Dawson, Frost fetedas best state athletes

By Sean Barker, Sports Editor

SOUTHINGTON — New Haven’s Chad Dawson and Madison’s Kristen Frost both set out to prove the naysayers wrong in 2007.

Both did so in impressive fashion, and in the process earned recognition as the top athletes in the state as recognized Sunday at the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance’s 67th Gold Key dinner.

Dawson, 25, who won the WBC light heavyweight championship by defeating champion Tomas Adamek in February 2007, became the first boxer since Marlon Starling in 1987 to be named the Bill Lee Male Athlete of the Year.

Frost, a 15-time All-American at Hand High, returned home to compete for Southern Connecticut State last fall. School records started falling, and she was posting the best times in the nation.

Then at the 2008 NCAA Division II championships, she won four national titles and was named the meet’s most outstanding swimmer.

“When I transferred back here from Georgia, a lot of people thought I had become a has-been,” said Frost, the Hank O’Donnell Female Athlete of the Year. “It was fun proving them wrong.”

Gold Keys, presented to those who have made significant contributions to athletics in the state, were awarded to Ralph King, Tony Falzarano and Ted May.

King won more than 700 games as a boys’ soccer and basketball coach at McMahon High in Norwalk.

Falzarano won 535 games in 34 seasons as boys’ basketball coach at Putnam.

May has been a fixture with the state’s PGA Tour stop for more than 30 years, serving as chair of the Greater Hartford Open in 1983 and playing a major role in preserving the tournament through difficult times before it signed with the Travelers last year.

Greater New Haven was also well-represented in the John Wentworth Good Sport Award category, as Hamden’s Robert “Louie” Burns and East Haven’s Charles Derbabian were honored.

Burns has been active in youth athletics in the Newhall section of Hamden for 40 years, most notably with the Hamden’s Father’s Basketball Association.

“Imagine if there wasn’t a Hamden’s Father’s Basketball Association,” Burns said. “Where would these kids end up? I just want to do what I can to help keep these kids off the street.”

Derbabian has kept statistics for the Wilbur Cross boys’ basketball team and football team, and served on the chain gangs at football games, since the 1960s.

Hand won the Michaels Achievement Cup for Class L. Lauralton Hall was second in Class S and Amity third in Class LL.

The Michaels Cup, presented since 1985, honors schools for overall athletic achievements. Darien won the outright Cup.

Also honored were:

- Doc McInerney Coach of the Year, Laurie LaRusso, who has led Darien volleyball team to 139 straight wins.

- Doc McInerney Coach of the Year, Ricky Shook, whose Danbury wrestling team has won 12 straight state titles.

- Bob Casey Courage Award recipient, Shaun Green, who returned after suffering a heart attack to coach the Central Connecticut State men’s soccer team to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I tournament.

- Connecticut soccer player O’Brian White, who was presented a Champions Trophy after being named the winner of the Hermann Trophy as the nation’s best collegiate soccer player.

- Art McGinley Meritorious Service Award winner Woody Anderson of the Hartford Courant.