For the last 12 years, Aragon has hosted an annual Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony to honor alumni for their athletic accomplishments. As the master of ceremonies, athletic director Steve Sell introduced the inductees.
The event is sponsored by the Dave Stiles Foundation. It is a way of reuniting old teammates and classmates as well as honoring athletes for their feats.
The committee meets to discuss potential inductees every fall.
“My personal litmus test is to ask myself, ‘How do I visualize writing the accomplishments?’” Sell said. “Looking at what goes on the plaque, I want to be able to say, ‘Wow, that’s amazing what I’m writing it out.’”
Although the 2020 inductees all participated in different sports, what brings them together is their spirit and their love for sports. All in all, these athletes have won seven CCS championships, coached new successful athletes and won numerous other awards.
2004 Girls varsity swim team:
Out of the 11 events on the swimming record board, six of them belong to this 2004 swim team. Aragon finished fourth in the Central Coast Section that year and no high school in San Mateo county has finished higher since. They were led by Katherine Wong’s first place finish in the 100 freestyle and third place finish in the 200 freestyle.
From 1999 to 2002, they won four championships back to back. They only lost two dual meets against Menlo-Atherton and San Mateo, who were heavyweights at the time.
“We achieved all of our goals. Early on, we wanted to win championships, we wanted to play against big dogs, and we wanted to beat these guys,” said 2004 head coach and aquatics director Bob Greene. “We just had our little team at Aragon and we did it. It was awesome.”
To this day, Greene’s office is decorated with plaques, trophies and medals from that team, with a team photo as the centerpiece.
Marty Leahy:
As a tri-sport athlete all four years in football, basketball and track and field, 1977 graduate Marty Leahy was a dominating Aragon athlete. Leahy was arguably the best offensive lineman in Aragon history as he was named the league co-offensive player of the year. He earned first team all CCS honors as a senior. In basketball, Leahy and his team concluded with a 17-4 overall record. As a thrower, Leahy participated in both shotput and discus and took third place in the CCS regional meet in shotput. The San Mateo Rotary Club named Leahy the most inspirational athlete in 1977.
However, Leahy did not start out knowing what path to take. After dabbling in academics and music, he gravitated towards athletics. The sports program at Aragon is what carried him forward.
“I think sports really [did] me well. I’m not a real good student, but a lot I learned from life came from sports at Aragon. I loved it” Leahy said. “So, I credit my coaches at Aragon that I had; they’ve given me a lot.”
Eddie Croft:
1987 graduate Eddie Croft started his successful boxing career by winning the California kickboxing championship in 1987. Later, he won the San Francisco Golden Gloves championship in 1988, 1990, and 1991. As a professional, he won his first 18 bouts, many of which were nationally televised. In 1993, he was crowned the World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental Americas Super Bantamweight Champion where he also fought in three world title fights.
Croft has coached over 25 San Francisco and Northern California Golden Gloves champions. Since 2008, he has been an owner and operator of B Street Boxing.
Growing up, Croft wanted to be just like Pittsburgh Steelers’ Lynn Swann – Croft’s first athletic inspiration.
Croft eventually decided to pick up boxing. Inspired by television shows and his heroes, he practiced as much as he could.
“Bayside [Middle School] was kind of like my training ground,” Croft said. “For boxing, absolutely, Bayside was like Gladiator school.”
Athletics have had a major impact on his life.
“In life, you know, you really only get out of life what you put into it. There’s a saying, small risk, small reward, and big risk, big reward,” Croft said. “The one thing that I’ve learned about sports is that you gotta go for it, you take risks, but you can’t give up if you fail. Because that’s part of life. And if you spend enough time at it than you can accomplish anything, and I feel like we can do that in life as well.”
Caroline Windell:
Still holding four of the track and field records displayed at the Aragon track, 1986 alumni Caroline Windell earned team most valuable player and all league honors all four years in track and field.
Windell’s records are for the 100, 200 and 400 hundred meter runs as well as the 4×100 relay. As a sophomore, Windell led her team to an undefeated season and a league championship. She also finished second in the 400 meter sprint and anchored the 4×100 team that won the CCS regional meet as a junior. The same year, Windell won both the league and CCS regional title in the 400 meter event and qualified for state. As a senior, Windell capped off her career by winning both the league and CCS regional championships and the 4×400 relay.
Even as a little kid, Windell always loved to race around with friends at Highlands Elementary School.
“I had memories of participating in running competitions all the way back to fourth grade on the blacktop,” Windell said. “I used to come home and tell my mother; one of her favorite stories was the time I came home and told her that I was the fastest kid in school. Not the fastest girl, but the fastest kid.”
Although track was a main aspect of Windell’s life, she made sure to participate in other school activities too.
“I participated in many activities: athletics, yearbook, newspaper, Student Government, I did it all,” Windell said. “But I think the reason I was able to do it all was because of the confidence I gained on the track team.”
Steve Benvenuto:
Steve Benvenuto graduated in 2006 and is the only athlete at Aragon that has won two consecutive CCS championships. For all four years of his career, Benvenuto was all league and his team qualified for the CCS tennis playoffs. In his senior year, Benvenuto held an astonishing 29-0 record. In both his junior and senior year, Benvenuto was named the team’s MVP and the San Jose Mercury News named him the sections top tennis player.
Outside of Aragon, Benvenuto was the level two National Open Singles champion, ranked the number two singles player in Northern California, and ranked in the top 30 in the U.S. Playing in doubles, Benvenuto earned the number one rank in Northern California and number five in the U.S. He continued his tennis career at Santa Clara University and now plays recreational tennis.
Although Benvenuto first picked up baseball as his primary sport, he gradually came to love tennis as a whole. Giving credit to head tennis coach Dave Owdom, Benvenuto believes in the strength and spirit of Aragon coaching and their impact on his life.
“[Coach Dave] saw potential in me before I even picked up a racket. [He] convinced me to quit baseball and give full attention to the sport I love forever,” Benvenuto said. “[He] taught me how to set goals and work, not just hard for those goals, but efficiently to reach those goals. And every single day I would train — just the two of us — allowing us to develop a special bond that impacted my life forever.”
Bob Greene:
Greene is one of the most accomplished coaches in county history. In boys water polo, Greene led Aragon to its first league championship in 1994 and 10 appearances in the CCS playoffs. Combined with his years at Aragon and Serra High School, the teams he’s coached have qualified for the CCS playoffs for 22 straight seasons.
In swimming, Greene coached both the boys and girls varsity teams to three league championships each. In 2012, he was awarded the U.S. Water Polo National Coach of the Year. He also won the CCS honor coach two times
the 2007-2008 and 2014-2015 seasons. Greene founded the Burlingame Water Polo Club and Gold State Water Polo Club.
When Greene found out that Aragon lacked a boys water polo coach, he decided to have his hand at it.
“We weren’t built for CCS, we just had a lot of really above average swimmers. To win a championship doesn’t mean you have to have all the best athletes,” Greene said. “You just got to have a team that comes together pleasing each other, and will overachieve. If you get a bunch of overachievers, you’re gonna win a lot of matches.”
Greene was the driving force behind Aragon starting their girls water polo team in 2000. As a result of his efforts, the 2000 PAL girls water polo league consisted of five teams: Aragon, Menlo, Menlo-Atherton, San Mateo and Sequoia.
“I’m really proud of this because I love this sport,” Greene said. “Now, we have 29 total PAL girls [water polo] teams.”
