Dialog reporter
Three people with significant Catholic school ties are among 10 who will be inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame during the organization’s 41st annual banquet May 24 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.
Mark Romanczuk, a 2002 graduate of St. Mark’s High School, was a three-sport athlete for the Spartans, although he made his greatest mark in baseball. He was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year and graduated with a career earned-run average of 0.77. He began his senior year with a perfect game and a no-hitter and finished 10-0 with three no-hitters.
Romanczuk was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays but opted to attend Stanford University, where he spent three seasons and became one of the Cardinal’s best all-time pitchers. He was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks after his junior year, in 2005, and played four years of professional baseball. He earned a degree in economics from Stanford.
Stephen A. “Sid” Cassidy enjoyed a record-setting swimming career at Salesianum and then North Carolina State University. He won the 200-meter and 400-mater freestyle and was part of the winning 400-meter relay team that helped the Sals to their first state championship in 1973. He graduated from Salesianum in 1974.
Cassidy was twice an all-American and the Atlantic Coast Conference swimmer of the year at North Carolina State, where he won eight individual and three relay conference titles. Following his graduation, he became a world-ranked professional marathon swimmer, and he has been a coach for 30 years.
He led the successful campaign to include open-water swimming in the Olympics as a medal sport and has received USA Swimming’s highest honor, the USA Swimming Award. This summer, he is scheduled to be the referee for the men’s open-water swimming competition at the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.
Retired Archmere Academy tennis coach Nancy Keiper spent six decades in the sport as a player, coach, community leader administrator and advocate. A native of Haverford, Pa., she coached the Auks to four state championships and was twice named coach of the year, in 1993 and ’96.
She was a successful player, at Drexel University and again as a senior. She won a gold medal in doubles at the National Senior Olympics in 1995 and a silver medal two years earlier. She was also a member of three U.S. Tennis Association title teams.
As an administrator, Keiper helped develop tennis in the city of Wilmington through the Wilmington Tennis Foundation and the Rodney Street Tennis and Tutoring Association. She received the Middle States Presidential Service Award for her contributions to the sport.
Tickets to the banquet are $65 and available by contacting Sue Holloway at sueholloway@comcast.net or (302) 992-0550. Tables of 10 are available.
