One of four athletes to have her jersey retired at Dartmouth High, Heather Francis was easily the greatest all-around female track athlete in school history and, arguably the best track performer — male or female — of all time. All she did was establish school records in the high jump, triple jump, 50, 100 and 220-yard events and in both the 50 and 100-meter hurdles on her way to earning National High School All-America honors. That distinction came shortly after her record 6-foot, 1-inch high jump at the New England high jump competition at Brown University in her senior year of 1996. That jump set a Brown Stadium record and was the fourth best in the nation by a high school girl. Francis was named America’s top high school high jumper in both her junior and senior high school year and over the course of her school career she long-jumped 17-feet, 1-inch and triple-jumped 34-feet, 7-inches, which qualified her for state and New England competition. She also won the 100-meter hurdles at the Eastern Athletic Conference Meet. Veteran track coach Steve Gardiner, who has seen all of the area’s top track stars over the last 40-or-so years and continues to develop high-quality performers as the head track coach at UMass Dartmouth, calls Francis “the greatest female high school jumper in Massachusetts history.” But Francis was more than just a jumper. She was unbeaten in the 100 and she captured both the State Coaches and Class B Meets and ran the anchor leg for Dartmouth’s 4x100 team that finished fifth at the State Meet with an area-best and school-record time of 50.78. While running at Dartmouth, Francis was named Gatorade Player of the Year not once, or twice, but three times. She qualified for the 1996 Olympic Trials held in Atlanta but opted to compete in the Nationals where she placed fifth in the high jump. Following her graduation from high school Francis accepted a track scholarship to attend the University of Connecticut.
Class: 1996 Inducted: 2015