As a junior at South Hadley he was the Western Mass, All-State and New England Champion. After the school dropped the boys spring track team for a lack of participants Eric trained with the help of the girl’s coach Andy Vecellio. He was allowed to compete at girl’s dual meets in order to meet the qualifying standard needed to compete in regional and state meets. Andy stated that his accomplishment is even more impressive knowing that he never had any head to head competition until postseason meets. Eric won the Western Mass long jump to qualify for the AllState meet. After finishing second at the state meet. It was off to the New England meet where Eric would have his epic jump of 24’10.75” His record would stand for 21 years, when another young man from Western Mass eclipsed Eric by only a .25 of an inch. As a result of that incredible mark, Eric was selected as a Track and Field News and USA Today AllAmerican. His mark was the 3rd best in the country in 1992. Eric still is listed in the Boston College long jump top 10.
Class: 1992 Inducted: 2019