TRURO, N.S. – Cobequid Educational Centre will honour three individuals and a team during the Truro high school’s Wall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 22.
Ceremonies get underway at 7:15 p.m.
Dan Hennigar, Cindy (Montgomerie) Tye, David Higgins and the 1988-89 senior boys’ cross-country team will be recognized.
Following are bios for the inductees:
1988-89 senior boys’ cross-country team
In the fall of 1988, the senior boys’ cross-country team from CEC captured the first and only provincial championship in the history of the school.
On a wet, cool day and running on a slippery course at Dayspring Park just outside of Bridgewater, this seven-man team placed all seven team members in the top half of the field of 69 runners.
In the words of head coach Jennifer Auld-Cameron, “it was one of the toughest courses the team had faced all season with the first part of the course straight up a grassy hill. It was a gruelling run, but thankfully the team was used to training on the hills in Victoria Park.”
This was a dominant performance from start to finish with four top-10 finishes by the CEC squad. The team was led by Dan Hennigar, a senior, who not only placed first at provincials, but won every race he entered during the season. Pat Legge, another senior, who had finished in the top-five all season, was fifth at provincials. He was followed by Mike Bishop, a tall, lanky Grade 11 runner, and a valuable member of the boys basketball team, who finished eighth. Finishing 10th was Darren Ferdinand, another senior, who was a member of the school’s soccer team and could only train part-time. Wayne Sampson, another Grade 11 runner, came in at No. 15, while Grade 11 students Aaron Weatherbee and Joel Taylor, in their first season of competition, placed in the top half of the field.
With all seven team members making valuable contributions, this team posted an undefeated season, winning all of the cross-country meets they entered that year.
“The team was a very talented and dedicated group and that first-place finish at provincials was a reflection of the commitment and hard work put into training during the season,” said Auld-Cameron.
Bishop and Sampson returned the following year to lead the team to a silver medal performance at the NSSAF championships in 1989.
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Cindy (Montgomerie) Tye
An outstanding multi-sport athlete, Cindy (Montgomerie) Tye excelled in soccer, basketball and fastball during her years at CEC. Cindy was always the most outstanding player on any soccer field. She was also a valuable member of NSSAF championship teams in basketball and fastball. She was the Female Athlete of the Year at both Truro Junior High School and CEC.
In her first year at Acadia University in 1990, Cindy was selected the AUS Rookie of The Year and helped lead the Axettes to the CIS soccer title. She was a five-time AUS all-star. In her last two years at Acadia she was a CIS All-Canadian in soccer and the university’s Female Athlete of the Year. Always a conscientious student, Cindy was an Academic All-Canadian her last three years at Acadia.
Her achievements in senior women’s soccer were equally impressive. She helped teams win provincial championships 12 times and was a key player on club teams that captured four silver medals and two bronze medals at the national championship.
In 1995 she helped a team out of Edmonton win the national women’s senior title. The pinnacle of her soccer career was when she was selected for the Canadian national team from 2001 to 2003.
Following her playing career, Cindy began to give back to soccer as a coach. She guided the Nova Scotia Canada Games Team to a fifth-place finish in 2009, a fourth-place finish in 2013, and a bronze-medal performance in 2017.
A former assistant coach with the national under-20 team, Cindy is currently an assistant coach with Canada’s under-15 team as well as the high performance director with the regional Centre of Excellence and the head coach for women’s soccer at Dalhousie University.
She has already been inducted into the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame, the Colchester Sports Wall of Fame, and in 2010-2011 she was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame.
George Athanesiou, the long-time executive director for Soccer Nova Scotia, said “Cindy always had the respect of opposing players and coaches and in return respected each and every one of those opposing players and coaches.”
This comment makes it clear that Cindy (Montgomerie) Tye has always been a quality person as well as a quality athlete and coach.
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David Higgins
During his 32 years as a teacher and vice-principal at CEC, Dave Higgins assumed many different roles in numerous organizations and activities.
He was a teacher for his first 21 years and then served as vice-principal for 11 years until his retirement in 2009. As a coach and sports administrator, Dave made a lasting contribution to basketball, football and track & field. Dave’s commitment to basketball began when he served as head coach of the JV boys team from 1978 to 1980. He served as a varsity assistant coach from 1979 to 1985 and then as head coach from 1985 to 1989.
From 1993 to 2007, Dave was committed to the development of minor basketball in Truro and Bible Hill. During those years he was a co-founder and director of the Colchester Mini Basketball Association as well as president, league coordinator and coach. He served as Colchester junior mini and mini head coach, was also an assistant coach for the Bible Hill junior boys team and coach for the Redcliff Middle School boys team.
Dave became involved in football, serving as an assistant coach with both the Truro Blue Bombers peewee team and the Truro Freightliners bantam program. He was also the first commissioner of the NSSAF High School Football League, acting in that capacity from 2006 to 2009.
From 2001 to the present, Dave has assumed various roles at NSSAF district, regional and provincial track and field meets. He also had an extended tenure with the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation as district coordinator, a member of the board of governors, chairperson of the board and past chairman.
Because he was willing to give freely of his time and talents, Dave has had a lasting impact on the lives of thousands of student-athletes, not only in the Truro- Bible Hill area, but also throughout Nova Scotia.
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Dan Hennigar
During his years at CEC, Dan Hennigar was an outstanding cross-country and track & field athlete.
In his senior year, Dan was undefeated in cross-country and set school records in the 800m (1:55.6) and 1,500m (4:02.8) that still stand today. He went on to make his mark as both an athlete and coach at Dalhousie University.
Dan was a three-time CIS All-Canadian in cross-country and a two-time CIS All-Canadian in track & field. He was undefeated in AUS cross-country races for three years. In 1996 he won gold in the 1,500m at the CIS track & field championships with a time of 3:51.71. In 1999, he was the CIS silver medalist in the 1,500m. In 1995, he set the provincial record record in the 1,500m (3:45.55).
Dan still holds the Dalhousie record for the 1,500 metres with a time of 3:51.3. He was a four-time captain of the Dal cross-country team and three-time captain of the Dal track & field team. He was the Dalhousie University Male Athlete of the Year in 1996 and the recipient of the Dal President’s Award (presented to Dalhousie’s top student in Athletics and Academics) in 1999.
Dan won the Sport Nova Scotia Sportsmanship Award in 1998 and 1999 (the only person to win that award twice).
As a coach, Dan guided Dalhousie’s women’s cross-country team to a national championship in 2004. His women’s track & field teams placed third at nationals in both 2004 and 2005. During his nine years as head coach at Dal, Dan had 17 AUS championship track and field teams and 10 AUS championship teams in cross-country.
Dan was the national head coach for the FISU cross-country team in Italy in 2004 and again in Algeria in 2006. As a leader/builder of athletics, Dan founded the first nationally recognized track & field training centre in Nova Scotia.
Thousands of Nova Scotia Athletes in cross-country and track & field have been the beneficiaries of both the coaching expertise and the administrative leadership of Dan Hennigar.
