Eight outstanding area athletes, a successful high school coach, and an unbeaten, state championship boys basketball team have been elected to the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame.

They will be honored at the organization’s 36th annual banquet on Sunday, September 20, at the Monarch by Anthony Amodio banquet facility in Yorkville. That affair will be preceded the day before by the inaugural Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame Golf Outing at the Fraternal Order of Eagles golf course in Utica.

The Class of 2026 includes Rome Free Academy and Utica University basketball star Jessica

Berry Hannah, Clinton hockey icon Bernie Burns, long-time Vernon-Verona-Sherrill basketball coach Preston Denby, multi-sport college stars Erika Eisenhut Rahill and Meredith Eisenhut Eberz, Olympians Jason Gleasman and Anthony Washington, basketball standout Paul Piotrowski, and Olympian Arthur W. Tyler, who was named in the Pre-Modern Athlete category. The unbeaten Oriskany High School boys’ basketball team that went 27-0 and won the Class D state championship under head coach Chris Mahoney will also be honored.

Berry, a former RFA star, was an All-American basketball player at Utica, where she set numerous school and conference records.

Burns was a multi-sport star at Clinton Central School and Hamilton College before spending 28 seasons as the hockey coach at Clinton, winning more than 300 games and capturing six Section III titles.

Denby compiled a 302-121 record as the boys’ basketball coach at VVS, won eight league titles and a Section III championship, and went 62-42 and a sectional crown in five seasons as the girls’ coach.

The Eisenhut sisters enjoyed outstanding careers at Mohawk Central School and then in college in soccer, basketball, and softball - Erika at Union College and Meredith at St. Lawrence University. They set a multitude of school records and earned numerous awards, including several All-American honors.

Gleasman, an Adirondack Central School and Syracuse University graduate, was an all-state football player in high school, and went on to win seven national wrestling titles, two world championships, and competed in the 1996 Olympics.

Washington, another former RFA star, went on to Syracuse University, where he was a four-time All-American in the discus, and competed in three Olympics, finishing fourth in 1996. His throw of 210 feet, 7 inches remains SU’s all-time record.

Piotrowski was an all-state basketball player at Notre Dame High School, where he helped the Jugglers to 48 consecutive wins. He continued his career at Syracuse University, where he was co-captain of the 21-6 NIT team in 1972. He later had a successful high school coaching career at New York Mills and New Hartford.

Tyler, a 1933 Utica Free Academy graduate, was the pilot of the four-man bobsled team that won a bronze medal in the 1956 Winter Olympics. He also won a silver medal in the 1957 world championships, and another bronze in the two-man competition in the 1959 world championships.

Mahoney's undefeated Oriskany basketball team ousted local rival New York Mills in the Section III title game and later knocked off top-ranked Moriah 79-54 in the Class D state championship game in Glens Falls.

Tickets for the induction ceremony and banquet are available from Kevin Neejer at CNY Awards & Apparel at the New Hartford Shopping Center. Information on the golf tournament is available from Michele Davis at greateruticasporthf@g25mail.com or 315-525-3573.