directors announced members of its 2026 induction class on Thursday, its 13th since its inception in 2011.
The inductees are lacrosse standout Sarah Dalton Graddock of Cornwall; Susan Dunklee of Barton who was a three-time Olympic biathlete and a multi-sport standout in high school and college; Saint Michael’s College basketball star and longtime high school coach Dick Falkenbush of South Burlington; the first-ever wrestler inducted, Steven Forrest of Bennington, a champion and national team member; track and field star Mary Heitkamp of Orwell; Olympic moguls skiing medalist Hannah Kearney of Norwich; Swanton’s Matt Raleigh, a standout player and successful coach at all levels of baseball; and legendary collegiate coaches Mickey Heinecken of Cornwall and Middlebury College and Mike McShane of Norwich University.
Veteran and award-winning Rutland Herald sportswriter Tom Haley of Rutland/Proctor is this year’s Mal Boright Media Inductee.
The class will be formally inducted at the 2026 Vermont Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and Celebration on Saturday, April 25 at the Delta Marriott Burlington Hotel on 1117 Williston Road in South Burlington. The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. with the induction ceremony following dinner.
The 2026 Vermont Sports Hall of Fame Inductees:
Sarah Dalton Graddock, Cornwall, women’s lacrosse: The most decorated lacrosse player the state of Vermont has ever produced, Dalton went from a multi-sport high school star at Middlebury Union High School to two All-America selections at Boston University, where she led the Terriers to four consecutive America East championships. After helping MUHS to four straight trips to the D-I state title games including the 2001 and 2004 championships, she went on to set several BU single-season and career scoring marks earning a spot on the U.S. National Development Squad. She has been the head coach of the UVM women’s lacrosse team since 2016, leading the Catamounts to its first-ever NCAA tournament in 2022.
Susan Dunklee, Barton, biathlon/multi-sport: One of the most accomplished American females competing in biathlon, Dunklee competed in three Winter Olympics and eight World Nordic Skiing Championships from 2012 to 2022. Dunklee won a silver medal in the 2017 World Biathlon Championships, becoming the first American to ever to win an individual biathlon medal at either the Worlds or the Olympics. She would win another silver in the sprint in 2020. Prior to her national biathlon success, she was a standout runner and Nordic skier at St. Johnsbury Academy, winning a combined six state and New England titles, and competed in three sports at Dartmouth, where was a three-time all-American Nordic skier helping the Big Green to the 2007 NCAA Ski Championship. She now works full-time at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center training aspiring biathletes.
Dick Falkenbush, South Burlington, basketball: player-coach: One of the state’s top collegiate players at Saint Michael’s College, Falkenbush would stay in Vermont as an exceptional high school coach for 35-plus years. At SMC he graduated as the school’s second all-time leading scorer (1431 points in three years) and helped the Purple Knights to the NCAA College Division (now D-II) “Sweet 16’. An all-American, he was picked in the ninth round of the 1967 NBA Draft by the St. Louis Hawks and also selected that year in the inaugural ABA Draft. He eventually went into high school teaching (40 years) and coaching (35 years). He was the first head coach at Colchester High in 1976 and went on to coach at Burlington High where he won 276 games in 21 seasons including the 1996 D-I title.
Steven Forrest, Bennington, wrestling: One of Vermont’s and New England’s all-time elite wrestlers during his time at powerhouse Mount Anthony Union High, Forrest continued his wrestling career reaching a level no other Vermonter has to date: the U.S. National Team. The first wrestler inducted in the VSHOF, he finished his high school career in 2000 as a three-time state champion with his Patriots winning four straight team titles. He also was a two-time New England regional champ graduating with a 192-23 record — more wins than any other Vermonter at the time. He was the 1999 junior national champion in both freestyle and Greco wrestling. Injuries curtailed his college career so he chose to join the Marines, serving in active duty from 2003-14, with tours to Iraq and Cuba. He made the 2006 All-Marine wrestling team and was an all-services champion in 2009. From 2010-2011, he earned a spot on the U.S. National team and was a three-time all-American at the U.S. Open meet.
Mickey Heinecken, Cornwall, football- coach/contributor: From the day Heinecken became the head football coach at Middlebury College in 1973, he has built a legacy in developing the sport at all levels in Vermont. An all-American at Delaware receiver in the early 60s, he went on to be the head coach of the Panthers for 28 years, compiling a 126-95-2 record, including seven one-loss seasons. The state’s winningest collegiate football coach, he was the first at a Vermont college to reach 100 career wins and was twice named New England Division III coach of the year. In 1993 he established the Vermont Chapter of the National Football Foundation that promotes the sport, awards scholarships to high school players and honors the state’s individual contributors to the game. He helped with the creation of the successful annual North-South senior all-star game, played since 2001.
