Crystal Dunn, Tom Catal, Tom Catapano and Dr. Stuart Hershon headline the Nassau HS Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024

It was a gathering of greatness. Some well-known and some long forgotten.

There was South Side’s Crystal Dunn, perhaps the greatest soccer player, male or female, of all time from Long Island.

There was Rockville Centre’s Tom Catal, who was on the pantheon of the greatest pitchers to ever come out of Long Island.  And there was  Dr. Stuart Hershon, well known for saving the high school careers of an untold number of athletes, but also an outstanding athlete himself, who led Long Beach football to its last unbeaten season 71 years ago.

They all gathered at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury to recognize and honor the ninth annual class inducted into the Dr. James Tolle Nassau County High School Athletics Hall of Fame on Wednesday night.

“We have 25 honorees who have impacted Nassau County High School athletics on all levels from players to coaches to administrators to contributors,” said Pat Pizzarelli, the executive director of Section VIII Athletics, which governs all interscholastic sports in Nassau. “They are the leaders in their field. They were all committed to be the best and focused on being the best through self-discipline, teachability and leadership.”

There was Baldwin’s brilliant girls basketball coach Tom Catapano, who received a rousing ovation from a very large contingent of former players, family and friends.

“It’s an unbelievable honor to sit among all the amazing honorees and hear my name called,” Catapano said. “I’m grateful to all involved and especially to the man that got me started in my coaching career, Ed Ramirez. He pushed me to coach the girls team at Baldwin and when I was hesitant and not sure I could do it he pushed me toward it and assured me it was the right career move.”

Ramirez, the former director of athletics at Baldwin and now the athletic director at Garden City, beamed when Catapano received his Hall of Fame plaque.

“He was coaching football at Baldwin at the time,” Ramirez said. “I offered him the girls basketball job because I saw something in him that I said to myself, this is my guy. Tom was uncomfortable at first and spent two years as an assistant coach, before taking the head job.”

It’s more than safe to say it was the right call.

In 15 years, Catapano has led the Baldwin girls basketball program to 12 Nassau Class AA conference titles, 10 Nassau Class AA championships, five Long Island Class AAA crowns, two public school state titles and one Federation crown.

Catapano, accompanied by his wife Bridget of 14 years and their three children Ray (11), James (9) and Riley (7) pointed to the players in his program and the support of the Baldwin community as key factors in his success.

“I fell in love with Baldwin,” he said. “And the rest, well, is history.”

Shortly after Catapano was inducted, the Dunn took center stage.

The phenom led the South Side girls soccer program to three state championships (2006, 2007 and 2009). The one the school missed was while Dunn was playing for the United States under-17 team in New Zealand in 2008.

“I was always able to stay present at every stage and perform at that level,” said Dunn, who was accompanied by her husband of seven years, Pierre Soubrier. “I believe I am a role model for little girls because of who I am authentically. I want them to know they can achieve their dreams by being down to earth, working hard and being who they are.”

The two-time Olympian, who was primarily a forward and a scorer throughout high school and at the University of North Carolina, switched to play defense for the United States National team for the 2019 and 2023 World Games. She was a two-time All-American and won the Herman Trophy and the Honda Award as the top collegiate player in the country.

On the diamond, Catal left an indelible mark in 1965. The St. Agnes Cathedral righty finished his career with a Long Island record 31 victories. His senior year in the Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA was one for the ages. He had a 12-0 record with a 0.74 earned run average, striking out 137 strikeouts in 70 innings. And, oh yeah, he also batted .442.

“My father is looking down and he’s so proud of this moment,” Catal said. “It’s nice that the committee looked all the way back to a time when we had so many great athletes.”

Catal signed to play professionally and played in the Atlanta organization before his career was cut short by an auto accident on the Southern State Parkway.

“I’ve been blessed with great opportunities, so I try to focus on the positive,” Catal said. “I was injured badly and the accident ended my career. But not before I played in spring training with Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Joe Torre.”

Catal went to work with E.F. Hutton as an options broker on Wall Street and started to collect baseball memorabilia.

“I wanted to run a baseball card show at Hofstra University and I called Mickey Mantle’s lawyer Roy True and Roy set it all up,” Catal said. “I paid Mickey $2,500.00 plus $500.00 for expenses. We charged the public $3.00 admission and they got a free Mantle autograph.”

Thus began a long friendship between Catal and Mantle.

“We were the best of friends,” said Catal, who lives a few doors down from the Baseball Hall of Fame on Main Street in Cooperstown and has built a reputation as one of the country’s most renowned baseball memorabilia experts.

Some honorees were recruited highly from high school. Take Jim Graziano for example. UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian wanted the 6-10 All-American selection so badly he enlisted Frank Sinatra to call the Graziano house.

And according to Nassau Hall of Fame coach Mike Candel, the call goes like this: Sinatra calls the Graziano home and Mrs. Graziano answers the phone and says hello. Sinatra says, ‘Hi, I’m Frank Sinatra.' Graziano’s mother replies, ‘yeah and I’m Ella Fitzgerald,’ and she hangs up.

“That was one of my favorite stories in any of these remarkable selections to the Hall of Fame,” Candel said. “It shows you the length that a college coach would go to get a great player.”

Graziano ended up at the University of South Carolina before playing a long pro career in Europe.

The Long Island track community also was well represented at the event. Shana Cox of Holy Trinity High School was a state champion in the outdoor 200-meters and the 400-meters. She became an 11-time All-American at Penn State and won 15 Big 10 titles. She also won the 400m at the NCAA championships and ran the anchor leg on the winning 4 x 400 Nittany Lions' relay team. Cox also competed for Great Britain in the 2012 London Olympics.

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.