Six athletes and one varsity team, spanning a half-century, comprise the eighth class to be honored as members of the Bedford High School Sports Hall of Fame.
The honorees and their specialties are:
- David Crawford ’67, track
- Kim Merrick ’84, ski
- Courtney Chubb ’88, swim
- Mike Dushman ’14, soccer
- Danae Bucci ’15, track and field
- Dan Greaney ’17, wrestling
Also chosen for induction was the 2013 varsity football team, MIAA Division 4 North sectional champion.
A dinner and induction ceremony are scheduled for Saturday, March 23, beginning at 6 p.m. at Anthony-Hunt Hamilton Post 221, American Legion. Tickets are $25 each (children up to age 12 free) and available with a credit card at https://gofan.co/event/1392077?schoolId=MA14503.
Payments by check should include a completed form, https://forms.gle/Njo7JkBKu1k2XrKC8 and mailed to Keith Mangan, Director of Athletics, Bedford High School, 9 Mudge Way, Bedford, MA 01730.
Danae Bucci
Bucci didn’t compete in interscholastic high jump until she was in the 10th grade. Two years later, she was a New England outdoor and Massachusetts indoor champion and ranked third among high jumpers in the nation among high school girls. She also competed in the New Balance Indoor Nationals All-American in the high jump, placing sixth in the championship section. Bucci still holds five BHS track and field records: indoor 55-meter hurdles, long jump and high jump, and outdoor long jump and high jump.
Bucci received an athletic scholarship to compete at the NCAA level for Northeastern University, but injury cut short her athletic career. She earned her degree in communications and today is a news reporter for Channel 5, WCVB.
Courtney Chubb
Chubb started winning individual state swim championships as a Bedford High School freshman in 1984, in the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle. That year she set four Dual County League records. By the time she closed out her four-year BHS swim career, Chubb was a three-time Boston Globe all-scholastic, a member of the Junior National team in the 100-yard butterfly, and ranked in the top 20 in the eastern U.S. in two events.
After graduation, Chubb was an interscholastic swimmer for Harvard University and successfully competed at the masters level for many years. She is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of counselor, and currently serves as the mission director for U.S. Agency for International Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
David Crawford
Crawford was a BHS sophomore tennis player when Art McManus, the high school’s first athletic director, suggested he try distance running. Everything still seemed new – it was only the school’s eighth year of interscholastic sports. Crawford began competing in cross-country and middle-distance events, earning seven varsity letters and establishing school records in the mile and half-mile; the latter stood for some 20 years.
Crawford was an intercollegiate half-miler at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1983 he competed in his first triathlon, and over the next 20 years won three ITU world triathlon championships and five USAT national titles. Between 1990 and 1999 he qualified 10 times for Team USA world championships. Culminating Crawford’s career culminated in was his 1998 induction into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.
Mike Dushman
Dushman ’14 capped a four-year BHS interscholastic soccer career in 2013 when he was named MIAA Division 3 player-of-the-year and an eastern Massachusetts all-star. A three-year Dual County League all-star and league most valuable player as a senior, Dushman was named to Boston Globe and Boston Herald all-scholastic teams as a junior and senior. He also played two seasons of varsity basketball.
Highlights during his four-year interscholastic soccer career at Merrimack College were two game-winning goals as a freshman, moving to the back line as a junior after two years as a striker, and scoring the game-winning goal at nationally-ranked Adelphi senior year, when he started 18 games.
Dan Greaney
Greaney is the first Hall of Fame inductee to compete in a co-operative two-school program. Bedford and Minuteman Technical High School combined for a single wrestling team in 2015, and two years later Greaney was a state champion in his weight class and was a Boston Globe and Boston Herald all-scholastic. Greaney finished third in the 2017 New England interscholastic championships. He also played two years of varsity football.
Greaney earned an engineering degree at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He joined the U.S. Navy in 2022.
Kim Merrick
Merrick earned six varsity letters in skiing and field hockey at BHS. Over four years, she was one of the top three skiers in the Dual County League, qualifying for the state championship meet every year and finishing in the top 20 statewide as a junior, earning a berth in the East Regionals. A team captain as a junior and senior, she also qualified for the state tournament in cross-country skiing as a junior and senior.
Merrick competed at the collegiate level, and her performance in slalom and giant slalom led Colby Sawyer College, New London, NH, to the NCAA Women’s Division II downhill championship in 1985. She went on to earn degrees in elementary education and a doctorate in special education in 2010, along the way teaching kindergarten at Davis School and coaching the BHS ski team.
2013 varsity football team
The 2013 football season was the first time the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association mandated a single-elimination playoff system for football. The Bedford High School Buccaneers took note, winning three playoff games – the last two on the road – and earning the first MIAA North sectional football championship.
The Bucs, coached by Jack Belcher, were led on offense by senior Olan Abner, who gained more than 1,700 yards on the ground. But the team’s identity was defense; through the nine games culminating with the sectional title, the Bucs allowed 58 total points and no touchdown passes.
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