Mary Heitkamp, Orwell, track and field/cross-country running: A high school All-American and a New England champion, Heitkamp also was the two-time Gatorade Vermont Track Athlete of the Year (2003 and 2004) winning a then-record combined 23 Vermont individual state titles in cross country, indoor and outdoor track at Fair Haven Union High. In high school she finished with a state-record 14 individual outdoor titles across middle-distance races, relays, and jumps, setting multiple state and division records, including three that still stand. Heitkamp also qualified for the 2002-23 national indoor championships in the 600m in New York City. She had three-straight podium finishes in the state pentathlon meet, winning the title in 2004, shortly after winning the New England 800 meters with a record time. She went on to compete as a scholarship athlete at Boston College in the ACC for the Eagles track and field teams, indoor and outdoor, and the BC cross country team.
Hannah Kearney, Norwich, freestyle/moguls skiing: Learning to ski in the Upper Valley, Kearney would take the World Cup moguls circuit by storm as a youth and became only the second American woman to top the Olympic podium with a gold medal in her discipline. She would represent the U.S. in three Olympics, competing at age 19 in Turin in 2006, winning gold in Vancouver in 2010 and capping it with bronze in Sochi in 2014. At just 17, she jumped into the moguls World Cup circuit full-time, winning two competitions in her rookie season, then in her second year, she won the 2005 moguls World Cup title. She was also the overall World Cup champ in single moguls in 2013 and in 2014. Kearney retired in 2015 with eight World Championship medals, three U.S. championships, and a record-tying 46 World Cup victories. She was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2024.
Mike McShane, Norwich University, hockey coach: After successful tours at Division I St.Lawrence and Providence, McShane took over the Norwich men’s program in 1995 and led the Cadets to their first and only four NCAA Division III titles, in 2000, 2003, 2010 and 2017. During his 23-year tenure he guided Norwich to 16 NCAA Tournament appearances including 12 NCAA Frozen Fours. His teams won 19 of 20 New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) regular season titles, including an unprecedented 17 in a row. His Cadets went 498-130-38 and his .776 winning percentage is also tops in program history. He was honored five times by the ACHA as its Ed Jeremiah National Division III Coach of the Year. McShane had a hand in Norwich opening its modern Kreitzberg Arena in 1998.
Matt Raleigh, Swanton, baseball: A top all-around athlete from Swanton and Missisquoi Valley Union High, Raleigh went on to be a record-setting all-American baseball player at D-I Western Carolina and had a lengthy minor league playing and coaching career. His years as a minor league hitting instructor in the Marlins system paid off with a World Series ring in 2003. At Missisquoi he was the Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year in 1988 and helped the Thunderbirds to three straight D-I titles from 1986 to 1988. We went to Western Carolina, playing for VSHOF inductee Jack Leggett, where he was a three-time all-Southern Conference selection and its 1992 player of the year. He was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 14th round of the 1992 June MLB Draft and played nine years in the minors, capped with two in Triple A. He then became a coach and manager in the Marlins system for several years starting in 2001. After retiring from the pros, he was the hitting coach for the Maine-Endwell (N.Y.) team that won the 2016 Little League World Series and for close to a decade, he has been the successful head coach at Maine-Endwell Central High.
Tom Haley, Proctor/Rutland, sportswriting (Mal Boright Inductee): One of the most prolific sports journalists in Vermont history, while laboring as a full-time reporter, editor and columnist at the Rutland Herald since 1987, Haley has highlighted and showcased more with features and columns that stretch minds and hearts all across Vermont At age 78 (in 2025) there is no slowing him down.He has captured the Vermont Sportswriter of the Year 10 times, tying for the most, and has been honored for his work by the Vermont Press Association, New England Associated Press, Vermont Basketball Coaches Association, Vermont Soccer Coaches Association, Norwich University, Devil’s Bowl Speedway, and the Vermont Chapter of the National Football Foundation. A graduate of Proctor High and VSU Castleton, he began with his college student paper, before his first sportswriting gig with the Claremont/Springfield Eagle-Times serving from 1973 to 1987. He then moved to the Rutland Herald where his byline has been a fixture in Vermont for close to four decades, covering sports at all levels.
Unable to attend last year, football and track star, Rutland’s Bill Looker, a member of the 2025 class, also will be inducted at the 2026 dinner.
Ticket information for the 2026 dinner will be available soon on the VSHOF website at www.vermontsportshall.com. Proceeds from the event go to Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, the designated charity of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame. The past dinners and other fundraisers have raised well over $37,000 to support PCAV’s work state-wide.
With this year’s class, the membership in the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame has 153 inductees since its first class was inducted in 2012. The inductees now represent 64 towns in the Green Mountain State and 13 of the state’s 14 counties, missing only Essex County.
The Class of 2026 was selected by three groups of voters: the 15-member VSHOF board of directors, a statewide sports advisory panel and the previous inductees. Nominations are accepted year round by the general public with information on the VSHOF’s website.
Besides honoring those making significant contributions to the state’s sports legacy, the Hall is designed to help promote and provide inspiration in sports and recreation to the youth of Vermont.
To view previous classes and for more information on the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame, log on to its official website, www.vermontsportshall.com. For more information on the VSHOF’s designated charity, Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, log on to www.pcavt.org.
